Craft x Tech Returns to the V&A with Six New Tokai Artisan Collaborations.

Grid Unwoven, Mino Washi x Lanzavecchia + Wai.

Fushi, Mino Yaki x David Caon.

Kataginu, Arimatsu Narumi Shibori x Bethan Laura Wood.

Chair in Japanese Nuki and Dami style, Seto Sometsuke Yaki x Eugene Kangawa.

Craft x Tech is back for its second edition, turning this time to Japan’s Tokai region—an area less familiar to global audiences than the country’s better-known craft centres, but arguably just as significant. Spanning Aichi, Gifu, Mie and Shizuoka prefectures, Tokai has long been shaped by high-quality clay, abundant water and a position along the old Tokaido and Nakasendo trade routes, helping establish a properly diverse craft culture—one where traditional knowledge and industrial innovation have developed side by side.

Founded by designer and engineer Dr Hideki Yoshimoto of studio Tangent, with curatorial direction from Maria Cristina Didero, Craft x Tech pairs Tokai artisans with internationally recognised designers to produce new contemporary works. Following its Japanese debut earlier this year and a first edition centred on the Tohoku region, the Tokai Project brings six new collaborations to the V&A during London Design Festival 2026.

Among them is a collaboration close to home for Yellowtrace readers: Sydney designer David Caon has been paired with Yohei Ito of Fudogama, a producer of Mino Yaki ceramics from Gifu. The result, Fushi, is a console and lighting piece built from modular ceramic elements.

The remaining five pairings round out the exhibition. Lanzavecchia + Wai worked with Takanori Senda of Warabi Paper Company on Grid Unwoven, reinterpreting the traditional shoji screen through Mino Washi paper. Bethan Laura Wood joined Hiroyuki Murase of Suzusan for Kataginu, turning Arimatsu Narumi Shibori dyeing into illuminated sculptural works. Philippe Malouin and Shigeyuki Ando of Ando Cloisonne produced Kasane, exploring the architectural potential of Owari Shippo enamelwork. Artist Eugene Kangawa worked with Mayuki Kato of Shingama on a chair drawing on Seto Sometsuke Yaki’s brushwork traditions, while South African designer Atang Tshikare and Tomoyuki Matsuda of Itogo produced Yamollo, a lighting piece informed by Iga Kumihimo braided cords.

Yoshimoto has described the project as an ongoing exchange rather than a one-off—a way of testing how inherited techniques can keep generating new relevance in the present, rather than sitting still as history. Didero, for her part, has pointed out that the collaborations tend to outgrow their original briefs entirely, turning into proper dialogue between artisan and designer rather than a simple handover of materials.

Craft x Tech Tokai Project shows at Room 64b, the Simon Sainsbury Gallery, V&A South Kensington, with free entry, until the end of September 2026.

Kasane, Owari Shippo x Philippe Malouin.

Yamollo, Iga Kumihimo x Atang Tshikare.

[Photography by Masayuki Hayashi.]