Culture as National Security

In 1961, John F. Kennedy in his inaugural speech said: “ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” I believe this is an appropriate question to pose today to the Japanese people in regard to both the protection and revitalization of Japanese cultural properties and practices.

Protection and revitalization of Japanese cultural assets and rituals are matters of national security. While that might sound a bit alarmist, I truly believe that we need a reevaluation of the importance of Japan’s unique history, art, food culture, and etiquette. Not only is this important for the economic benefits tourism brings, but also for the sense of national identity, pride, and joy that a strong and robust culture brings to the Japanese populace.

Japan’s history, art, and culture are inseparable from the national identity and the identity of the Japanese people. Not only physical cultural assets, shrines, temples, and castles, arts, and crafts but also mannerisms, ways of speaking, gestures, and the humility that permeates Japanese communication are all essential elements of the Japanese cultural identity.

My Life-Long Love and Respect for Japanese Culture

From the moment I was first exposed to Japanese culture in my teenage years growing up in America, I was drawn to understand more about it. That passion has only grown in my 30 years living in Japan.

I have made it my life’s work to collaborate with Japanese and international artists and brands to shine a spotlight on some of Japan’s incredible artists and craftspeople.

As an artist and novice historian, over the past 30 years I have traveled all over Japan to hold exhibitions and feel very lucky to be able to visit shrines, temples, and artists’ studios from Kyushu to Hokkaido. I am in awe of the vast array of crafts in Japan and the dedication and discipline these craftspeople bring to their work. I am inspired by my fellow artists in Japan and hope to be a better artist myself for having been able to spend time with so many amazing creators over the past 30 years.

Last year, I was commissioned by Dekanta, the world’s largest online seller of Japanese whisky, to create an art piece to celebrate the sale of 20-year-old Karuizawa Whisky. I collaborated with the Taya Studio in Wajima to make the Acclaim Whisky stage, bringing together lacquer craftsmen and the team at Sakai Glass in Osaka to showcase an offering of three bottles of the famed Karuizawa Whisky. We made 50 sets of the stage which were auctioned in New York in March of 2023.

Since 2017, I have been designing glasses and decanters for the Austrian wine glass maker Riedel. The glasses are sold in stores across Japan, and each year I design a new series for Riedel using Kanazawa gold leaf made by Hakuichi.

In 2022, I was asked by Puma to design shoes for the Tokyo Fashion Show. The show was attended by people from around the world. I used Kanazawa gold leaf to make the shoes. Every part of the shoe, the box, the laces, and of course the gold leaf were all made in Japan.

Collaborations like these are truly a great way to highlight Japanese craftsmanship while still evolving and remaining relevant to a younger audience.

Three Ways Forward

Social, economic, technical, and environmental shifts are shaping every aspect of society and calling Japanese leaders in all sectors to consciously decide how to steward Japanese culture forward. I respectfully offer three strategies to respond to this great time of change for the benefit of Japanese culture for centuries to come:

1.Respond to Tourism in Ways that Preserve the Depth of Japanese Culture

I recently visited Kyoto for a meeting at the Ministry of Cultural Affairs. During that visit, I was able to speak to many people running businesses in the city about the current wave of foreign visitors to Kyoto. While everyone I spoke to was thankful for the economic benefits that tourism brings to Japan, they were all severely worried about the impact that tourism will have on the city’s way of life and cultural assets.

Over-tourism brings with it a myriad of problems including strain on infrastructure, environmental degradation, wear on cultural assets, interruptions to sacred rituals, and a diminished experience for visitors due to overcrowding.

However, for me, the greatest risk of this over-commoditization of Japanese cultural properties and rituals is that it will lead to only a superficial understanding of Japanese culture. If huge numbers of tourists lead to a reduced level of depth of understanding of the cultural traditions of Japan, then there is a real risk that the attractiveness of those cultural assets in the minds of tourists will go down and create a sort of cultural misinformation cycle which benefits no one. More national resources will go toward “meeting the market” rather than enriching and advancing traditional and modern cultural ways.

I am in no way suggesting that tourism is bad, or that we should discourage visitors from coming to Japan. I am only trying to say that there needs to be well-thought-out collaboration between government, local communities, and industry to arrive at a long-term sustainable approach to tourism that strikes a balance between economic targets and cultural preservation goals.

