The Form of Life: Shōwa Crafts as Seen in Katsuaki Toyoda's Journey

An exhibition catalog focusing on Katsuaki Toyoda, an artist who led the craft world in Kyushu after the war.

Toyoda continued to create cast bronze works while persistently questioning the relationship between crafts and daily life, based on his philosophy of "enriching life." This book traces his journey from his early days to his later years, and also introduces works by Showa-era craftspeople and designers with whom he was involved.

The content not only highlights his impressive metalwork but also his focus on everyday items and household tools, revealing that "crafts" were not merely artistic expressions but an activity intertwined with life itself.

Toyoda's attitude of exploring the relationship between a rich life and crafts, even before terms like "slow living" and "LOHAS" became common, resonates with contemporary interest in lifestyle, folk crafts, and lifestyle design.

This exhibition includes approximately 100 works by Showa-era craftspeople and designers, in addition to works by Katsuaki Toyoda. It is a book that traces the spread of crafts in postwar Japan and the "forms of life" of that era.

[Title] Forms of Life: Showa Crafts Through the Journey of Katsuaki Toyoda
[Publisher] Fukuoka Prefectural Museum of Art
[Publication Date] 2007
[Page Count] 140 pages
[Size] Approx. 210 x 232 x 10mm
[Format] Softcover
[Language] Japanese
[Title Reading] SEIKATSU NO KATACHI TOYOTA KATSUAKI NO AYUMI NI MIRU SHOWA NO KOGEI
[Author/Editor, etc.] Edited by Fukuoka Prefectural Museum of Art
[Printing] -
[ISBN] -
[Condition] Used [5] Good (Main body: edges and cover rubbed, minor staining on top edge)
[Accessories] None
[Featured in] -
[Related Exhibition] "Forms of Life: Showa Crafts Through the Journey of Katsuaki Toyoda" (Fukuoka Prefectural Museum of Art, 2007)

Katsuaki Toyoda (1906-1990)

Born in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1906. Artist.
Mainly active in the field of metal casting and metalwork, he played a significant role in craft education and the craft movement in postwar Kyushu.

While building on traditional craft techniques, he viewed crafts as part of daily life and pursued them as "things that enrich life." As an educator, he also nurtured many successors, contributing to the development of postwar Japanese crafts.

His work, echoing the Mingei movement, lifestyle crafts, and postwar design philosophy, continues to quietly influence contemporary perspectives on life and crafts.

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