Every spring, Japan sees a hoard of North American tourists making their way to see nature’s theatre: cherry blossoms in bloom. Thanks to off-season airfare and hotel prices, many more visit in May – just after peak bloom. I spoke with artist and author, Lisa Solomon, about her top Japanese crafts to try on your next trip to Japan. Lisa’s fine art exhibitions often touch on her identity as a half-Japanese American. As a Bay Area resident who frequently travels to Japan, bringing back tools and techniques for her art practice, she offers an insider’s guide to making your trip to Japan more crafty.
And if you’re not headed to Japan anytime soon, the good news is that you can find supplies for all of these Japanese crafts in most major North American cities. In fact, Lisa even gives some suggestions for craft supply stores in the San Francisco Bay Area where you can begin your journey into Japanese arts and craft.
Get Lisa’s new book, Art Craft Color, which includes contributions from American-Japanese artists such as Kanako Abe and Risa Iwasaki Culbertson, through your local bookseller, library or Amazon.
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1. Make Your Own Watercolor Paints At Pigment
Think of Pigment Tokyo as a farm-to-table experience but for art supplies. The store feels like a natural history museum with rocks displayed on tables like treasured specimens. The rocks are pulverized to a fine powder and placed in glass vials along a wall, methodically categorized by colors. The store associates wear white lab coats like scientists as they handle the powder because at Pigment Tokyo you don’t buy paint. You buy the fine powder – the pigment – to make paints yourself.
Natural materials don’t always react how we would expect. Like any science experiment, there’s a fair bit of trial and error involved to make paints. Pigment Tokyo has on-site workshops to teach you how binding agents like acacia tree sap or honey can produce paints like watercolor, gouache, or even oil paints.
The choice of pigments to choose from can be overwhelming. Lisa loves the fluorescent pink pigment she brought back from Tokyo. So if you’re unsure where to start, fluorescent pigments are a unique buy that you wouldn’t find in a standard watercolor kit.
Despite the scientific rigor that goes into making paint from pigment, the shop doesn’t feel the least bit clinical. The use of bamboo wood makes the art supply store feel calming and Zen. The organic curves flowing throughout the store look like a river, inviting anyone who steps into the store to let creativity flow – gentle and unhurried.
Even if you’re the type of person who disparagingly makes comments about your art abilities, this is your place to experiment with creativity. At Pigment, making paint isn’t just art – it’s math and science.
2. Paint Your Own Kokeshi Doll
Painting your own kokeshi doll is an activity Lisa recommends for anyone wanting to dive into Japanese crafts.
Kokeshi dolls are like the older, wiser sibling of Funko-Pop dolls with their amusingly large bulbous heads. You’ll find kokeshi dolls that look like they’re part of a stair baluster, long thin rods interspersed with blocks or curves. Some look more wooden musical bells and other’s like a children’s game of spinning top. Kokeshi dolls stand apart from other peg dolls or even Russian matryroshka dolls simply due to the diversity of their shapes and sizes – from the tiniest 2″ doll to dolls that are even 4 feet tall. Traditionally, each region of Japan had it’s own distinct kokeshi doll shape.
One thing that remains in common for all kokeshi dolls though is their cute, kawaii, facial expressions that are both joyful and docile at the same time. Some even surprised. With modern day artist collaborations, kokeshi dolls are more than a toy – but a collectible too for those in the know.
Buy an unpainted doll and it customize it however you like. Painting things like a bowl-cut hairstyle and Japanese-style flowers on the doll’s clothes are classic pairings to give your Japanese craft that authentic touch.
When you’re done, be sure to name your kokeshi doll. It’s a tradition for craftspeople to give each doll it’s own personality with a befitting name. Workshops are available throughout Japan such as Shibuya Kokeshi in Tokyo.
3. Junk Journal with Japanese Pens and Washi Tape
This activity is a really fun one – especially if you’re travelling on a budget. Although workshops allow you to explore local culture in a social environment, the cost can add up, especially for a family. Try keeping a junk journal but with Japan’s incredible stationery for the full cultural experience.
Japanese culture really values a good quality pen so for starters, go pen shopping at sotres like Itoya, Hands, Muji or Loft. Lisa jokes she feels like she’s found her people when she walks into the stationery section of Loft department store because she’ll find 50 people all testing out pens at the same time. Pilot hi-tech c’s are one of Lisa’s favorite Japanese pens.
I’m very fond of Sakura Gelly Roll pens from Jet Pens, a California-based company specializing in Japanese stationery. I use my Gelly Roll pens like someone would their fine china. I break them out for special occasion writing because I don’t want them to run out – they work so well and have the most satisfying ball point roll.
For notebooks, a tried-and-true option is Traveller’s Notebook from Travel Company, a Japanese brand that’s been a cult favorite since they launched in 2006.
