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“Take heed of the humble; be what you are by birthright; there is no room for arrogance,” wrote Soetsu Yanagi in The Unknown Craftsman, published during Japan’s folk craft movement in the 1920s. According to Yanagi, the craftsman should be anonymous, and his wares produced by hand, inexpensive and used by ordinary people in everyday life. In an age when the stamp of the designer is often the most desired facet of an object, it is refreshing to find that the hallmarks of Japanese design, anonymity and quality, are now enjoying fresh appreciation.
“注意要谦虚谨慎、做你与生俱来的自己、没有傲慢自大的余地，”柳宗悦(Soetsu Yanagi)在1920年代日本民间工艺运动期间出版的《未知的工匠》(The Unknown Craftsman)著作里写到。根据柳宗悦的说法，工匠应当隐姓埋名，产品应当手工制造、物美价廉且供普通人在日常生活中使用。设计师的标记往往是一件物品最受喜爱的特征；在这样一个时代，可以令人振奋地发现日本设计的特点--匿名性和高质量--现在，它们正受到越来越多的新的青睐。
Japanese design has long been admired in Europe and a recent flush of shop openings and design collaborations suggests a growing hunger for traditionally crafted, sustainable objects.
日本设计长久以来一直都在欧洲受到仰慕。最近一阵的开店热潮和设计合作则显示了对传统制作、耐用物品越来越多的渴望。
“A new generation of Japanese designers from Tokyo and Kyoto are migrating back to making things in a more traditional manner,” says Sam Hecht, who co-founded the London-based design office Industrial Facility and has designed for Muji, the Japanese lifestyle store, since 2002.
“新一代从东京和京都来的日本设计师纷纷回归到从前传统制造方式，”萨姆•海奇特(Sam Hecht)说道。他在伦敦与人共同成立了名为工业设施(Industrial Facility)的设计室，该公司从2002年开始为日本生活品商店无印良品(Muji)做设计。
“Japanese designers don’t make a distinction between things that are meant to be looked at and things that are meant to be used,” adds Hecht. “There is not simply a visual appreciation of craft, but a much deeper relationship with objects. Objects are often left slightly unfinished. For example, a dish might be glazed only in part, but this is important because it means that it’s not complete. The person using it, eating from it and cleaning it completes it. It’s not about perfection, it’s about function.”
“日本设计师不对东西的外观和实用性作区别，”海奇特补充道。“不只是简单地在视觉上欣赏工艺品，而是与其有更深一层的关系。作品往往留在略未完成的阶段。例如，一个盘子可能只会在某些部分上釉，但这是很重要的，因为这意味着它并不完整。那些使用它、用它吃饭和清洗它的人才能使它变得完整。重点不是在于完美，而是在于功能。”
Many of the designers who are adopting a traditional Japanese style have called upon the aesthetic philosophy of wabi-sabi, a nebulous term derived from centuries of Japanese spiritualism and culture. Leonard Koren, a design and aesthetics theorist, explains the concept as “a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent and incomplete.”
许多采用日本传统风格的设计师都遵循“侘寂”(wabi-sabi)的审美哲学，一个来自几个世纪以来的日本精神和文化的朦胧术语。设计和美学理论家伦纳德•科伦(Leonard Koren)解释说，这种概念是“东西有瑕疵、无常和不完整的美。”
This focus on utility has been picked up by Native & Co, a new shop in Notting Hill, west London. Co-founders Sharon Hung and Chris Yoshiro Green import exquisitely crafted products from Japan, propagating the streamlined aesthetic and lack of embellishment for which Japanese design is famous.
在伦敦西部诺丁山(Notting Hill)新开的Native & Co已经学会了这种把焦点集中于功用的作法。共同创始人洪沙伦(Sharon Hung)和克里斯四郎•格林(Chris Yoshiro Green)从日本进口制作精美的产品，宣传日本以其流线型的美学和缺乏装饰而闻名的设计。
“The project started by us sourcing products from Japanese workshops that have been making things in the same way for hundreds of years, ” says Hung. Included in their range are earthy ceramics by Katsuhiko Ogino and wooden products by Oji Masanori.
“这个项目的供货方是数百年来一直以同样的方式制造作品的日本工坊，”洪说道。荻野克彦(Katsuhiko Ogino)的土制陶瓷和大治将典(Oji Masanori)的木制品都包括在他们的采购范围内。
Elsewhere in Europe, designers are also drawing on Japanese design as inspiration. Architect-turned-product designer Thomas Griem released a new collection of rugs earlier this month, which have taken Japanese woodcuts as their starting point. “I was looking at ukiyo-e, at the geometry and the motif of the tree which kept appearing throughout the imagery. It has an elegance and an opulence that I liked,” he says.
