8 of the best authentic artisans of Japan

A trip to Japan isn’t complete without exploring its ancient crafts.

In the shadow of Tokyo’s neon-lit skyscrapers and Osaka’s pulsing arcades, there’s another Japan. It’s a Japan where time seems to move at a different pace, marked by the rhythmic tapping of a master craftsman’s chisel. This is the realm of artisans of Japan — keepers of ancient traditions who’ve dedicated their lives to their craft. People who can tell you the exact moment a sword blade reaches the perfect temperature by its colour alone, or who spend months applying layer after layer of lacquer to create a finish so deep you could drown in it.

But make no mistake — this isn’t some quaint, museum-piece version of Japan. These crafts are very much alive, evolving and adapting even as they stay rooted in centuries-old techniques.

Here are eight must-visit artisans to experience the majesty for yourself — and maybe even take a piece of magic home with you.

Kokeshi Dolls in Japan — Make Japan’s artisans a must-visit. (Image: 写真家千葉和広)

1. Swordsmithing in Seki

Seki, in Gifu Prefecture, is where you go when you want to see steel transformed into something deadly and beautiful. It has been a renowned centre of Japanese swordsmithing since the 13th century. Today, it produces half of Japan’s kitchen knives and is home to over 300 blade-making companies. If you want to see master smiths turn hunks of raw metal into blades sharp enough to split a hair lengthwise, this is the place to be.

If you can, time your visit for 2 January each year. That’s when they hold the Uchizome-shiki ceremony, marking the first sword forging of the year. Imagine it: smiths in traditional white garb, hammers pounding, sparks flying. Is there a better way to welcome the new year?

Swordsmithing in Seki by the artisans of Japan — Ring in the New Year by witnessing the art of swordsmithing. (Image: Yuyai Tamai2)

2. Pottery in Arita

Arita, a small town in Saga Prefecture, is to Japanese ceramics what Silicon Valley is to tech. The town has been the heart of Japanese porcelain since the early 17th century, famous for its delicate designs and durability. It played a crucial role in Japan’s export trade during the Edo period.

Visit one of the historic kilns and you’ll find artisans who can probably throw a perfect vase blindfolded. The Arita Porcelain Park even offers hands-on workshops so you can try creating your own piece under expert guidance.

Arita Japan Ceramics — See the exquisite beauty of porcelain pottery. (Image: str_ngi)

3. Japanese denim in Kurashiki

Kurashiki, in Okayama Prefecture, is the birthplace of Japanese denim. The local textile industry (with roots in cotton production dating back to the Edo period) pivoted to denim in the 1960s and now produces some of the world’s most sought-after jeans.

Tour a workshop and you’ll quickly understand why some people are willing to drop a month’s rent on a pair of jeans. The attention to detail is staggering — these artisans probably know more about indigo dyes than most of us know about our own families.

Kojima Jean Street — Stroll down Jeans Street. (Image: Hiro_A)

4. Kokoeshi dolls in Zao

Zao, in Miyagi Prefecture, is a hub for kokeshi doll production — a craft that originated in the Tohoku region in the Edo period. These wooden dolls, originally created as children’s toys, are now collected by all with an eye for art.

The town boasts Japan’s largest kokeshi museum, home to over 5500 dolls. Each has its own regional style — a testament to the diversity of Japan’s craft traditions. Watch the artisans at work, their steady hands bringing life to simple pieces of wood. Try painting your own, but be prepared — these little wooden faces have a way of multiplying in your luggage.

An artisan creating a kokeshi doll — Watch an artisan craft a kokeshi doll. (Image: SNSF Scientific Image Competition)

5. Gold leaf in Kanazawa

Kanazawa, in Ishikawa Prefecture, produces 99 per cent of Japan’s gold leaf. This craft, dating back to the 16th century, is integral to the restoration of many of Japan’s cultural treasures.

At the Kanazawa Yasue Gold Leaf Museum, learn about the painstaking 20-step process of creating gold leaf. For a hands-on experience, visit the Hakuichi Gold Leaf Center, where you can try gold leaf application on various objects. And don’t miss Kanazawa’s famous gold leaf ice cream for a luxurious treat. Go on, you deserve it.

