About Craftkai
A working bridge between Japanese craft and European travel
What Craftkai is
Craftkai connects Japanese craft workshops with travel operators and clients in Germany and Europe. We find the workshops, negotiate the terms, handle the booking, and make sure the craftsman is paid properly and on time.
Why we built it
Japanese craft traditions are not short of skill. They are short of successors, and short of a way to reach the people who would travel far to see them. Most workshops have no English website, no booking system, and no interest in building one. On the European side, operators want authentic experiences but have no reliable way to verify what they are selling.
We sit in the middle. Not as a marketplace that lists whatever signs up, but as a curator that says no more often than yes.
We are the bridge
Two business cultures that admire each other still fail each other in practice. A German operator asks for a firm date, a fixed price and a signed contract. A Japanese workshop answers in a register that sounds like agreement to one side and like hesitation to the other. Deals quietly die in that gap, and both sides walk away thinking the other was not serious.
Our work is to close that gap before it opens. We translate more than language: expectations, obligations, and the meaning of a yes. We turn intentions into written commitments that both sides recognise as binding, with dates, capacities, prices and cancellation terms stated plainly in Japanese and in German. Nobody signs something they have not fully understood.
Clarity is not a courtesy here, it is the product. When the terms are unambiguous, the workshop keeps its craft and gains an income it can plan around, and the operator gains an experience it can sell with confidence. That is the point of the bridge: not simply to introduce two sides, but to make the relationship worth having for both of them, year after year.
How we work
Every workshop in our programme has been visited in person. Our scouts in Japan and Germany assess capacity, language, and whether the workshop actually wants visitors, because many do not, and that answer is respected. Our curator reviews the craft itself. Agreements are written in both languages, with terms the craftsman understands and has agreed to.
We publish what we learn. Our editorial work covers the people and the buildings behind the craft, from drum makers in Miyazaki to the German architects who studied Japanese timber construction. It is research, not marketing copy.
Who we are
Craftkai is operated by IgamiLab in Berlin, founded and led by Tomoko Engelbart-Igami. The team works across both markets by design: one side of the table is Japanese, one is German, and the people on it have lived and worked on the other side. Between us there are two decades in digital commerce, years spent in Japan, and a working understanding of what does and does not survive translation.
Where we are now
Craftkai launches publicly in Berlin on 17 October 2026, during the Festival of Lights. The first workshops are onboarding now. If you run a travel business, a hotel, or a cultural programme and want early access, write to us at service@craftkai.com.