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The Japan Mingei Museum was planned by the philosopher Soetsu Yanagi (1889-1961) as the home of the Mingei movement, which aimed to spread Mingei and its concept of "making beauty a way of life". The main building (designated as a cultural property by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government) was designed to match the stone-roofed tenement gate of the west wing across the street, with Yanagi designing every detail of the building. The museum's collection consists mainly of ceramics, textiles, wood lacquer, paintings, metalwork, stonework, and braiding, all selected by Yanagi's aesthetic eye.

The museum has consciously kept the number of explanatory notes to a minimum, in line with Yanagi's belief that it is essential to look at objects not with knowledge, but with intuition.

Crafts of the Ainu