The Y project: New Terrain for Yamanashi Jewelry

Yproject 　「Y project: New Terrain for Yamanashi Jewelry」

　　2014.1.25-2014.4.14

　　Closed： Tuesdays, 2.12

　　Room ："Yamanashi Jewelry Today"

Outline

The Y Project was launched in 2010.
From about the year 2000 on, the jewelry industry realized that times had changed. The days when it was able to sell anything it produced were over.The market was becoming more selective, and pieces that did not match current trends were rejected. In response, in 2008, Koo-fu, a new brand, specific to our production area, was launched and the quest for new styles of Yamanashi jewelry began. Young designers and craftsman, working together, have rethought their commitment to the act of making and established their standards for product concepts and the values that define their brand. The Y Project emerged from that visionary action.
The first Y Project collection, which was shown in 2010, presented the story of jewelry: the polishing and cutting of gemstones excavated from mines, the skills of metalworkers, and the processes that produce sophisticated jewelry that will be win fans worldwide. The participants have realized that to create jewelry that is distinctive to Yamanashi, not imitative of European designs, requires rethinking what original jewelry means. In 2012, very distinctive Yamanashi Jewelry, in which one person created each piece, from design to production, was born.
The orientations of the five people involved in the Y Project may seem, at first glance, dissimilar, but all share values that bind them tightly together. An acute eye for the selection the materials cultivated in Yamanashi, with its jewelry industry’s long history, traditional techniques, and an aesthetic that will brook no compromise: theirs is an identity born of belief and pride in the act of making.
Y Project members’ goal is creating Yamanashi Jewelry that carries on its long tradition, sustained by proven techniques, while expressing new sensibilities. In this exhibition, we introduce the new Yamanashi Jewelry that is the Y Project goal.