RIEB Discussion Paper Series No.2024-07

Title

Tradition and Craft Organising: A Review of the Context of Japanese Sake Master Brewer

Abstract

This early-stage study explores how traditional expert craft occupations, continuing through the pre-modern age, can maintain and transfer expert knowledge today. A literature review was conducted on Toji (Japanese sake master brewer), revealing (1) its organising with craft unions (an organizational form for craft expert occupations) after the Meiji restoration and (2) drastic changes with decreasing Toji population in the last five decades. The analysis identifies three factors that potentially contribute to the sustainability of expert craft occupation's knowledge maintenance and transfer: (a) hybrid organising integrated with the corporate and government sector, (b) formation of open communities of innovation-oriented craft workers and (c) new technologies substituting tacit human knowledge.

Keywords

Craft union; Traditional craft; Occupation; Sake; Toji

Inquiries

Masashi GOTO
Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration
Kobe University
Rokkodai-cho, Nada-ku, Kobe
657-8501 Japan
Phone: +81-78-803-7036
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