Gold leaf workshop in Japan — Take part in a workshop and create your very own gold leaf. (Image: David Curtis)

6. Chopsticks in Obama

In Obama, Fukui Prefecture, they take their chopsticks seriously. For half a millennium, artisans here have been crafting lacquered chopsticks that are less utensil, more a work of art.

Step into a local workshop and you’ll find masters who can tell you more about wood grain than you ever thought possible. Watch as they transform simple strips of wood into objects of surprising complexity and beauty. If you’re lucky, they might let you try your hand at decorating a pair.

Wakasa Hashi Chopsticks, Artisans of Japan — Explore the rich history of chopsticks. (Image: Wakasa Chopstick Museum)

Weekly travel news, experiences
insider tips, offers, and more.

7. Lacquerware in Kiso Hirasawa

Walk down the main street of Nagano Prefecture’s Kiso Hirasawa and you might think you’ve stepped back in time. This town breathes lacquerware — literally. The scent of fresh lacquer wafts from workshops lining the streets.

Watch as artisans apply layer after painstaking layer of lacquer, a process that can take weeks or even months. It’s a lesson in patience that would try the nerves of a Zen master. The results, though, are worth the wait.

Where artisans of Japan hold Lacquerware Workshops — Watch artisans meticulously apply layer after layer of lacquer. (Image: Y Hila)

8. Bonsai in Fukushima City

Fukushima City is home to Bonsai Abe, a third-generation nursery specialising in Azuma Goyomatsu (five-needle pine) bonsai. This variety, native to the nearby Azuma Mountains, is prized for its ability to withstand harsh winters.

Book a workshop and give pruning a whirl under expert guidance. It’s an experience not to be missed. These artisans don’t just shape trees; they shape time itself, creating a testament to ancient forests in miniature. For a deeper experience, join one of their residential workshops including trips to see wild Azuma Goyomatsu in their natural habitat.

In each of these places, you’ll find more than just beautiful objects. You’ll find a dedication to craft that borders on obsession. A reverence for tradition that somehow coexists with innovation. And a depth of skill that can only come from years — often generations — of focused practice.

This is the other Japan, a Japan where the pursuit of perfection is not just a goal, but a way of life.

saitama omiya bonsai art museum — Marvel at traditional bonsai trees.

After youth-led protests in 2025, this year Nepal elected a 35-year-old former rapper as Prime Minister. In a country where tourism is its biggest industry, what’s next for travellers?

In 1986, Nepal changed its clock. It had used India Standard Time since 1920 so, to differentiate, it wound its clock 15 minutes ahead of, not behind, its big-brother neighbour. Boss move. “Nepal is strongly opposed to the idea that our identity is connected to India,” says Community Homestay Network (CHN) guide Bikal Khanal.

Tharu dance is traditionally set to hand drums. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

Today, Nepal is the only independent country with a 45-minute deviation to universal time; an oddity that’s become a symbol of national pride. The quirk is nearly as endearing as Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan airport where carved varnished wood and shiny red bricks rule. One sign points to a ‘Travelator’ and another to a ‘Grievance Handling Desk’ while visas are noisily stamped at customs for US dollars, cash only. When am I?

Spot the endemic Nepal gray langur. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The 15 or 45 minute anomaly sees me tap out completely on timezone calculations. Why bend my brain calculating if it’s quarter to or quarter past elsewhere when I’m in the honking here and now of Kathmandu where the air is high-altitude crisp, the prayer flags flutter and the street dogs howl?

How tourism is changing in Nepal

Bardiya National Park is rich with wildlife. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

India is not the only association many Nepalis would like to shake. With eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest and Annapurna, Nepal has long attracted mountaineers and trekkers, and expedition numbers are continuing to rise.

Tourism is one of the country’s biggest sources of foreign currency, so this growth is not negative, per se. But according to Ang Tshering Lama, who co-founded Phaplu Mountain Bike Club, being reduced to a mere trekking destination is limiting.

“Trekking is just one layer of our identity,” says Ang. “When it becomes the dominant narrative, it limits how we’re seen and how we see ourselves.” Nepal’s recent success, however, in diverting trekkers to less-trafficked areas such as Manaslu mofuntain, where visitor numbers rose by 117 per cent last year, offers hope that tourism can diversify even more radically.

