MASATAKA HOSOO

CEO, HOSOO Co., Ltd.

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Born into the Hosoo family, a Nishijin textile house founded in 1688 in Kyoto, Masataka Hosoo represents the 12th generation of a lineage dedicated to the art of weaving. After graduating from university, he pursued music and gained experience at a major jewelry company before joining the family business in 2008.

Building upon over a thousand years of Nishijin weaving tradition, he has redefined heritage through innovative material development and contemporary design. Expanding Nishijin textiles beyond kimono into the fields of interior design and art, he collaborates with leading global luxury brands and five-star hotels to create new value for traditional craft.

Viewing craft not merely as an inheritance of the past but as a technology for envisioning the future, he works across disciplines. His activities include ongoing collaboration with contemporary artist Theaster Gates, joint research with the University of Tokyo Graduate School, research and reinterpretation of ancient natural dyeing techniques, and involvement in pavilion architecture for international expositions.

In 2012, he co-founded GO ON, a creative unit formed with successors of Kyoto’s traditional crafts. In 2016, he was appointed Director’s Fellow at the MIT Media Lab, where he explored the fusion of Nishijin weaving and cutting-edge technology to develop innovative textiles.

He has been selected as one of the “100 Most Influential People in Japan” (Nikkei Business, 2014), WWD Japan’s “Next Leaders” (2019), and Forbes JAPAN 100 (2021). In 2019, Harvard Business Publishing featured HOSOO in the case study Innovating Tradition at Hosoo. In 2024, he received the Special Prize in the Forbes JAPAN Entrepreneur Ranking and was named to the BoF 500 by The Business of Fashion.

Working across tradition and technology, he envisions the future of craft.

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GO ON

From Traditional Craft to
New Creative Hubs

GO ON. We are a Kyoto-based group of six people with backgrounds in traditional Japanese craft.
Taking our roots as a starting point, we expand into multiple fields, such as art, design, science and technology.
GO ON searches for unseen potential lying within tradition.
Our creative actions reconsider the future, and the bright ages still to come.

Thought and Action

GO ON as Thought and Action

What is GO ON?
Its attitudes are always focused, never blurred, but it is still dificult to encapsulate what they do in a few words. GO ON poses important questions actively embracing a wide range of interests. As I write, I’m sure they are discussing how to make further progress.

GO ON was launched in 2012 by successors to traditional Kyoto craft groups.
Its members inherited companies with long histories, and all six are devoted to pursuing their own area of creativity. At the same time, they formed the project unit GO ON to serve as a platform, or rather environment, from which to generate flexible, liberated ideas. Several proactive projects have been completed so far.

GO ON is, so to speak, organic. Actions are carried out in the spiritual mindset of the artisan, using physical motions of hand and body, but also exuding an energy that pushes out from prior frameworks. They continue with the world of traditional craft technique and spirit, projecting its influence into new realms.

Connecting craft with art, design, science and technology, GO ON crosses various genres to generate new creative expressions, and its work has been applauded both inside and outside craft worlds. The materials, techniques, and processes of crafts are inherited over the long course of history, but GO ON brings these into contact with cutting edge technology, leading to previously unthought of creative insights.

It is important to note that GO ON does not just expand the purview of craft. Its members also search for contemporary creative possibilities beyond that framework. Their method is to question assumptions at the core of tradition.

Interestingly, ideas obtained from these explorations are then returned to thfield of craft practice and creation. GO ON members once said, ‘We wish to stand outside the traditional realm of craft, treading ground in areas not normally considered to be craft’s mainstream. We never stop questioning.’

GO ON is nothing if not a search for the future, for a new thinking, and for its realisation.
It is a challenge posed by six people who explore foundations to support creative activity, investigating the value and process of object-making, and the meaning and richness of life.

Text: Noriko Kawakami, DESIGN JOURNALIST

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GO ON DBS
Kyoto Craft Theory Research Association

GO ON DBS Kyoto Craft Theory Research Association is a program that transcends the perspectives of craft, design, and business to aim for the creation of new value.
It serves as a hub for learning and practice where artisans, creators, and business leaders gather to explore the future, think about possibilities, and lead them to realization.

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