The term Shokunin 職人 is often translated to Craftsman or Artisan. In Japan, it represents more, not only the person honing a specific skillset.

According to the essay Shokunin and Devotion written by Sachiko Matsuyama, Shokunin embodies also:

  • The nature surrounding the Shokunin. The Shokunin use the products, the materials available around them. Seasons, change of availabilities of certain supply influence how the Shokunin work.

  • The devotion over time. Some crafts have been passed between generations, and are the work of a lifetime.
  • The contribution to the community. Shokunin often work in a community of Shokunin for a community. They can provide essential pieces for a larger project or product.

How can these values be adapted to the notion of a Modern Shokunin.

  • In our modern and globalised society, we have access to many resources from all around the world: material ones and non-material ones. Our all connected societies enable us to have acces to knowledge from all around the world. However, when we talk about material resources such as food, base materials, the globalisation has made them homogeneous for industrial and profits reasons. Local producers cannot compete with giant international companies. For me, a modern Shokunin must use the modern tools to have access to worldwide knowledge but also use the local resources.

  • Some traditions are dying: sometimes because their industrial counterparts are more profitable economically or because there is no one to pick up the torch to perpetuate the knowledge. Especially in my journey to learn about Japanese fermentation, I am trying to visit as many traditional shops or producers to try to learn and document before the knowledge is lost.

  • Knowledge is a thing that is not lost when shared. With modern communication, it has never been easy to share knowledge. This is my goal to share all the knowledge about my projects here. Also, in the context of software engineering, the Opensource communities enable not only to share knowledge, but also code and applications. And I hope I can contribute to help quantum physicists with tools.