#7 Craftsmanship Rooted in Japan’s Regional Resources and Techniques: COCOROSTORE
The Chugoku region is located in the western part of Japan’s Honshu island and consists of five prefectures including Hiroshima, Okayama, Shimane, Tottori, and Yamaguchi. The region also is covered by the Sanyo area, which faces the Seto Inland Sea, and the San’in area along the Sea of Japan. Rich in natural beauty, mythology, history, and culture, the Chugoku region continues to preserve landscapes and ways of life that are distinctly Japanese.
International interest in the region has been growing in recent years. Hiroshima, Okayama, and Yamaguchi Prefectures, among others, have seen record numbers of overnight stays by international visitors. Against this backdrop, a growing number of local companies are drawing on the region’s resources, history, and craftsmanship to create new value and take on the challenge of expanding into global markets.
The CO:Design team visited five companies representing each prefecture from the Chugoku region that participated in a workshop jointly organized by JETRO and Parsons School of Design. During our visits, we explored each company's production sites and spoke with business owners and craftspeople about the techniques and philosophies they have inherited, as well as their ambitions for reaching international markets.
In this series, we introduce the values embedded in each company’s craftsmanship, their connection to their local communities, and the insights and lessons gained through their efforts to expand overseas.
COCOROSTORE / ATOATONO (Tottori Prefecture)
Bringing Tottori’s Craftsmanship to the World
COCOROSTORE is a mingei (folk craft) shop located in Kurayoshi, Tottori Prefecture. Operated by ATOATONO LLC, the store carries products from around 40 local makers, ranging from forged knives and traditional folk toys to ceramics, wood and bamboo crafts, furniture, washi paper, and glassware.
Owner Nobuhiro Tanaka opened the store in 2012. Before returning to his hometown, Tanaka had worked for a furniture manufacturer in Nagano Prefecture with the goal of becoming a furniture craftsman. It was only after leaving Tottori that he came to recognize the exceptional quality of craftsmanship in his home region.
“Some things in this world can only be made by human hands.”
With this idea at its heart, COCOROSTORE brings the work of Tottori’s craftspeople to people across Japan and around the world.
The Mingei Movement and the Beauty of Everyday Life
Tottori Prefecture has deep ties to Japan’s Mingei Movement. The word mingei, coined in 1925 as an abbreviation of minshūteki kōgei, or “folk crafts,” refers to crafts created for the everyday lives of ordinary people.
One of the movement’s central figures, philosopher and art critic Muneyoshi (Sōetsu) Yanagi, turned his attention not to fine art created by celebrated artists, but to everyday objects—ceramics, textiles, baskets, furniture, and other items—made by anonymous craftspeople for daily use.
These objects were shaped by techniques passed down over generations, as well as by local materials and ways of life. Yanagi believed that true beauty could be found precisely in these seemingly ordinary, functional objects. This idea became the foundation of the Mingei Movement.
Shoya Yoshida: Bringing Yanagi’s Philosophy to Life in Tottori
The person who connected the philosophy of mingei with Tottori’s local craftsmanship was Shoya Yoshida, a physician from Tottori City.
After developing a close relationship with Yanagi, Yoshida sought not only to preserve traditional crafts from the past, but also to work with local craftspeople to create new objects suited to contemporary life. Beginning around 1931, he collaborated with artisans at the Ushinoto Kiln and others working in ceramics, woodworking, bamboo craft, textiles, and other fields. Together, they created new products while drawing on techniques that had long been passed down within the region. This approach later became known as Shinsaku Mingei, or “New Mingei.”
Yoshida went even further, creating an ecosystem for making, selling, using, and communicating the value of craft. He established Takumi Kogei-ten, a shop selling locally made crafts; Takumi Kappo-ten, a restaurant where mingei tableware and furniture could be experienced in everyday use; and the Tottori Folk Crafts Museum, dedicated to preserving and sharing the region’s mingei culture.
By connecting the work of craftspeople with everyday life and the marketplace, Yoshida helped establish a distinctive culture of mingei in Tottori.
Nearly a Century Later: Bringing Tottori’s Craftsmanship to the World
Nearly a century later, there are striking parallels between Yoshida’s vision and the work COCOROSTORE is doing today.
Both are about connecting techniques inherited within a region to contemporary life and bringing the work of craftspeople to new audiences and new markets.
COCOROSTORE does more than simply sell crafts from Tottori. Working alongside local craftspeople and manufacturers, it helps communicate the value of their work to new customers and markets. Today, those opportunities extend far beyond Japan. Through collaborations with people from different countries and cultures, COCOROSTORE is exploring new possibilities for products that draw on Tottori’s local materials and craftsmanship while responding to the needs and sensibilities of new markets.
Just as Muneyoshi Yanagi discovered beauty in the handmade objects embedded in everyday life, and Shoya Yoshida carried that philosophy forward into Tottori’s craft culture, COCOROSTORE is now building a bridge between Tottori’s craftsmanship and the wider world carrying its value into the next generation.
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