Week 3: Traditional Japanese Packaging

Traditional packaging in Japan evolved over centuries to provide effective packaging solutions using minimalistic designs and all-natural and re-usable materials. This book by Hideyuki Oka details several packaging styles which are separated into two main areas: utilitarian lineage and handicraft.

Utilitarian Lineage
Folk wisdom that evolved through simple solutions to packaging problems, using whichever materials were readily available. Often these were appropriate for storing and transporting, as well as being simple and beautiful.

These eggs are wrapped with rice straw left over from the harvest, and are perfect for wrapping as they are both strong and flexible and won't damage the goods. The straw was free and readily available and could also be re-used if necessary. It is also natural and not a pollutant, and so would not damage the environment when disposed of.

This is a rope wrapping that preserves a dried fish and provides a perfect ventilation situation and keeps the fish for over six months, also allowing the user to unwrap the product a bit at a time and only use what is needed. The main features of utilitarian lineage solutions are the use of naturally occuring materials and the beauty created from the simplest products of nature.

Handicraft
Handicraft packages were created by formal craftsmen who regarded their products as more artistic and included refined aesthetic considerations. Packages became more sophisticated, and were seen as works of art in their own right. Motivations of the designs became less focused on the simplicity of nature, and more towards the designers perfecting their art. There were two considerations that led to the handicraft movement; the philosophy that everything should be made beautiful and that anything big or small has real value. This style was developed in Kyoto which was the cultural centre of Japan for many years, and these packaging styles survived there until after the 1970s.