on the 15th of every month, there is a handmade market at chionji temple in kyoto, called hyakumanben tezukuri market. (te means hand, zukuri means to make, so it literally means handmade). their website is here, buts it's all in japanese.
this banner says 'handmade market' in japanese.
vendors set up all around the temple grounds, maybe there about 200 vendors. i guess its busiest in the mornings, starting around 9am, and in the winter people started packing up around 4.
there was a very impressive range of different kind of items, and different ages of vendors and size of their operations. there were some crafts people selling similar 'traditional' crafts that you would see in the u.s., like woodworking and ceramics.
there were cute piggies (remember, 2007 is the year of the wild boar in japan)
miniature scenes
woodworking and gnomes
dyed and print work
accessories of all kinds and materials
farm products from homespun to food and bath products
bags and more bags...
and more bags, lots of traditional japanese fabrics being reused to make other functional items/accessories.
super cute stamp work
handspun and handknits
felt food along with wooden play kitchens (of course my eyes were especially peeled for felt!)there was quite a lot of needled felted stuff, and one felter who does very beautiful wet felting.
these photos are a tiny sample, there were also food vendors, both homegrown and snacks, and lots of clothes, old kimono fabric, jewelry, leatherwork etc.
the coolest part was that it was a total mix of people, both selling and shopping, which i believe reflects the strength and continuity of the craft tradition within japanese society. there were some young crafters similar to people in the states who are part of our huge craft resurgence (and mind you they are making some awesome stuff!), but they were part of a much larger crowd than included older folks and locals of all ages.
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