Since the Hokuriku region art and craft festival Go For Kogei was established in 2020, its main exhibits and collaborating events have been spread out in locations across three prefectures — Toyama, Ishikawa and Fukui. Far-flung shrines, temples and historical locations became venues, and the works all focused on the potential of regional kōgei (Japanese crafts) as contemporary art, including pottery, lacquer, woodwork, textiles, glasswork and washi (Japanese paper).
This year, Go For Kogei is surprisingly introspective, both geographically and thematically. Its exhibition, “Material Imagination and Etiological Narrative: Material, Data, Fantasy,” runs through Oct. 29 and brings together 26 artists’ works in a single area: the city of Toyama. Shrine and temple venues have been replaced with urban structures, while exhibits focus on the philosophical and playful, often to the point that they push the envelope of what defines craft.
For Toyama, a historically industrial city in the midst of contemporary revitalization and re-invention, the festival is an opportunity to promote its modernized infrastructure and new architecture as well as its old waterways and traditional townscapes. For visitors, the event is far more accessible than before. Its venues — Kansai Park, Nakajima Lock and the Iwase district — can be reached by boat via the Fugan Canal or the city’s updated tram service.