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, ______expression______s 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.