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*''Born: [[1889]]''
*''Died: 1961''
*''Other Names: Yanagi Muneyoshi''
*''Japanese'': 柳宗悦 ''(Yanagi Souetsu)''

Yanagi Sôetsu, also known as Yanagi Muneyoshi<ref>Muneyoshi and Sôetsu are alternate readings for the same [[kanji]]; Muneyoshi is the more official of his names, but as a writer and cultural figure, he is better known by the name Sôetsu.</ref>, is widely regarded as the father of the ''[[mingei]]'' (folk arts) movement of the 1910s-40s, which sought to promote appreciation of craft, of the handmade, of the local, rural, anonymous craftsman and his work, the product of a long tradition. The movement was a reaction to rapid modernization & Westernization in Japan, and held up Okinawa, Taiwan, Korea, and the Ainu as peoples/places where a stronger sense of the traditional, and the beauty of the handmade, which had been lost in Japan, could be found.

==Early Life==
Yanagi was born in Tokyo into a wealthy aristocratic family. His mother was from the family of a Navy official, and his father, a member of the [[House of Peers]], was likewise a veteran rear admiral in the [[Imperial Japanese Navy]]. His father, who died less than two years after Sôetsu was born, was known for his expertise in hydrographic mapping, and for botany, poetry, and a number of other pursuits.

Yanagi attended the elite [[Gakushuin|Gakushûin]] Peers' School and [[Tokyo Imperial University]].

''More Expansion to Come''

==References==
*Kikuchi, Yuko. ''Japanese Modernisation and Mingei Theory''. Routledge Curzon, 2004.
<references/>

[[Category:Meiji Period]]
[[Category:Scholars and Philosophers]]
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