Local men in Bhada village. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The founder of CHN, Shiva Dhakal, wants that change. “The whole idea of the Community Homestay Network is to promote experiences outside of trekking,” he says. “Community tourism changes lives and helps kids stay home instead of coming to the city or migrating to the Middle East.”

Ang grew up seeing people leave, “not because they wanted to but because there weren’t enough opportunities to stay”, he states. Yet from remote villages to living traditions; food, art, music and emerging subcultures, “there’s so much that’s not being seen.”

CHN is opening some of those doors. It doesn’t own, or fund, any homes. Rather, it promotes homestays to travellers on a single, slick platform, while fostering entrepreneurship in places where women, marginalised castes, Indigenous people and the youth stand to benefit the most.

A new generation demanding more

Dalla Town Hall, where volunteers discuss anti-poaching tactics. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The future prospects of next-gen Nepalis can no longer be ignored. On a Kathmandu tour with 33-year-old guide Monica K.C, we pass buildings torched in the September 2025 ‘Gen Z protests’, including the Supreme Court and Parliament House. Seventy-two people died. “They were anti-corruption protests,” says Monica. “Politicians’ children are living a lavish life but the airports are crowded with youngsters leaving to find work.”

We stop in ‘little Tibet’ at the wondrous sixth-century Boudha Stupa. “The wheel of life is Buddhism in a nutshell,” says Monica. “Things such as hate, ignorance and anger keep you rotating around the wheel, so you must follow the principles of Buddhism to detach. If you can’t, there’s no nirvana for you.”

Boudha Stupa's prayer wheels — Boudha Stupa’s prayer wheels are used to recite Buddhist prayers. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

In a sun-drenched twist to the usual temple visit, we ascend the stupa’s sloping plinth and roam its whitewashed dome. Tendrils of diaphanous prayer flags stream from a steeple-like structure where the Buddha’s unblinking eyes stare out. No nirvana for you…

bouda stupa prayer flags — Tibetan-style prayer flags embellish the whitewashed dome of Bouda Stupa, a Buddhist temple. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

The dome is delightfully free of guard rails or chiding from security. There is, however, a stern ‘No TikTok’ sign, perhaps in response to the youth’s newly flexed power. The booted-out Prime Minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, was replaced in a resounding election victory in March by 35-year-old Balendra Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) – a former rapper and mayor of Kathmandu. The RSP’s manifesto indicates tourism is a priority, and that Nepal’s cultural identity in areas such as gastronomy will be strengthened.

Boudha Stupa vendors — Vibrant souvenir shops and cafes around Boudha Stupa. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

A more confronting stop awaits at Pashupatinath Temple. Today is Bala Chaturdashi, a Hindu festival where thousands of devotees gather to honour their dead ancestors. Vendors hauling foam mattresses do a lucrative trade as people set up for a night of vigil. This includes burning the bodies of recently deceased relatives on bamboo pyres in the Bagmati River, which flows into the sacred Ganges.

A woman at annual Hindu festival Bala Chaturdashi, in Kathmandu. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Wrapped in a shroud, the bodies are positioned with their heads facing north to the Himalayas where Lord Shiva resides. They’re covered with flowers and straw and set alight by male family members.

Hours later, the ashes are swept into the river where devotees will take a holy dip the next day. As much as Monica assures us it’s not voyeuristic to watch, I struggle to do so. “Here you see the reality of life because everyone ends up there,” she says, gesturing to the river.

Life unfiltered in the Terai region

tharu woman — Tharu woman and master weaver Parbati Chaudhary in Bhada Village. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The reality of life needs processing time, which the western Terai region delivers in spades. The Terai is largely separated from India by the Karnali River and Bardiya National Park, where elephants, rhinos and the elusive Bengal tiger roam.

Once a nomadic tribe, the Indigenous Tharu people are now the largest ethnic group here. “They didn’t know their daily life was interesting for international travellers but they’re starting to understand now,” says CHN founder Shiva.

