Shokunin - Japan’s Vanishing Masters

It’s been said that in Japan objects are born not made. As our society increasingly values speed over quality, handcrafted goods retain a heartbeat lacking in the mass-produced world. They are manifestations of a spirit. The master craftsmen (and very few women) who commit their lives to honing perfection to its sharpest edge are known as Shokunin. They are a dying breed, often working in obscurity and always with intense, almost meditative focus on process. It takes years to learn technique alone and a lifetime to approach mastery – a level of concentration on the narrowest of tasks that is on the brink of extinction in our on-demand, insta-famous society. Shokunin is an ethnography of mastery – a study of the obsession and commitment to excellence it takes to dedicate one’s life to the pursuit of perfection. Encompassing images from photo sessions across Japan, it documents these men and women as they work, making portraits both as a form of cultural preservation and as a testament to a vanishing group of artisans.