Traditional Japanese Packaging
Traditional Japanese packaging evolved over centuries of practical use and experiments and splits into two sources historically:
1. the utilitarian lineage
• a sort of distilled-down basic folk wisdom that evolved through day to day needs.
• a practical method that arose through using whatever materials were close at hand.
• quite often these solutions were appropriate for storing and transporting while also being simple, free of excess and often beautiful creations.
• the image of the eggs is a perfect example, the eggs need protection, the rice straw is left over from the rice crop and both strong and flexible. The farmer would have just re-used the materials to hand. Unconsciously it also suggests freshness and the warmth of newly-laid eggs.
Eggs wrapped in rice straw
• another example being rope wrapping for dried fish. This allows a perfect situation ventilation-wise and can preserve the fish for more than 6 months.
• package can also be unwrapped a bit at a time as and when needed
• ‘wisdom that comes from everyday life’
Fish wrapped in rope to preserve
• other kinds of wrapping can include the wrapping of rice dumplings in bamboo leaves, oak leaves for wrapping rice cakes and magnolia leaves for rice balls or bean curd
Mochi (rice cakes) wrapped in bamboo leaves
Containers for Yokan (jam made of sweet beans); made of banmboo leaves.
• simple, effective packaging using naturally occurring materials. Created in a style that is very much in the Japanese tradition of creating beauty from the simplest products of nature.
• here traditional wisdom and the item’s ‘feel’ are all important in these solutions
2. handicraft
• a more concious set of designs that include techniques and refined aesthetic considerations.
• created by formal craftsmen who regarded their job and solutions as more art-based. The packaging itself had meaning as well as it’s contents.
• techniques became more and more sophisticated and packaging became a recognised profession using artisans who worked in long established shops.
• the beginning of packages that were works of art in themselves - often having more charm than their contents.
Kyoto style confectionary packaging
• motivations of these packaging designers was purely personal, the need to perfect their art
• driven by two considerations that were very much tied-in with Japanese traditional values:
1. a philosophy that said everything could and should be made beautiful.
2. a value system that said that everything, large or small, expensive or cheap were of real value.
bamboo holder for these traditional Japanese sweets
set out so that they resemble a bunch of flowers
• Kyoto was the political and cultural centre of Japan for nearly a thousand years. Many of these artisan packaging designs and shops still survived there until well after the 1970’s.
• elegant, refined packaging style known as the ‘Kyoto style’
• today we often think that consumption and not conservation is the aim of life but we can still learn a lot from these examples of a wiser past, more in tune with nature and natural resources
• packaging as art suggests a whole new perspective on what is and what isn’t supposed to be thrown away
• in addition to utilitarian and handicraft packaging, there are some other characteristics of Japanese packaging to also look briefly at:
The natural quality of most of these packages. The majority of materials used are of wood, bamboo, straw and clay and derivatives of these such as paper, cloth and ceramics. All of these exist in abundance in our natural surroundings and have been used since ancient times. The materials here are used in a way that shows their freshness and celebrates their natural textures.
• conflict between people and nature is often at the base of western culture. In Japan though, people have lived as part of nature - hence the use of natural materials in packaging.
• natural materials are often used in packaging in such a way that they simulate some other facet of nature
• another characteristic common to many forms of Japanese natural packaging is the process. Often the wrapping and packaging are seen as sacred ritual.
• this ritual also mirrors Japanese need for cleanliness - turning the wrapping and preparation into an act of purification. This is often also seen in the Japanese as a orderliness and tidiness.
other characteristics of Japanese packaging
• the third characteristic of Japanese packaging is of handwork. Packaging like this would be impossible without the touch of the human hand.
• these packaging styles are uniquely Japanese in design and construction. Even the smallest objects are treated with a reverence and packaged so that they are made beautiful so that whomever receives it will enjoy both the package and it’s contents.
• one of the reasons that this traditional style of packaging has disappeared so much in Japan has been that it is so painstaking and inefficient to make - something that cannot be easily mass produced.
Preserved and dried fish are strung together with straw. A simple and practical solution for transport but also attractive to the eye
• Hideyuki Oka the book’s author suggests that he feels this situation is an indicator of our slow but sure disconnection with all things natural too. Where as once the Japanese lived in communion with nature, it now uses and abuses it as western culture takes hold.
Orange Task
Our task for the session was to create our own packaging for two oranges - inspired by the Japanese packaging we had been discussing. Below is a photograph of mine and Gareth's creation. We were pretty pleased with it! It worked well and looked attractive too as we had used both the Japanese utilitarian and handicraft ideas creating decorative plaited rope and also trying the wrapping of the rope. It could also be added to as required and once the oranges had been removed they could easily be replaced - very 'green'!
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