>[!NOTE]+ Record Author:: [[Liliana Morais]] Reference:: https://garlandmag.com/article/kogei-between-japan-and-brazil-the-ceramics-of-shoko-suzuki/ Date:: 2021-08-30 Tags:: #Japan WeftLinks:: [[World Craft Dictionary]] [[Japan]] > [!SUMMARY] Summary > Used since 1873 for a quality of skill in use of material. > The word _kôgei_ 工藝 is recorded in the _Old Book of Tang_, from the Chinese dynasty’s name, but its widespread use in Japan only goes back to 1873 when it was chosen as a translation of _craft_ for works to be shown at the Vienna International Exhibition. The ideogram 工 embodies the meaning of “skill” or “high level of technique”. In _Modern Japanese Art and the Meiji State: The Politics of Beauty_ (2011), Japanese art historian Doshin Sato explains that, while _gigei_ 技藝(or “technical art”) might have been the pre-modern Japanese word closest to the meaning of the modern English _craft_, most craft professions were designated by the ideogram工 (kô) preceded by media. For example, a potter would be called _tôkô_ 陶 and a lacquer worker _shikkô_ 漆工, therefore indicating the centrality of the material for the practice, appreciation, and understanding of these different art forms/ skills.