在欧洲其它地方,设计师也从日本设计得到灵感。原来是建筑师的产品设计师托马斯•格里姆(Thomas Griem)前段时间发布了一个新系列的地毯，起点来自于日本的木刻版画。“我看着一幅浮世绘(ukiyo-e)、看着几何形状和充满了以树为主题的图案。我喜欢那幅画的优雅和丰富。”他说。
Inspired by the trend for Japanese style, paint and wallpaper specialist Farrow & Ball recently released four new wallpaper designs inspired by traditional Japanese craftsmanship.
从着迷于日本风格得到灵感，绘画和壁纸专家Farrow & Ball最近推出了四种受到日本传统工艺启发的壁纸设计。
Textile designer Jennifer Shorto based her most recent designs on a book of swatches of early 20th-century men’s kimono fabrics. Inspired by Jun’ichiro Tanizaki’s 1933 essay on aesthetics, “In Praise of Shadows”, Shorto worked to maintain the element of wabi-sabithat she encountered in the originals. “I enlarged the designs and painted them on to the cloth to make them more dramatic,” she says, “but I chose to use raw linen to keep the humbleness of the cloth.”
纺织品设计师詹尼弗•肖托(Jennifer Shorto)根据一本20世纪早期男性和服面料的色板书设计了她最新的作品。从谷崎润一郎(Junichiro Tanizaki)1933年的一篇美学文章《阴翳礼赞》(In Praise of Shadows)受到启发，肖托在她使用的原物料中努力保持侘寂的元素。“我放大了图案，将它们画在布料上使它们看起来更生动，”她说，“但我选择使用原始的亚麻布来保留布料的谦逊。”
This idea of the “humble” quality of materials can also be seen in Freyja Sewell’s designs. Sewell, who lives in Japan, has designed lighting and furniture that reflects the urban lifestyle — her Hush chair is a response to finding peace and solitude in the Japanese capsule living culture. “Traditional Japanese culture has an ingrained respect for materials and objects, and perhaps the recent rise in the popularity of Japanese design is down to consumers desiring real value and sustainability from their purchases,” she says.
这种“谦虚”材质的想法也可以在弗蕾娅•休厄尔(Freyja Sewell)的设计里看到。居住在日本的休厄尔设计出反映城市生活方式的照明和家具——她的“嘘！”座椅是对日本胶囊生活文化里寻找和平和孤独的响应。“日本传统文化对材料和物品有种根深蒂固的尊重，也许最近流行起来的日本设计是因为消费者渴望买到真正有价值和可持续的商品。”她说。
Working from her pottery in Stoke-on-Trent, Anglo-Japanese ceramic designer Reiko Kaneko fuses Japanese principles with centuries of British expertise in the production of porcelain. Kaneko recognises the power of collaboration in sharing and interpreting ideas, and has recently set up the Japan Store on her website, which sells ceramics made in Japanese workshops.
在斯托克城(Stoke-on-Trent)的陶器厂，英籍日本人金子玲子(Reiko Kaneko)将日本元素与英国几个世纪以来在生产瓷器方面的专长相融合。金子意识到一起分享和诠释理念的力量，最近也在她的网站上设置了日本商店来销售制造于日本工场的陶瓷。
“There is a phrase in Japanese which is mono-zukuri no nakama, which means the way makers look out for each other,” she says. “It is up to us to support smaller workshops.”
“有一个日本短语叫‘产品制造的伙伴’(mono-zukuri no nakama)，意思是制造商彼此互相照顾,”她说。“该由我们来支持小型工场。
London-based Emma Peascod has integrated Japanese craftsmanship into her decorative finishes for interior and architecture projects. In 2009 she spent a year learning how to make washi (Japanese paper) from master craftsmen in the city of Mino, central Japan.
公司在伦敦的爱玛•皮斯克(Emma Peascod)将日本工艺融入到她室内和建筑装饰的项目里。2009年，她花了一年的时间在日本中部的美浓市(Mino)向工匠大师学习如何制作和纸(washi)。
Peascod combines the washi with the traditional gilding technique of verre églomisé to create shimmering finishes decorated with gold leaf, which can then be used for anything from tabletops to wall coverings.
皮斯克将和纸与传统镀金技术镜像反绘(verre eglomise)结合，创造出装饰着金色叶子的闪亮抛光，可以用于从桌面到墙纸等任何表面。
“One thing I noticed about the experience of working in Japan is how simple a workshop can be. The paper I use is made using an aluminium water trough, a silk screen, and a hose pipe with a homemade nozzle.”
“我在日本工作时注意到的一个经验就是，一个工作室可以多么纯朴。我使用的纸是由一个铝制水槽、一个丝网和一条带有自制喷口的软管制作而成。”
