(gong rings) (solemn music) (metal clacking) - [Alex] There are many, many traditions of hereditary families that dominate tea ceremony, you know, flower arrangement, even in the management of temples and shrines.

(Tanabe speaking in Japanese) - [Alex] Hundreds and hundreds of these hereditary families that go back for 10 generations, 20 generations, and, of course, the patriarchal approach to hereditary systems was that it had to be men.

- I'm glad I'm a woman.

When I was 30 years old, it's big problem.

(metal clacking) (Osumi speaking in Japanese) - Kogei in Japan today is in severe crisis.

So there is a dramatic drop.

And the challenge for every craftsman is how to make it relevant again.

- My family motto is, "Traditional is innovation."

- [Monika] So I think it's part of the social changes in Japan.

It's part of the changing arts scene.

It's good and it's going to help to bring up new ideas and create new styles and new artworks.

- Because the crisis, this crisis is breaking through and forcing people to think in a new way, they're actually coming up with some of the most astonishing new solutions.

And that's where the excitement is.

(gentle spirited music) - [Announcer] This program is brought to you in part by Lesano Holdings Corporation, Dr.

Nicole Edeiken, and by the following: Barbara Schiff, ArtesMiami, The Greater Miami Jewish Federation, Lucy Jane Hurt, Dr.

Cecil Abraham, and Kenny Cecilia Sanchez.

(serene music) (Tanabe speaking in Japanese) - [Narrator] In the world of kogei, it is not common to see women artists.

(Tanabe speaking in Japanese) - Kogei is a word that actually very hard to translate into English.

Ironically, the word kogei did not exist in Japan until the 19th century.

- Kogei is craft.

It came into being because in the old days, everything was craft, and then you had manufactured goods and you need to distinguish it.

But the key thing about Japanese kogei, I think, is that unlike many other cultures, handmade crafts have always been highly valued.

With hereditary families that make them, secrets passed down over the generations, this is who you are.

You must pass this on.

That's one way in which Japan kept traditions that were lost in all the rest of Asia, because they had this hereditary principle going on.

- [Tanabe] My family is very Japanese traditional craft family.

So my apprentice has to learn Japanese tradition, the culture.

They have to learn the technique.

In the morning they come to my house, they have to clean up the studio and house.

The first thing is discipline.

They have to learn the dedication of the culture and tradition.

And second thing is tools.

They have to care of the their tools.

And the third thing is preparing the bamboo.

Number four is, yeah, making the art.

So they have to, yeah, how to make the bamboo art.

(Tanabe speaking in Japanese) - Very often, our visitors ask me, "How long does it take to make this basket?"

And I don't know the answer because typically you start your training at an early age.

So, you would say 20 years, because it includes all the time you spent training.

- [Alex] Starting young is true of all the hereditary arts.

This is what you do your whole life.

And so eventually, you could be blindfolded, you could touch the bamboo, and you would know what to do with it.

It's in your fiber by that point.

- So I started bamboo works about three years old.

When I was a little boy, my father teach me how to make the basket, how to cut the bamboo.

But at that time, for me, it was so hard to cut the bamboo.

- [Narrator] Tanabe is preparing for his installation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which will be his largest bamboo creation to date, and will take over a year to create.

- Some of his family members created only traditional Chinese basket.

Tanabe Chikuunsai IV is trained as a sculptor, but also he can create traditional Chinese style baskets.

So he is one of the most versatile young artists of his generation.

- My father, my grandfather, great-grandfather, every artist tried keep the tradition and innovation.

So to make a big installation is very new challenge.

- Kogei in Japan today is in severe crisis.

There's been a dramatic decline in the making of every type of pottery ware.

Some of the huge pottery centers are now producing maybe a 20th of what they once did maybe 20 years ago.

The average Japanese family, you wouldn't find a stick of bamboo, ceramic, or anything else.

It's all plastic.

- Some of the techniques disappeared because the craftsmen who prepared the necessary tools or materials disappeared.

We have very few people who can afford very expensive kimono or lacquer items, so it makes no sense to spend years creating one item that you cannot sell.

Sometimes the family lineage is sort of broken and there is no younger generation keeping the tradition.

- So there is a dramatic drop.

And the challenge for every craftsman is how to make it relevant again.

And there are different takes, but you'll see people dealing with that challenge in every field.

- Society life, Japan is changed a lot.

So women 25 years ago, I work, I don't married, I don't have a child, it's not good woman.

But now, many women has work, not married, not have baby.

So I'm very happy now.

It's so good for me to live and work.

- [Narrator] Tokuda was born with the name of Junko.

Her artist father, Tokuda Yasokichi III, was a Japanese Living National Treasure who had two daughters with no sons.

The long family legacy was in question.

- My father died, so I took after his name and his work.

- Japan has really three different kinds of ceramics.

And one type is a highly polished porcelain with enamel designs, and that's katani.

Because it was so beautiful and polished, that might be in the VIP set.

For example, katani was much used, still is much used in traditional restaurants, the traditional inns 'cause of that polish and beauty.

- Years ago, Tokuda's father was originally reluctant to hand the reins down to his oldest daughter.

He felt her work was inferior.

So for years, the Yasukichi family glaze recipe would remain a secret.

- My father was national treasure, told me I'm not good.

He came in and smashed my work.

All of my work.

