U-50 INTERNATIONAL
HOKURIKU KOGEI (artisan crafts) AWARDS

U-50 INTERNATIONAL HOKURIKU KOGEI (artisan crafts) AWARDS are awards given to young craftspeople - artists, craftsmen, and designers who are age 50 or younger - who work in fields related to KOGEI (artisan crafts).
This competition comprehensively evaluates and recognizes not only the craftworks, expressions and techniques, but also, the individual craft workers and their approaches that include their thinking, efforts and activities, strategies and implementation, and vision for the future.
Its goals are to reevaluate the existing stereotypes about KOGEI by going back to a neutral standpoint, acknowledging the global trend in which the field of KOGEI is becoming borderless and its disciplines interrelated, and to create opportunities for international networking and collaboration, and from there, to paint a new future vision for the world of KOGEI.
The eligible techniques and materials include lacquerware, metalworks, casting, wood carving, hand-made paper, silk textiles, ceramics, as well as glass, leather, dying-and-weaving, and many other crafts historically practiced around the world.
We look forward to receiving many submissions from KOGEI individuals who are demonstrating the kind of appeal that can only be found in KOGEI that simultaneously embody both tradition and innovation, and are practicing a new kind of craft-making work.

OPEN CALL

■ Total prize money: 4,000,000 JPY

Grand Prize: 2,000,000 JPY
(1 individual or group)
Excellence Award: 500,000 JPY
(1 individual or group)
Honorable Mention: 300,000 JPY
(4 individuals or groups)
Sompo Japan Nipponkoa: Special Prize: 300,000 JPY
(1 individual or group)

■ Finalist privilege

The Collaborative Creation Program (for the 6 individual or group who win Grand prize Excellence Award, Honorable mention)

Registration period

Registration period: Tuesday, April 18, 2017 – Wednesday, May 31, 2017
(cutoff time: 11:59 pm in Japan Time)

For application guidelines and
registration, read here. (Registration is free.)