The Beauty of Everyday Things
"Radical and inspiring... Yanagi's vision puts the connection between heart and hand before the transient and commercial" – Edmund de Waal Our daily lives are quietly populated by objects: the cup lifted each morning, the cloth worn smooth with use, the jar that sits without fanfare on a kitchen shelf. These humble companions, argues Soetsu Yanagi, deserve far more thought than we typically give them. They should be fashioned with genuine care, built to endure, and treated with something approaching fondness. Simple, sturdy, honest things, shaped by the sincere effort to meet a practical need. That, Yanagi suggests, is where true beauty lives. Written against a backdrop of mass production and its tendency to churn out brittle, graceless goods, these essays make a quiet but persuasive case for reconsidering our bond with the objects around us. Yanagi drew his inspiration from the unpretentious craftsmen he met across Japan and Korea throughout his life, people who made teacups, paper, cloth and pottery without pretension or flourish. It's their work, and the enduring satisfaction it carries, that forms the heart of this collection. A thoughtful, affecting read.
- Author: Soetsu Yanagi
- Publisher: Penguin Classics
- Genre: Design & Fashion
- ISBN: 978-0241366356
- Pages: 352 pages