An artisan (from french: artisan, it, artigiano) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by

hand A hand is a prehensile, multi- fingered appendage located at the end of the forearm The forearm is the region of the upper limb between the Elbow-joint, elbow and the wrist. The term forearm is used in anatomy to distinguish it from the arm, ...

hand

. These objects may be

functional Functional may refer to: * Movements in architecture: ** Functionalism (architecture) In architecture File:Plan d'exécution du second étage de l'hôtel de Brionne (dessin) De Cotte 2503c – Gallica 2011 (adjusted).jpg, upright=1.45, alt=Pl ...

or strictly

decorative Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that makes these objects pleasurable to perceive. Such objects include landscapes, sunsets, humans and works of art. Beauty, together with art and taste, is the main subject of aesthetics, on ...

, for example

furniture Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., chairs, stools, and sofas), eating (table (furniture), tables), and sleeping (e.g., beds). Furniture is also used to hold objects at a con ...

decorative art ] The decorative arts are arts or crafts whose object is the design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process, or the result of that plan or specification ...

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sculptural processes originally used carving (the removal of material) and modelling (the addition of material, as clay), ...

clothing Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textile A textile is a flexible material made by creating an interlocking bundle of yarn Yarn is a long ...

, food items, household items and

tools A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment. Although many animals use tool use by animals, simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates back Paleolithic, hund ...

tools

and mechanisms such as the handmade clockwork

movement Movement may refer to: Common uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Motion (physics), commonly referred to as movement Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * Movement (short story), "Movement", a shor ...

of a

watchmaker A watchmaker is an artisan Wood carver in Bali An artisan (from french: artisan, it, artigiano) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or stric ...

. Artisans practice a

craft A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted ap ...

and may through experience and

aptitude An aptitude is a component of a competence to do a certain kind of Labour (economics), work at a certain level. Outstanding aptitude can be considered "talent." An aptitude may be Physical fitness, physical or mind, mental. Aptitude is inborn po ...

reach the expressive levels of an

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art Art is a diverse range of (products of) human activities Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most populous and widespread species of primates, characterized by bipeda ...

artist

. The adjective "artisanal" is often used in describing hand-processing in contrast to an industrial process, such as in the phrase '' artisanal mining''. Thus, "artisanal" is sometimes used in

marketing Marketing is the process of intentionally stimulating demand for and purchases of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emphasize in advertising; operation of adv ...

and

advertising Advertising is a marketing communication that employs an openly sponsored, non-personal message to promote or sell a product, service or idea.William J. Stanton. ''Fundamentals of Marketing''. McGraw-Hill (1984). Sponsors of advertising are ...

as a

buzz word A ''buzzword'' is a word or phrase, new or already existing, that becomes very popular for a period of time. Buzzwords often derive from technical terms yet often have much of the original technical meaning removed through fashionable use, being si ...

to describe or imply some relation with the crafting of handmade food products, such as

bread Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history, it has been a prominent food in large parts of the world. It is one of the oldest man-made foods, having been of significant impor ...

bread

beverages A drink (or beverage) is a liquid A liquid is a nearly incompressible In fluid mechanics or more generally continuum mechanics, incompressible flow (isochoric process, isochoric flow) refers to a fluid flow, flow in which the material d ...

cheese Cheese is a dairy product Dairy products or milk products are a type of food Food is any substance consumed to provide Nutrient, nutritional support for an organism. Food is usually of plant, animal or Fungus, fungal origin, and contai ...

