Friday 4 September, 2026
9:45am BST - 5:30pm BST
The workshop will be in person at the Sainsbury Institute and streamed online via Zoom. In person spaces are limited, so early registration is recommended. To register, please contact: sisjac@sainsbury-institute.org
Registration to attend online is available at the bottom of this page.
Organised by Dr. Clara Momoko Geber-Mérida
About the workshop
On mainland Japan, craftswomen represent a minority, as only sixteen percent of the registered craftspeople are women. The reason for the low number is twofold – on one hand, craft workshops were usually managed by families and passed on to the eldest son. Leaning on this tradition, many craftspeople refused to take any women apprentices for decades. On the other hand, many women family members were and still are working in the background of craft workshops, working as craftspeople in all but name. Their situation is, however, slowly changing, as there is a need for women to step up and to take over the businesses. Indeed, many craft masters are struggling to find suitable successors, which is slowly increasing the number of craftswomen across various disciplines. This workshop brings leading national and international scholars across disciplines together to explore the roles of women in the contemporary craft industry, both in the background and in the foreground of the craft workshops. By discussing objects, governmental policies, and different techniques across craft disciplines, this workshop will make inequalities visible and lead to a broader discussion on how to support women in this industry.
Programme
Download the full programme and abstracts here
| 09:45 | Welcome |
| 10:00–10:45 | Introduction: Women in Traditional Craft – A Complicated History? Dr. Clara Momoko Geber-Mérida (Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures) |
| 10:45–11:30 | Presentation 1: Visible Female Shokunin in Edo-Period Art and Crafts Dr. Ai Fukunaga (Chester Beatty) |
| 11:30–12:15 | Presentation 2: ‘The leeway they had to craft themselves:’ Utamaro’s Women and Early Modern Craft Culture Dr. Christine Guth (independent scholar) |
| 12:15–13:30 | Lunch |
| 13:30–14:15 | Presentation 3: Women at the Vat: Gender, Labour, and Recognition in Japanese Papermaking Dr. Ryoko Matsuba (Ritsumeikan University) |
| 14:15–15:00 | Presentation 4: Craftswomen in mokuhanga: Women’s Roles in Japanese Woodblock Printing Dr. Monika Hinkel (SOAS University of London) |
| 15:00–15:30 | Break |
| 15:30–16:15 | Presentation 5: Endangered, (En)gendered and Empowered: The Economy of Representation as seen through the Eye of the Needle Dr. Victoria Mitchell (Norwich University of the Arts) |
| 16:15–17:00 | Presentation 6: From Kutani to Porcelain Flora: Inspiration, Memory and Transformation Across Cultures Hitomi Hosono (ceramic artist) |
| 17:00–17:30 | Roundtable: Future Possibilities for Women in Craft Open discussion on craft futures and research directions |
Related event: Making Tokyo’s Craftswomen Visible: Traditional Techniques in Motion – Photography Exhibition 1-13 September 2026
This workshop is generously supported by the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation.
Image: Hatakeyama Kana applying liquid enamel colours with a bamboo spatula on metal bases at Hatakeyama Cloisonné Enamel Manufacture on 16 December 2022. Photograph by Clara Momoko Geber-Mérida.
