When Japan began Western-style industrialization in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, traditional local handicrafts began to decline. Many handicrafts were in danger of disappearing completely. Worried about the possibility of factory products replacing handicrafts, Yanagi Soetsu devoted himself to collecting and preserving folk art, and aroused his compatriots' appreciation of the beauty of local traditional crafts. He founded the Japanese Folk Crafts Museum with Shoji Hamada, Toku Hakuno Leach, and others, and eventually coined the term Mingei, which was used to describe the "arts of the people." Thanks to Yanagi's passion and commitment, many traditional Japanese crafts are still vibrant today, and many beautiful works of the past have been saved from being forgotten.
