Craft x Tech Tokai Project at the V&A – Photography by Ed Reeve.

Crafts & Design. Craft x Tech Tokai Project is back in London for its second edition, bringing together artisans from Japan’s Tokai region with a roster of internationally acclaimed designers — Philippe Malouin, Lanzavecchia + Wai and Bethan Laura Wood among them. The exhibition has taken up residence in Room 64b, tucked into the V&A‘s Medieval & Renaissance galleries, and runs until 30 September.

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Founded by Dr Hideki Yoshimoto of Tangent and curated by Maria Cristina Didero, Craft x Tech Tokai Project explores how inherited Japanese techniques can shift and adapt through contemporary design. The Tokai region — spanning the Aichi, Gifu, Mie and Shizuoka prefectures — occupies a distinctive place in the history of Japanese craft, its output shaped for centuries by the interplay of natural resources, skilled production and trade.

Australian industrial designer David Caon teamed up with artisan Yohei Ito of ceramics manufacturer Fudogama on the Fushi console and an accompanying lighting piece. Bamboo in silhouette, the works incorporate ceramic elements drawn from Mino Yaki-style pottery, finished in a vibrant oribe glaze.

Elsewhere, Takanori Senda of Warabi Paper Company joined forces with design studio Lanzavecchia + Wai to produce Grid Unwoven, a fresh take on the traditional Japanese sliding screen, built around the translucent qualities of Mino Washi paper.

Shigeyuki Ando, who runs Ando Cloisonne, and British-Canadian designer Philippe Malouin turned to the Owari Shippo technique for Kasane, a series of stackable boxes with truncated cone forms — a nod to the sculpted gravel mound at Kyoto’s Ginkaku-ji gardens. Each piece stands alone or stacks into layered, architectural compositions, its surface marked by minimalist motifs hand-applied at random using a silver-wire technique.

Hiroyuki Murase, founder of textile brand Suzusan, worked alongside British designer Bethan Laura Wood on Kataginu, a set of illuminated sculptural pieces that channel the colour and texture of traditional Japanese tie-dyed fabrics.

At Craft x Tech Tokai Project, Mayuki Kato of porcelain manufacturer Shingama paired up with Japanese contemporary artist Eugene Kangawa of EUGENE STUDIO to explore the brushwork and tonal shifts of classic blue-and-white ceramics, translating them into chairs and vessels made from porcelain tiles.

Rounding things off, Tomoyuki Matsuda of Itogo, which specialises in traditional Japanese braided cords, and South African designer Atang Tshikare produced Yamollo, a sculptural lighting piece drawing on the structure and colour of Iga Kumihimo braided cords.

Taken together, Craft x Tech Tokai Project is an ambitious meeting point — of cultures, materials and techniques — and a reminder that inherited craft still has plenty to say when handed to a new generation of designers.

All photos are by Ed Reeve, courtesy of London Design Festival 2026.