Lastly, you can’t forget washi tape for adhering receipts, stubs and other junk to your junk journal. It’s easy to travel with washi tape because it’s lightweight, comes in small rolls that fit in your pocket or bag, tears easily with just your hands (no cutting tools required) and can repositioned without damaging your paper. (In case you decide you don’t love the layout of your page and want to change it up.)
Fun fact: Washi paper is a UNESCO protected heritage craft of Japan. So when you’re using washi tape (which is made from washi paper), you’re holding in your hands a piece of Japan’s rich cultural history, dating back hundreds of years.
4. Make A Cute Bento Box
I’ve just learnt that it’s a Japanese tradition to create a little bento box when you go out to watch cherry blossoms bloom. Basically like a picnic basket but more compact because you can just eat it from your lap.
Lisa recommends trying some Japanese food crafts on a trip. Making bento boxes or traditional onigiri into cute creations is definitely an easy way to dabble into Japanese food crafts.
You can find a number of tools to help you with your creations. Use small cookie cutters to cute fruits, vegetables and cheese into fun shapes. There are also moulds for boiled eggs.
Onigiri might take a little practice to get the rice consistency right but once you do, the world is your oyster for the shapes you can create. Specialized tools help make complex designs easier to complete.
Make a bento box for your next excursion to see cherry blossom blooms. It’s a lot more relaxing than just taking photos and reels for social media apps. It can allow you to be present in the moment.
This is a great craft for kids to get involved in too.
5. Try Your Hand At Paper Cutting
Lisa’s new book, Art Craft Color, features projects from 20 diverse makers across the US. One of the contributors, American-Japanese artist, Kanako Abe, shows readers how to make a gorgeous Japanese paper cut bird. Set on indigo blue paper, the serene bird and ocean waves represent so many things. Peace, freedom, hope, a fresh start. A chance to spread your wings and fly.
If you’re headed to Japan, soak in the wonder of paper cut art and even try it yourself. Paper cut art is achieve with either an X-acto knife or specialized scissors for paper cutting. These scissors have the tiniest yet sharpest tip and Japan is the best place to procure a pair.
I personally found my pair of paper cutting scissors at a shop in Toronto’s Chinatown. So it is possible to get them without making a trip to Japan, just be sure you know what you’re looking for.
6. Meditate With Sashiko Embroidery
Sashiko is another Japanese craft Lisa Solomon introduced me to during our vodcast.
It’s a Japanese embroidery style traditionally done on indigo dyed fabric.
Hypnotizing circular motifs are the most well-known. Embroidering them will feel like a form of meditation with their easy repeating motions. But a craft store in New York City called Brooklyn Haberdashery takes their own spin on Sashiko.
Working with a Japanese artist they’ve developed modern motifs using the old-world embroidery technique – still on the same indigo fabric. I particularly love their egg motif pattern!
7. Learn To Repair Broken Things With Kintsugi
In our culture of overconsumption, it feels empowering to mend, fix and reuse. If you’re in a season where embracing imperfection is something that appeals to you, kintsugi is a craft you need to try. Especially if you’re a Gen Z thrifter.
Kintsugi is the idea that if something valuable like fine china, glass or crystal chips or breaks, you don’t have to get rid of the whole thing. You can mend it where it needs repair, usually with 24 carat gold, so the item is once again seen as valuable.
I think this Japanese craft is more about the philosophy than the technique. It’s the idea that life isn’t perfect, but that’s no reason to hide it. Kintsugi is about letting your resilience show.
Try out this craft in Japan with a workshop or by purchasing a kit. I personally embrace the philosophy by just using my hot glue gun to mend broken fragile items. Sometimes I leave the glue to dry clear and sometimes I paint it gold after it’s dried. The concept is to use what I have before leaving it for the landfill.
8. Make A Hamanaka Pompom
Hamanaka is a popular yarn brand from Japan. Around 2017 there was a viral trend making its way around socials of Japanese artists creating pompoms to resemble realistic animals and people.
Using a standard pompom maker, such as Clover Brand, artists carefully think through how to wrap colors of yarn to achieve their desired look.
I became interested in this craft myself and made my own patterns. I made a Santa for Christmas, a Kaaba and some accompanying sheep for Eid Al Adha too.
Apart from figuring out the arrangement of how to wrap yarn colors for the intended effect, the trick is to embellished with felt roving, beads and micro pompoms to make characters.
Not everyone wants to develop their own patterns and sit there experimenting. Luckily, Hamanka has plenty of pompom craft kits.
Most of them are not in English but they do include photos to follow along with. Plus you can take a photo of the instructions and upload it into Google Translate or OpenAI to translate it for you so Japanese instruction manuals shouldn’t be a deterrent to trying this soft, fuzzy craft.
They make great bag charms!
