In an age in which people seem to actively prefer items which are created with the precision capability of a machine, handicrafts may seem rather anachronistic. Also, sites like Regretsy show us that not all fruits of human hands are things of beauty. One of the many lovely crafts in Japan are hagoita. Originally, they were used to play a game similar to badminton (hanetsuki), but these days they are almost always used as decorative objects. A handful of places have festivals or special sales of hagoita and you can enjoy the various designs (all of which feature images of people in my experience, but there may be other designs).
Most of the hagoita that you see on display have gorgeous three dimensional designs that reflect old-style design sensibilities. I will miss seeing these beautiful bits of handicraft.
Posts
