The 73rd Japan Traditional Kōgei Exhibition will be held at Nihombashi Mitsukoshi Main Store from September 2 to 15, 2026. Bringing together approximately 550 works, the exhibition spans seven fields—ceramics, textiles, lacquerware, metalwork, wood and bamboo work, dolls, and other crafts—and includes selected works alongside the latest creations by Holders of Important Intangible Cultural Properties, widely known as Living National Treasures.

Courtesy of Nihombashi Mitsukoshi Main Store
This year, 1,071 works were submitted through the exhibition’s open call. Works selected through the jury process will be shown alongside those by artists who have spent decades refining their techniques. What comes into view here is not simply a body of Japanese skills inherited from the past. Techniques are passed from one person to another, then carried into new forms of expression through the hands of artists living in different eras. Since its inaugural edition in 1954, the Japan Traditional Kōgei Exhibition has continued to present works created by practitioners of each successive generation.

Now in its 73rd edition, the exhibition offers a view of Japanese kōgei as it exists in 2026: a tradition that continues to be made in the present.

Does Tradition Mean Remaining Unchanged?

The term “traditional kōgei” may bring to mind techniques and styles handed down over generations. Yet the concept of tradition underlying the Japan Traditional Kōgei Exhibition is somewhat different.

The Japan Kōgei Association regards tradition not as something fixed and unchanging, but as something that retains its essential nature while remaining in constant motion. Rather than imitating works of the past or simply preserving established techniques, practitioners are called upon to further refine the skills they have inherited and create new works attuned to contemporary life.

For this reason, the Japan Traditional Kōgei Exhibition is not an exhibition of historical artifacts. Every work on view has been created by an artist working today, engaging with techniques and materials inherited from earlier generations.

Preserving tradition and creating something new may initially appear to be opposing acts. In kōgei, however, the two are part of the same continuum. The approximately 550 works gathered here reveal precisely that relationship.

Japanese Kōgei in 2026, Across Seven Fields

The exhibition encompasses seven fields: ceramics, textiles, lacquerware, metalwork, wood and bamboo work, dolls, and other crafts. Clay is fired. Threads are dyed and woven. Layers of lacquer are applied. Metal is hammered and carved. Wood and bamboo are shaped with an understanding of the individual qualities of each material. Bringing these varied materials and techniques together under the broader field of kōgei reveals the extraordinary range of making traditions cultivated in Japan.

Japan Kōgei Association President’s Award — Flower Basket Tōsei (Sound of the Waves), Toshie Oki | Courtesy of Nihombashi Mitsukoshi Main Store

This year’s Japan Kōgei Association President’s Award was presented to Toshie Oki for Tōsei (Sound of the Waves), a flower basket in the wood and bamboo category. The Prince Takamatsu Memorial Award went to Yasunori Sutoh for the lacquer work Taniwatari no Kaze (Wind Crossing the Valley), an Aizu keshifun maki-e lacquer box, while the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award was presented to Ei Miyairi for Kiu (Rain through the Trees), a silk kimono employing the uki-ori weaving technique.

Takamatsu-no-miya Memorial Award Aizu-style powder-lacquered lacquer box "Wind Crossing the Valley" Yasunori Sutoh | Courtesy of Nihombashi Mitsukoshi Main Store
In ceramics, Shusaku Ichino received the Tokyo Governor’s Award for Oboro (Haze), an ash-glazed decorated bowl. In woodwork, Tetsuya Hayashi’s Seisei Ruten (Ever-Changing Flow of Life), a lacquer-wiped box made from ancient buried keyaki wood, received the NHK President’s Award. Other works include metal artist Kodo Murakami’s inlaid flower vessel Kureiro no Unga (Canal at Dusk), ceramic artist Hiroshi Nakata’s Momotamana, and textile artist Yasuyoshi Komiya’s Edo Komon kimono fabric Shi to Shi to.

Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award — Uki-ori Silk Kimono Kiu (Rain through the Trees), Ei Miyairi | Courtesy of Nihombashi Mitsukoshi Main Store

These diverse materials, techniques, and forms cannot be reduced to a single idea of what is “Japanese.” Yet every one of them has been created within the same moment: Japan in 2026.

