{"id":55474,"date":"2026-07-09T02:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T02:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/55474\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T02:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T02:05:11","slug":"mujun-planet-one-mans-quest-to-revive-japans-artisanal-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/55474\/","title":{"rendered":"Mujun Planet: one man\u2019s quest to revive Japan\u2019s artisanal legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cThere\u2019s a snake.\u201d<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Shinya Kobayashi points his phone camera at a sleek, black reptile, creating a trinity of S-shapes in the dirt, before calmly walking on. It is a remarkably cheerful day, with blue skies overhead and dense, emerald forest all around.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The 39-year-old designer, artist and father is taking me on a virtual tour of his own mountain, in Japan\u2019s Shimane prefecture, along Honshu island\u2019s western fringe. Nearby are a recently built blacksmith\u2019s forge, sawmill, woodworking workshop, charcoal kilns and a renovated 200-year-old farmhouse, currently serving as storage space.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Mujun Planet, as Kobayashi has named the mountain and its tiny \u201cvillage\u201d, has been six years in the making. While the hardware might seem modest, he hopes its impact on the neighbouring town of Yunotsu, and the broader realm of Japanese craftsmanship, will be profound.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Mujun Planet, the village on Shinya Kobayashi\u2019s mountain in Japan\u2019s Shimane prefecture, has been six years in the making. Photo: courtesy Mujun\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4351c8ed-44a2-47ba-8885-1e0e36c4bba3_14a69f48.jpg\" title=\"Mujun Planet, the village on Shinya Kobayashi\u2019s mountain in Japan\u2019s Shimane prefecture, has been six years in the making. Photo: courtesy Mujun\"\/>Mujun Planet, the village on Shinya Kobayashi\u2019s mountain in Japan\u2019s Shimane prefecture, has been six years in the making. Photo: courtesy Mujun<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Metalworking is his focus for now. Blades from the forge made into knives are sold in Japan and around the world through Coelacanth Shokudo, his design company that, among other activities, manages the wholesale distribution of artisanal products.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">All this and more are chronicled in the Hyogo native\u2019s recently released, self-published book, Why Did Mujun\u2019s Shinya Kobayashi Buy a Mountain?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThere\u2019s a snake.\u201d Shinya Kobayashi points his phone camera at a sleek, black reptile, creating a trinity of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[36687,36683,1707,7381,13106,8,17,36685,36684,36689,36679,36680,36688,36690,36682,661,36681,4180,6613,550,36686],"class_list":["post-55474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-coelacanth-shokudo","tag-crafts","tag-europe","tag-honshu","tag-hyogo","tag-japan","tag-japanese","tag-japanese-artisans","tag-japanese-crafts","tag-kobayashi","tag-mujun","tag-mujun-planet","tag-ono","tag-osaka-university-of-arts","tag-satoyama","tag-shimane","tag-shinya-kobayashi","tag-singapore","tag-sustainability","tag-united-states","tag-yunotsu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}