TOKYO -- What is old can sometimes seem new again, as the adage goes. This is especially true in these late-postmodernist times, when many artists and designers still routinely quote or borrow long-gone styles and, winking ironically, imbue them with updated meanings.
One example is folk art, a label art historians assign to creations whose forms, materials and purposes are deeply rooted in traditions that are passed down from generation to generation and whose makers are usually anonymous. Its admirers understand that what often might be regarded as passe never really loses its freshness.
