ABSTRACT
The book The Unknown Craftsman is a collection of essays by Japanese philosopher and critic Soetsu Yanagi in which he outlined an idea of craft that is perhaps more radical than any before, or since. Yanagi stood normal hierarchy of values on its head by arguing that the anonymous 'crafts of the people' are the healthiest and most vitally-alive products of a culture, and that such crafts provide a benchmark for other art and design. Yanagi has argued that craft is capable of being much more than the making of useful things, or things that are nice to look at. Craft is capable of being a spiritual practice. Tea-drinking has a long association with Buddhism, originally used as a gentle stimulant to ward-off drowsiness during long periods of meditation in the monasteries. Ironically, tea-drinking also became an important element of courtly and aristocratic life in mediaeval Japan.
