Lecture 3 - Traditional Japanese Packaging

Unfortunately I was unable to attend Lecture 3, so I have undertaken my own research on Traditional Japanese Packaging as I feel that it is a highly intriguing alternative to the mass-produced results of manufacturing. Researching has highlighted the diversity and ingenuity behind traditional Japanese packaging, as their designs often exude aesthetic beauty and artistic spirit through often natural materials.

The traditional Japanese art of wrapping items in an aesthetic and simple manner (Tsutsumu).
Before mass production and the ubiquitous plastic bag, the Japanese had a traditional method of elegantly presenting their everyday commodities, gifts and crafts in baskets, boxes, washi papers, wrappers and earthenware containers. These were made using only natural materials such as hemp twine, paper, leaves, rice straw and bamboo and were needed to preserve the food and to make it more portable.

1) The Utilitarian Lineage

Traditionally, Japanese packaging is split historically into two forms, 1) The Utilitarian Lineage and 2) Handicraft. Produced entirely from natural materials, The Utilitarian Lineage is a sustainable example of packaging that avoids the chaos of mass-production, instead, exploring practicality thus enabling the simplistic creation of minimal storage that appropriately protects and preserves the product in a stunning way.

("The eggs are a perfect example, the eggs need protection, the rice straw is left over from the rice crop and both strong and flexible. The farmer would have just re-used the materials to hand. Unconciously it also suggests freshness and the warmth of newly-laid eggs.") (Notes from the lecture powerpoint). 



"Another example being rope wrapping for dried fish. This allows a perfect situation ventilation-wise and can preserve the fish for more than 6 months." (Notes from the lecture powerpoint).

The traditional Japanese style thrives on the ideology of utilising the simplest products of nature to create packaging that is both efficacious in design and aesthetically beautiful, additional examples of packaging includes...

• The wrapping of rice dumplings in bamboo leaves. 
• The wrapping of rice cakes in oak leaves. 
• The wrapping of rice balls or bean curd in magnolia leaves. 

2) Handicraft

Handicraft is recognised as a more sophisticated and professional form of packaging, created by formal craftsmen, it conveys techniques and designs that are aesthetically stunning, as well as additionally experimenting with the ideology that the packaging, in itself, is a functioning work of artistry. The success of the handicraft resulted in the packaging possessing more appeal than it physical contents, thus, contributing to it being established as a profession that utilised artisans who worked in long entrenched shops.

The Japanese idealised specific values which personally seemed to somewhat encourage designers to perfect their art, these values included...

1. Beauty - A philosophy that explained that everything has the potential to be made beautiful and therefore it should be. 
2. Value - A value system that stated that everything, no matter its size or cost possesses a real value. 

A traditional Japanese handicraft example is a sophisticated packaging style which is known as 'The Kyoto Style'. Kyoto was the centre of Japan's politics and culture for almost 1000 years, with many of the artisan shops and packaging designs surviving until after the 1970's.



















The lecturer continues to identify the importance of identifying and utilising natural resources by additionally stating, "Today we often think that consumption and not conservation is the aim of life but we can still learn a lot from these examples of a wiser past, more in tune with nature and natural resources. Packaging as art suggests a whole new perspective on what is and what isn’t supposed to be thrown away. In addition to utilitarian and handicraft packaging, there are some other characteristics of Japanese packaging to also look briefly at: 

The natural quality of most of these packages. The majority of materials used are of wood, bamboo, straw and clay and derivatives of these such as paper, cloth and ceramics. All of these exist in abundance in our natural surroundings and have been used since ancient times. The materials here are used in a way that shows their freshness and celebrates their natural textures."

With an increasing awareness of environmental issues, once again the Japanese are re-evaluating mass production and reapplying the cultural concept of ‘Wa', using natural materials to create a ‘harmony’ in their simple but aesthetically beautiful designs. I feel that traditional Japanese packaging offers an unique perspective on alternative materials and designs, the natural packaging is both innovative and elegant, this acts as an intriguing source that can be referred back to later, reminding me that achieving a product that is appealing and delicate is attainable.