. Many of these have traditionally been handmade,

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside town A town is a . Towns are generally larger than s and smaller than , though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in differen ...

rural

pastoral A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herd A herd is a social group of certain animals of the same species, either wildness, wild or Domestication, domestic. The form of collective animal behavior associated with this is called ''he ...

goods but are also now commonly made on a larger scale with automated

mechanization Mechanization is the process of changing from working largely or exclusively by hand or with animals to doing that work with machinery. In an early engineering text a machine is defined as follows: In some fields, mechanization includes the ...

factories A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial Industrial may also refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization ...

and other industrial areas. Artisans were the dominant producers of

consumer products A final good or consumer good is a final product In Production (economics), production, a final product, or finished product is a product (business), product that is ready for sale.Wouters, Mark; Selto, Frank H.; Hilton, Ronald W.; Maher, Michae ...

before the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous continent A continent is any of several large landmasse ...

. In

ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a civilization belonging to a period of History of Greece, Greek history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of Classical Antiquity, antiquity ( AD 600). This era wa ...

, artisans were drawn to

agora Image:TyreAlMinaAgora.jpg, upAgora of Tyre, Lebanon, Tyre The agora (; grc, ἀγορά ''agorá'') was a central public space in ancient Ancient Greece, Greek polis, city-states. It is the best representation of a city-state's response to accom ...

agora

s and often built workshops nearby.

Medieval artisans

During the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe The history of Europe concerns itself with the discovery and collection, the study, organization and presentation and the interpretation of past events and affairs of the people of Europe since the beginning of ...

, the term "artisan" was applied to those who made things or provided services. It did not apply to unskilled

manual labour Manual labour (in , manual labor in ) or manual work is physical work done by humans, in contrast to labour by s and s. It is most literally work done with the hands (the word "manual" comes from the ) and, by figurative extension, it is work d ...

ers. Artisans were divided into two distinct groups: those who operated their own businesses and those who did not. Those who owned their businesses were called

masters Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles *Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master, I ...

, while the latter were the

journeymen A journeyman is a worker, skilled in a given building trade or craft A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages ...

and

apprentices An apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade Trade involves the transfer of goods or services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system A sy ...

. One misunderstanding many people have about this social group is that they picture them as "workers" in the modern sense: employed by someone. The most influential group among the artisans were the masters, the business owners. The owners enjoyed a higher social status in their communities.History of Western Civilization, Boise State University

Shokunin

Shokunin is a Japanese word for "artisan" or "craftsman", which also implies a

pride Pride is emotion Emotions are psychological state A mental state is a state of mind that an agent is in. Most simplistically, a mental state is a mental condition. It is a relation that connects the agent with a proposition. Several of th ...

pride

in one's own work. In the words of shokunin Tashio Odate:

Shokunin means not only having technical skill, but also implies an attitude and social consciousness... a social obligation to work his best for the general welfare of the people,
n
obligation both material and spiritual.

Traditionally, shokunin honoured their tools of trade at New Year's – the sharpened and taken-care of tools would be placed in a

tokonoma A , or simply ''toko'' (), is a recessed space in a Japanese-style reception room, in which items for artistic appreciation are displayed. In English, a ''tokonoma'' could be called an alcove. History ''Tokonoma'' first appeared in the late Mur ...

(a container or box still found in Japanese houses and shops), and two rice cakes and a tangerine (on top of rice paper) were placed on top of each toolbox, to honour the tools and express gratitude for performing their task.

Gallery

File:Mendel I 010 r.jpg,

Armor Armour (British English British English (BrE) is the standard dialect of the English language English is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language first spoken in History of Anglo-Saxon England, early medieval England, whi ...

er, 1425 File:Mendel II 072 r.jpg,

Blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith A metalsmith or simply smith is a craftsperson fashioning useful items (for example, tools, kitchenware, tableware, jewellery, and weapons) out of various metal A metal (from Ancient Greek, Greek μέτ� ...

, 1606 File:Mendel II 017 r.jpg,

Bladesmith Bladesmithing is the art of making knives, sword A sword is a Edged and bladed weapons, bladed melee weapon intended for cutting or thrusting that is longer than a knife or dagger, consisting of a long blade attached to a hilt. The precise de ...

, 1564 File:Mendel I 021 r.jpg,

Joiner A joiner is an artisan Wood carver in Bali An artisan (from french: artisan, it, artigiano) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly d ...