- [Narrator] Years would pass, Tokuda kept perfecting her craft.

It wasn't until her father was dying that she finally sought his approval again.

- He said, "Congratulations, great."

It was the first time he is proud of me.

I still remember finally he started teaching me how to make the color that's a secret my great-grandfather told my father.

So my father told me, and he said, "Don't tell anybody."

He kept his secret book in special box.

He gave me that little book.

Now I'm very thankful, I think my father strict to me, so I can stand now.

I think I want to say thank you to my father.

When I was young, I didn't like my father.

But after he died, it's my father's love I think now.

- Japan is a country that, it's hard to believe this now, but it started out as matriarchal.

But at some point, it switched over and it became a highly patriarchal culture and has remained so to the degree that Japan is now, like, not even in the top 100 countries in the world for women's involvement in politics and business and so on.

- [Narrator] Only recently has Japan acknowledged accomplished female kogei artists by bestowing upon them one of the country's highest artistic honors, Living National Treasure.

In 2015, it was Osumi Yukie who was designated the first female Living National Treasure of kogei.

A historic moment.

(metal clacking) (Osumi speaking in Japanese) - [Narrator] By the late 1960s, Osumi tried to get a job in the art world in Tokyo.

For a woman, that was challenging.

(Osumi speaking in Japanese) - [Narrator] Without children, Osumi was hoping one day to leave her craft to her apprentice.

She now grows concerned about her legacy.

(Osumi speaking in Japanese) - [Narrator] Today, Osumi enjoys congratulatory flowers sent by friends.

In the next few days, she is to receive another prestigious award from the emperor of Japan.

- I'm going to meet emperor (laughs) a day after tomorrow.

(Osumi speaking in Japanese) Depends on the input of womens.

(Osumi speaking in Japanese) - I have three children.

Elder daughter is named Sarara.

(Tanabe speaking in Japanese) (Sarara speaking in Japanese) (Tanabe speaking in Japanese) (Sarara speaking in Japanese) - [Tanabe] So now I'm going to the Kochi Prefecture to go bamboo forest.

- [Narrator] Once a year, Tanabe hits to a special forest where he harvests the rare tiger bamboo.

- I love winter season because bamboo is very beautiful.

When I went to the... When I go to the bamboo forest, my heart is like exciting, like I'm like a child.

The bamboo is very strong and grow up very strong and straight to sky.

This is named tiger bamboo.

It looks like tiger skin, so it's very special, unusual bamboo.

It's only grow up small mountain in the Kochi prefecture.

And I love this color and so beautiful.

The quality, I love.

And it's easy to bend, so I can make bamboo installation and object art using this bamboo.

(saw buzzing) (footsteps thumping) (solemn music) (Sarara speaking in Japanese) (Tanabe speaking in Japanese) (serene music) - This one is first time I used grandfather's color.

My father only teach me how to make color, not the business or not the design, or not the shape.

Nothing, just color he told me.

- [Narrator] The great ceramicist, Yasukichi Tokuda III, died in 2009.

The factory he left behind was forced to accept his daughter as his heir.

- [Tokuda] Many staff quit after my father died.

It's hard for me.

He had a lot of debt.

I didn't have money, so I struggled.

- [Narrator] In 2011, the people of Japan suffered a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami.

Although her town was not affected, it was a turning point for Tokuda.

- I get my inspiration from nature.

River, moon, rice field, sky, everything around me.

I believe in myself, so I grow very strong.

- [Narrator] Tokuda's factory thrives today.

In fact, many of his ceramics are sold around the world.

- My father, I think his work is more strong and like universe, skies and sea.

And my work is more soft and more like woman.

Kind, kindly, sweet.

Sometimes I feel different, but I think I'm okay.

(solemn music) - [Tanabe] Metropolitan is one of the biggest museum, great museum in the world.

So I'm very excited to have the exhibition in New York and to show the people my family tradition and my family culture.

- Some of his family members created only traditional Chinese baskets, but what he started to do is something unique.

Create large size installations, which shows the flexibility and the potential of bamboo art.

- There are different takes on how to keep the art alive, and they're not mutually exclusive.

Sometimes it can be both.

One take is how to make new forms with old techniques that are extremely functional.

That's one way.

And there's another way, which is taking it to the level of (indistinct), of art, creative art, abstract forms of museum pieces, display pieces.

And some of the most, certainly in the basket world, some of the most astonishing creations have gone in that direction.

Kogei will not be the household possessions of most people in the future.

Sadly, we've passed that time.

However, Japan did miraculously preserve through those traditions these fantastic techniques.

- I think it's part of the social changes in Japan.

It's part of the changing art scene and it's part of the opening up of the traditional boundaries.

So I think it's good and it's going to help to bring up new ideas and create new styles and new artworks.

(Sarara speaking in Japanese) - [Tanabe] It's my family tradition, so it's my dream, this art to pass on my daughter, my grandchildren, to the future.

(Tanabe speaking in Japanese) (gentle contemplative music) (gentle contemplative music continues) - [Announcer] This program was brought to you in part by Lesano Holdings Corporation, Dr.

Nicole Edeiken, and by the following: Barbara Schiff, ArtesMiami, The Greater Miami Jewish Federation, Lucy Jane Hurt, Dr.

Cecil Abraham, and Kenny Cecilia Sanchez.