Kettle hanger "jizai kagi" ("jizaikake")

Description

wood (cypress / zelkova “keyaki”),

“Jizai kagi” of the so-called “daikoku” type, with roof-shaped cap and curled hook, carved from a single block and fitted with side suspension pegs. The patina dark brown to black and with deep grooves in the crook from rope wear.

This hook, once used to hang the kettle over the hearth of a Japanese home, is a fine example of “Mingei” craftsmenship.

The concept of “Mingei”, which can be translated as “folk craft” or “popular art”, was developed from the mid-1920s in Japan by the philosopher and aesthete, Yanagi Setsu (1889-1961).

“Mingei” is the “crafts of the ordinary people”. Yanagi argued that beauty was to be found in ordinary and utilitarian everyday objects made by nameless and unknown craftsmen, as opposed to higher forms of art created by renowned artists.