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The
development of jewellery design in Japan has followed a historical course
that is rather unusual in world terms. This history stretches back 9,000
years to the early Jomon period. The people of the tumulus period (3rd
to 7th century) regularly wore personal accessories of gold and the curved
beads called magatama, as shown by excavated objects.
Japan's own clothing culture then became
established durling the thousand-year period starting with the Nara period
(from 710), during which personal accessories of the kind described above
totally disappeared. Japanese culture, however, flourished across a wide
range during this time and achieved world-class levels of development.
During the Edo period (17th to 19th century),
the use of personal accessories enjoyed a renaissance in the form of combs,
the stick-type hair ornaments called kanzashi, and the kimono sach clasps
called obidome. Western clothing began to be introduced to Japan during
the Meiji era (starting in 1868), and a new stage of widespread jewellery
use began.
Now Japan's jewellery use has grown to the
point where it has become the second greatest consuming nation in the
world. The number of people engaging in jewellery design has also grown
rapidly.
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The Japan Jewellery Designers
Association (JJDA) was founded as a public interest organization 45 years
ago, and now counts 531 professional jewellery designers in its membership.
Its activities form the core of jewellery design in Japan. These include
a wide variety of pursuits, including:
- People who teach jewellery design and metal craftworks at universities
and other educational institutions
- ln-house designers who work in corporations
- Entrepreneurs who manage design firms
- Designers who work freelance
- People who pursue careers as jewellery artists
- Jewellery craftspeople who fabricate their own works, and so on.
A major feature of the JJDA is that it includes
the entire range of people engaged in the design of personal jewellery.
This ranges from artists in the arts and crafts lineage of culturally—oriented
jewellery to people who work on design projects in industry.
Jewellery
design in Japan belongs to these major categories:
1. Works that incorporate traditional Japanese handicraft techniques
2. Works that express Japanese cultural sensibilities
3. Market—oriented designs that look to world trends and fashion
movements
4. Works that are rooted in jewellery culture
5. Works with an arts and crafts orientation |
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Japanese
jewellery has therefore overcome the one—thousand—year blank
period. That blank, in fact, pre- pared the soil for our active reception
ot the new. The fusion of that element of the new with the long-lasting
stream Japanese culture formed the new source of the distinctive; jewellery
design that is original to Japan today.
2009 is the JJDA’s 45th anniversary’s
year. lt is planning many events in Tokyo. The JJDA members exhibition
will be held in Mlikimoto hall in Tokyo over 1-9 October and 4 - 19 December,
2009 in Armory Art Center in the West Palm Beach, Florida, in the US.
wvvw.jjda.or.jp/en/index.hlml |
The
current state of Jewellery Design in Japan by Ms. Junko Nagai, Executive
Director, Japan Jewellery Designers Association
