Kyoto YouMe Triennale brings global shokunin craft together this October

This October, artists, craftspeople and designers from as far as London, Milan, Mumbai and Doha will set up alongside Kyoto’s own workshops.

Kyoto YouMe Triennale, a new international art, design and craft event, is launching its first edition from 9 to 18 October, titled “Manifesto”. It is a three-yearly gathering for people who care about making, to meet, compare notes and build something longer-term together.

As artificial intelligence automates more and more of what used to require a human hand, the organisers are taking this chance to suggest that we pause and ask what is actually lost and what is worth protecting when “making” is reduced to pure output. Their ambition is to move “making” out of the “cold logic of profit” and back into something more relational.

The hints are found in the idea of shokunin, the Japanese concept of the artisan whose mastery is inseparable from a lifelong sense of vocation, and who embraces the quiet, often unspoken values in the relationships with material, tools and the people around them.

Alongside the main exhibitions at Shosei-en Garden and Jushinkaikan, the Triennale will spill out across the city through satellite exhibitions, open labs and networking events.

YouMe Journey: tracing making back to its source

YouMe Journey is perhaps the most distinctive part of the event for anyone interested in shokunin and circularity. It is a series of experiential day programmes to explore the question: What makes a place capable of making?

Participants can look forward to discovering beauty and wisdom through Kyoto’s lifestyles, while having all their sense stimulated. Each Journey starts with a material or theme, including water, earth, bamboo, timber, sweets, knives, tea and architecture. Participants will follow each back to its source, be it the soil it grew in, the water that shaped it, or the hands that have carried the knowledge forward. They will meet and understand the people rarely see as tourists, like the workshop owners, sake brewers, forestry workers and temple carpenters.

Eight Journeys run across the Triennale’s opening week:

• 9 Oct: WATER KITCHEN｜Origin of Sushi, kitchen and sake. Traces the role of water and fermentation behind sushi, sake and Kyoto’s kitchen culture.
• 11 Oct: MA (間) RESET｜Wellness through Zen, space, and craft. An exploration of ma (the Japanese sense of purposeful space and pause) through Zen practice, architecture and craft.
• 13 Oct: Tracing the Origins of Making｜EARTH. Looks at soil not as raw material but as a living foundation for architecture, farming, food and craft.
• 14 Oct: WATER, WAGASHI & KNIVES｜The Making of Kyoto’s Taste. Follows Kyoto’s culinary identity through wagashi confectionery and traditional knife-making.
• 15 Oct: THE ART OF LIVING｜When Making Becomes Life. Considers craft not as occupation but as a way of life, through tools, space, food and handwork.
• 16 Oct: THE MEANING OF MAKING｜Craft, Culture & the Art of Living. A direct meditation on why humans make things at all, outside the logic of efficiency and mass production.
• 17 Oct: How Japan Sees Beauty | Kyoto’s 600-Year Forestry & Tea House Craft. Follows timber from Kyoto’s managed forests through to teahouse architecture.
• 17 Oct: BEYOND BAMBOO｜Exploring Kyoto’s Nature, Culture & Craft. Traces bamboo’s role in Kyoto’s landscape, craft and spiritual life, with visits to groves, temples and workshops.

Be sure to check out the above if you are in the city or planning to make your way here, as you will take home a piece of circular wisdom from Kyoto.