The story of Okecraft is a story of a community, and of its sustainable reinvention.  Situated in the Okhotsk region of northernmost Japan, Oketo is a settlement of around 2800 people.  With a history of logging and agriculture, in the early 1980s it was looking for new project.  A visit from the designer and craft revivalist Yoshio Akioka in 1983 was the spark to build the community as a home for wood craft.  To inspire ‘a new lifestyle culture from the North’, as Akioka put it.  The outcome was the birth of ‘Okecraft’, and a centre for wood turning that has become a magnet for those wishing to train in woodwork, and spend time with the trees in Oketo’s rich natural setting.  The motto of Oketo today is ‘for wood and for people’ and the objects made there have a special warmth and character.  This is drawn from the original manifesto that inspired them: for a new sustainability and quality of life.  A community of makers in the beautiful seclusion of a wooded landscape, in daily contact with their material.