Take a Jeep safari through Bardiya National Park. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

We fly Buddha Air to Dhangadhi airport and drive five hours to stay in Tharu homes. The journey to Bhada village is a blur of roadside fruit stalls, traffic-stopping sacred cows and fields sown with wheat, rice, mustard, spinach, cauliflower and potatoes. Nepal’s agriculture feeds only Nepal.

Marigolds are an important part of Hindu rituals. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

“The only thing we export is young people,” says our guide Bikal. As the light dims and we plunge evermore rural, mysterious mounds of compacted hay – some house-sized – loom like the creatures from Where The Wild Things Are. Even our trusty driver gets flummoxed by a dirt road that abruptly ends and we find ourselves hurtling across a paddock.

On arrival, some are ferried to mud-walled cottages greened by gourd creepers, with thatched roofs and rustic-chic mosquito nets. Myself and two others are ushered to the home of corner store owner, mechanic and mushroom farmer Man Kumar Chilaruwa and his wife Rajkumari.

community homestay entrance — A warm welcome at a community homestay. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

They escort us to a bunker-esque back building with steel doors and a folding security gate, behind which is gleaming linoleum, dolphin-printed tiles and a shower cavity that must be gingerly stepped through to reach the toilet.

The ceiling lights emit a rainbow of colours (the bathroom light gets stuck in, frankly, a quite frightening red). We’re nevertheless touched that our hosts invested in all this bling when the average salary is around $275 a month.

In the coming days, we participate in Tharu traditions such as making moonshine, dancing, weaving straw handicrafts and gold-panning. We’re fed well with staples of rice, mustard greens, lentil pancakes, daal, curried chicken and tomato chutney served on antibacterial saal leaves.

food at community homestay — Dig in. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Sonara community homestay president Indradevi Tharu tells us river snails are often served, and the boiled and pickled flesh of rats hunted in the rice fields. “Perhaps next time?” we say and all have a laugh.

The power of community homestays

community homestay owners in Nepal — Barda community homestay owners Parbati Chaudhary and Ram Krishni Devi Chaudhary. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

Immersing Western visitors in foreign cultural practices is not new. But with the Tharu, I never get that uneasy sensation that I’m being performed for. Despite being the only tourists, there’s no ‘othering’; just warm, composed and ultra-dignified welcomes. Like we’ve always been here.

“I love to have travellers in my village so I can see the world,” says local woman Parbati Chaudhary. “Why would I travel the world when the world comes to me?”

The graceful acceptance the Tharu offer, as well as the slow pace, works miracles on my frazzled nervous system. One day I even take a nap on a vacant homestay bed.

Sonara community room — An authentic stay in the Sonara community. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Roosters strut and goats bray as we sit on the ground in al fresco kitchens, rolling rice flour into cylinders steamed to make dhikri (dumplings). When water is needed, we fetch it using a hand-operated pump as a family of ducks strolls by, side-eying us like curious neighbours.

Animal lovers will delight in Tharu villages. Kind and resourceful inventions are everywhere, such as snacking stations where two posts lean together, with leafy boughs dangling on rope for baby goats to forage from.

CHN’s CEO, Aayusha Prasain, nods knowingly when one in our group says she cried when she left her host, Shayam Chaudhary, in Bhada. Shayam’s 17-year-old son, Prashant, had translated, which deepened the connection.

“Community tourism turns travel into a relationship, not a transaction,” says Aayusha. “It places decision-making power in the hands of local communities, especially women and youth.” Since 2018, CHN has hosted more than 4000 travellers from 52 countries in 408 households, and estimates women’s participation has increased by 381 per cent.

In the Bardiya community, where vexing human-animal conflict has been a balancing act for decades due to elephants raiding crops, long-time homestay operator Salik Ram Chaudhary says young people keep the older ones on their toes.

“We can’t keep homestays stagnant,” he says. “We have to upgrade our service and redefine our product or young people won’t see it as an attractive business. If we can keep evolving with this travelling trend we’re confident the youths will stay and continue it.”

Back in Kathmandu, Monica explains that after the deaths of young protestors in September, a determination had spread to not let their sacrifice be in vain. “We want to keep holding the government accountable,” she says. “We don’t know what situation we’re facing, but we’re ready to face it.”

Interested in Nepal but prefer to experience it in total comfort? Read our guide to luxury travel in Nepal.