Software and the Modern Day Folk Crafts

"What is folkcraft?" was an essay written by Soetsu Yanagi in 1933. "Mingei" ("min" meaning the masses and "gei" meaning craft) could be anything from wooden spoons to clothing, to furniture. What Yanagi deemed as folkcraft were crafts with the following characteristics:

Because mingei is common-place, the beauty of these folkcrafts could be enjoyed by everyone, not just the select few. In Yanagi's words: "if only a few select fine-art objects are beautiful, this ideal world will never be realized. Similarly, if only a few priests are faithful to their religious beliefs, the world of religion can no longer be said to exist."

While the crafts that Yanagi wrote about in 1933 are no less relevant today, there are modern crafts that can be treated with the same mingei ethos.

Software is one of these modern crafts that carries the folkcraft values that Yanagi wrote about. Specifically, the common-place, the democratization characteristic.

I'm not dropping a groundbreaking statement when I say that the internet has made software products and content more accessible than it's ever been in history. With an internet connection, it's essentially free to use common software. Thus, for software to be considered mingei, it needs to be made for utility and with pure intention.

Yanagi describes crafts built for use as high-quality and durable items. I'm not here to debate good software practices for an application to be secure, resilient, available, [insert more buzzwords here]. What I can say definitively is that we can all strive for quality and excellence. And so, while there is a baseline for a usable website (for example, secure authentication and data authorization), the intention to build high-quality software matters more than meeting a certain criteria.

What's high quality for a new, burdgeoning baker will be different than a seasoned one.

That's perfectly fine. Quality is subjective. Intentionality matters more, which brings us to "pure intentions."

This characteristic of mingei that Yanagi perscribed is the one I disagree with to some extent. I live in Los Angeles and hear many people talk about art, purity, and creativity - how money and approval only occlude your ability to create great art. On the surface I agree with this thought, but I do think this "purity of intention" is a bit overrated. Creativity and beauty and craft can come from anywhere. There's no straightforward formula.

What I do agree with, and what I think Yanagi is referring to, is extrinsic motivation's role in craft. Extrinsic motivation like money and approval will run dry. But intrinsic motivation like the pursuit of excellence, of beauty, of personal-development, do not desecrate mingei in my opinion. Pursuing not just utiltiy, but beauty and improvement, this does not conflict Yanagi's dream of a "Kingdom of Beauty," where beauty can be in the hands of the common folk. If anything, it brings that dream closer.

I didn't write this post to complain about the current state of software, about how big software seems less usable or about how AI has creators valuing speed over quality (just a few slight jabs). I wrote this because I was floored how relevant I felt Yanagi's essay is still today, and how software creators really embody the mingei spirit.

In every era, there are workers that need to make a living or wave-riders trying to surf the next swell to riches. But I don't think that in every era there was a large open source community passionate and active in making and sharing the fruits of their labor. I don't think that in every era, there were this many people - both hobbyists and big corporate employees alike - sharing best practices in forums and blogs about software quality and developer experience, pushing the boundaries of the utility that all mingei speaks to.

It's one of the reasons, I love programming and do it whenever I can. I get to create mingei, be a part of a mingei community, and keep the tradition alive.