GO ON
From Traditional Craft to
New Creative Hubs
GO ON. We are a Kyoto-based group of six people with backgrounds in traditional Japanese craft.
Taking our roots as a starting point, we expand into multiple fields, such as art, design, science and technology.
GO ON searches for unseen potential lying within tradition.
Our creative actions reconsider the future, and the bright ages still to come.
Thought and Action
GO ON as Thought and Action
What is GO ON?
Its attitudes are always focused, never blurred, but it is still dificult to encapsulate what they do in a few words. GO ON poses important questions actively embracing a wide range of interests. As I write, I’m sure they are discussing how to make further progress.
GO ON was launched in 2012 by successors to traditional Kyoto craft groups.
Its members inherited companies with long histories, and all six are devoted to pursuing their own area of creativity. At the same time, they formed the project unit GO ON to serve as a platform, or rather environment, from which to generate flexible, liberated ideas. Several proactive projects have been completed so far.
GO ON is, so to speak, organic. Actions are carried out in the spiritual mindset of the artisan, using physical motions of hand and body, but also exuding an energy that pushes out from prior frameworks. They continue with the world of traditional craft technique and spirit, projecting its influence into new realms.
Connecting craft with art, design, science and technology, GO ON crosses various genres to generate new creative expressions, and its work has been applauded both inside and outside craft worlds. The materials, techniques, and processes of crafts are inherited over the long course of history, but GO ON brings these into contact with cutting edge technology, leading to previously unthought of creative insights.
It is important to note that GO ON does not just expand the purview of craft. Its members also search for contemporary creative possibilities beyond that framework. Their method is to question assumptions at the core of tradition.
Interestingly, ideas obtained from these explorations are then returned to thfield of craft practice and creation. GO ON members once said, ‘We wish to stand outside the traditional realm of craft, treading ground in areas not normally considered to be craft’s mainstream. We never stop questioning.’
GO ON is nothing if not a search for the future, for a new thinking, and for its realisation.
It is a challenge posed by six people who explore foundations to support creative activity, investigating the value and process of object-making, and the meaning and richness of life.
Text: Noriko Kawakami, DESIGN JOURNALIST
Member
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MASATAKA HOSOO
CEO, HOSOO Co., Ltd.
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TATSUYUKI KOSUGA
Brand Director
KOHCHOSAI KOSUGA -
SHUJI NAKAGAWA
Atelier Master
Nakagawa Mokkougei -
TORU TSUJI
KANAAMI TSUJI,
President and Chief Executive Officer/metal-knitting Craftsman -
TAKAHIRO YAGI
KAIKADO, Brand Director/Craftsman
Special Collaborative Researcher, Center for Innovation in Traditional Industries, Kyoto Seika University -
HOUSAI MATSUBAYASHI
Asahiyaki Ware
Projects
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Visionaries: Making Another Perspective Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art
As part of the special exhibition Visionaries: Making Another Perspective, held at the Higashiyama Cube of Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art, GO ON presented an exhibition exploring the idea of Kyoto as a “Craft City” one hundred years into the future.
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Hotel Okura Kyoto Okazaki Bettei
Opened in January 2022, Hotel Okura Kyoto Okazaki Bettei is a small luxury hotel with 60 guestrooms, harmoniously integrated into the natural landscape of Kyoto.
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GO ON × Panasonic Design
What does a “better life in the future” truly mean? In response to this question, GO ON initiated a collaborative project with the Design Center of Panasonic Appliances Company, addressing the accelerating diversity of contemporary society.
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GO ON DBS
Kyoto Craft Theory Research Association
GO ON DBS Kyoto Craft Theory Research Association is a program that transcends the perspectives of craft, design, and business to aim for the creation of new value.
It serves as a hub for learning and practice where artisans, creators, and business leaders gather to explore the future, think about possibilities, and lead them to realization.