Living National Treasures and Emerging Artists, Sharing the Same Present

One of the defining characteristics of the Japan Traditional Kōgei Exhibition is that the latest works by Holders of Important Intangible Cultural Properties are presented alongside works selected through the open competition.

Some artists have spent decades bringing their techniques to an exceptional level of mastery. Alongside them is a younger generation engaging with those same materials and traditions while seeking forms of expression of their own.

This year’s Japan Kōgei Association New Artist Awards include So Urago’s celadon-white porcelain flower vessel Ryūkei – 2026 – in ceramics, Nobuko Kato’s Kurume Kasuri kimono Kōgetsu no Yoru (Moonlit Night) in textiles, and Ichihime Nakamura’s Biwa-ken in the other crafts category.

What is significant is that works by Living National Treasures are not positioned as objects inherited from the past, while those by younger artists represent the future. Both belong to the kōgei of 2026.

To inherit a technique is not necessarily to move toward a single perfected form. Each artist encounters a technique within their own time and continues to create through it. Through that accumulation of individual practices, tradition itself moves forward.

The Time of "Creation" That Cannot Be Seen Through the Works Alone

While completed works are presented on the seventh floor of the Main Building, the second special exhibition, Passing Japan’s Traditional Culture into the Future — How Kōgei Artists Create Their Works, will take place simultaneously in the Central Hall on the first floor from September 2 to 14.

Here, attention shifts to the time and processes behind the works: how kōgei artists create, which materials they choose, what tools they use, and how particular techniques gradually lead a material toward its final form.

Courtesy of Nihombashi Mitsukoshi Main Store
Alongside works by full members of the Japan Kōgei Association, the exhibition will present videos documenting production processes, as well as raw materials and tools. Visitors will also have opportunities to speak directly with artists.

When encountering a finished work of kōgei, it is easy to be drawn first to the precision of its form or the beauty of its materials. Behind that surface, however, lies the time required to master a technique, the experience needed to understand the behavior of a material, and movements of the hand repeated countless times.

Visitors can see the completed works on the seventh floor, then encounter the processes behind them on the first. Moving between the two exhibitions offers another way of understanding what it means to look at kōgei.

It Began at Nihombashi Mitsukoshi in 1954

The venue for this year's exhibition, Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi Main Store, is a place with a long history for the "Japan Traditional Crafts Exhibition." With the enactment of the Cultural Properties Protection Law in 1950, and the movement to protect and nurture craft techniques of high historical or artistic value by the nation progressing, the "1st Intangible Cultural Property Japan Traditional Crafts Exhibition" was held in 1954. The venue for that exhibition was Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi Main Store. Since then, the exhibition has been held every year, and this year marks its 73rd edition.

Special display of the catalogue from the inaugural Exhibition of Japanese Traditional Art Crafts as Intangible Cultural Properties | Courtesy of Nihombashi Mitsukoshi Main Store

The first-floor special exhibition will feature the catalogue from that inaugural 1954 exhibition. A large-format replica will allow visitors to examine the historical material directly, while catalogues from the past ten editions, spanning 2017 through 2026, will also be available to browse.

Visitors might trace a single artist across a decade, or observe how a particular technique or field has evolved over time.

Exhibition of catalogues spanning 2017 to 2026 | Courtesy of Nihombashi Mitsukoshi Main Store

Approximately 550 works made today and records of an exhibition that began more than seven decades ago coexist within the same building. Together, they give visible form to the passage of time within kōgei.

Inheriting and Creating

Traditional crafts are supported by materials and techniques cultivated over a long history. However, it is not the techniques themselves that connect those techniques to the future. It is through people who learn, refine, and consider what they can create with their own hands that technology is passed on to the next generation.

The works displayed at the first exhibition in 1954 and the works displayed at the 73rd exhibition in 2026 are naturally different. Nevertheless, in between, there have been 73 exhibitions and the work of the artists who have presented their works there. Having the latest works from Living National Treasures and works from artists who have received newcomer awards displayed in the same place makes that continuous time visible.

Viewing "tradition" not as a word that indicates the past, but as something that moves from the present to the future. The 73rd Japan Traditional Crafts Exhibition, which will bring together approximately 550 works, is likely to be an opportunity to consider where Japanese crafts are now and how their techniques and beauty will be passed down in the future.