, 1425 File:Mendel II 086 r.jpg,

Cooper Cooper, Cooper's, Coopers and similar may refer to: Professions * Cooper (profession) A cooper is a person trained to make wooden casks, barrel A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it ...

, 1608 File:Mendel I 053 v.jpg,

Dye A dye is a color Color (American English) or colour (Commonwealth English) is the visual perception, visual perceptual Physical property, property corresponding in humans to the categories called ''blue'', ''green'', ''red'', etc. Colo ...

r, 1433 File:Mendel I 164 r.jpg,

Furrier Fur clothing is clothing A kanga, worn throughout the African Great Lakes region Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textile A textile is ...

, 1543 File:Landauer I 082 r.jpg,

Gunsmith A gunsmith is a person who repairs, modifies, designs, or builds gun A gun is a designed to use a shooting tube () to launch typically solid s, but can also project pressurized (e.g. s/s, s for or , , and technically also s), (e.g. ) o ...

, 1613 File:Landauer I 022 r.jpg,

Hatter Hat-making or millinery is the design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process, or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a , product ...

Hatter

, 1533 File:Mendel II 065 v.jpg,

Locksmith

, 1600 File:Mendel I 144 v.jpg,

Nail Nail or Nails may refer to: In biology * Nail (anatomy), toughened protective protein-keratin (known as alpha-keratin, also found in hair) at the end of an animal digit * Nail (beak), a plate of hard horny tissue at the tip of some bird beaks O ...

smith, 1529 File:Mendel II 071 r.jpg,

Potter A potter is someone who makes pottery. Potter may also refer to: Places United States *Potter, originally a section on the Alaska Railroad, currently a neighborhood of Anchorage, Alaska, US *Potter, Arkansas *Potter, Nebraska *Potters, New Jersey ...

Potter

, 1605 File:Landauer I 088 v.jpg,

Ropemaker A rope is a group of yarn Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, suitable for use in the production of textiles, sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery, or ropemaking. Thread (yarn), Thread is a type of yarn intend ...

, 1616 File:Mendel I 089 r.jpg,

Saddle The saddle is a supportive structure for a rider of an animal, fastened to by a . The most common type is the equestrian saddle designed for a . However, specialized saddles have been created for en, s and other animals. It is not known p ...

Saddle

r, 1470 File:Mendel I 154 r.jpg,

Shoemaker Image:Schuhmacher-1568.png, Woodcut of shoemakers from 1568. Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or cobblers (also known as ''cordwainers''). In the 18th ...

, 1535 File:Landauer I 038 v.jpg,

Stonemason Stonemasonry or stonecraft is the creation of buildings, structures, and sculpture using rock (geology), stone as the primary material. It is one of the oldest activities and professions in human history. Many of the long-lasting, ancient Shelte ...

, 1550 File:Mendel I 018 r.jpg,

Tailor A tailor is a tradesperson A tradesman, skilled tradesman, or tradie refers to a skilled worker who specializes in a particular occupation that requires work experience, on-the-job training, and often formal vocational education Voca ...

Tailor

, 1425 File:Mendel I 092 r.jpg, Tanner, 1473 File:Landauer I 014 v.jpg,

Weaver Weaver or Weavers may refer to: Activities * A person who engages in weaving fabric Animals * Various birds of the family Ploceidae * Crevice weaver spider family * Orb-weaver spider family * Weever (or weever-fish) Places * Weaver, Alaba ...

, 1524 File:Landauer I 034 r.jpg,

Wheelwright New Salem, Illinois , West Sussex, England A wheelwright is a Artisan, craftsman who builds or repairs wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the Plant stem, stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is a ...

, 1545

References

Artian .com /Prezzy

External links

*
History of Artisans
{{Authority control Arts occupations Craft occupations

Medieval artisans

Shokunin

Gallery

See also

References

External links