2.Utilize Cultural Ambassadors on the Global Stage

History and the preservation of Japan’s cultural assets are not merely exercises in nostalgia but essential parts of creating and maintaining a sense of national identity and social cohesion. History and culture are a nation’s living collective memory. I believe it is the responsibility of all citizens of Japan and immigrants like me, to do our best to contribute to both the maintenance of traditions and cultural assets and to actively participate in the evolution of these traditions. We must become cultural ambassadors both to visitors and to each other, sharing what we know and have experienced in a sincere way.

As I look at the demographics of Japan, I am more and more convinced that to a large degree the survival of traditional Japanese culture including food culture and arts and crafts lies at least in part in the education of foreigners. Bringing undiluted Japanese culture to international centers of art and culture is going to be vital to creating customers for Japanese artists, craftspeople, and chefs.

Earlier this year, we celebrated the opening of Sushi Sho New York. Sushi Sho’s New York restaurant is an amazing place filled with the work of Living National Treasures, potters, and woodworkers from Japan. I was honored to create two paintings for Sushi Sho in New York. The interior is like a museum of Japanese craftsmanship and art. The guests who are lucky enough to have dinner at Sushi Sho are experiencing the unfiltered best of Japan and will certainly share their experience with their friends and family. It is through experiences like this that Japanese culture will continue to thrive and grow.

In March of this year, I was honored to hold a joint exhibition in New York with the Living National Treasure, Inoue Manji, at the Onishi Gallery in Chelsea. The gallery expected to have 80 people at the opening reception. We were overjoyed and pleasantly surprised to have over 500 people come to the opening. I was so encouraged by the high level of interest that New Yorkers had in all things Japanese. Many of the visitors were experts on one facet or another of Japanese culture, from whisky to kimonos to tea and pottery.

During the exhibition, I was able to share with visitors information about Kanazawa gold leaf and the history of gold leaf in Japan, the National Living Treasure title and what it meant in Japan, and the story of Inoue Manji’s life and pottery. Visitors were fascinated, and I am sure at least a few will now visit Japan for the first time.

It is this sort of cultural ‘outreach’ that I think will become increasingly important to the survival of Japanese artists and craftspeople in the future. Exhibitions of Japanese art at museums are wonderful and vital, but if the living artists cannot sell their works, they cannot continue to pursue their artistic dreams and certainly won’t attract apprentices to continue their practices in the future.

Creating a global network of people who are interested in and participating in Japanese arts and culture is indeed the best way to maintain positive relationships with other countries and bring continued much-needed economic support to Japanese artists and craftspeople.

3.Develop Young Artists in The Business of Art

Connected closely to this conversation is another topic I have found myself discussing with various people lately: economic security for Japanese artists and craftspeople. When I visit craftspeople in Japan, I often hear stories of economic hardship. Japanese art schools rarely, if ever, teach business skills to their students. The young artists graduate without an understanding of how to market themselves to galleries, create budgets, and decide the pricing of their artworks. Many, no, most, artists I encounter don’t have a website or art catalog. They are creating incredible art and crafts but have not developed a way to sell their work. This invariably leads to a situation where artists end up working in a company and pursuing their artistic dreams at night and on the weekends.

The art universities would do a great service for their students to begin teaching basic business and presentation skills. The era of ‘being discovered’ as an artist where an art gallery would visit an artist’s studio and then sign a contract to represent them is over. Artists must be creators, marketers, accountants, and social media wizards. This is particularly difficult in Japan where humility is greatly valued, and artists tend to be quite self-effacing about their work.

My first exhibition in Japan was at a small gallery in Kichijoji. I think I approached 40 galleries over 6 months with my set of slides and a resume that was mostly blank before the Kichijoji gallery agreed to do an exhibition. It was hard to take so much rejection at 23 years old, but I was determined. I exhibited 19 paintings in that first exhibition and sold 17. My confidence was given a huge boost, but it was hard work.

There is a view that young artists must suffer to be good. I think this is nonsense. Being connected to your process, being authentic and truthful are essential to being a good artist in my opinion, but struggling financially never led me to paint a better painting or make a more beautiful tea bowl.

In conclusion, the preservation and revitalization of Japanese culture and arts are collective responsibilities. We cannot ask the government to do everything, though they certainly have a large role to play. We, the citizens of Japan, both Japanese and foreign immigrants, have a shared responsibility to do everything we can to support the arts, share what we know with others, and work together as a team to make our shared cultural life thrive and survive.