Anyone who has set foot in Japan knows how strong the combination of present and past, in a seemingly fragile balance, subjected as it is to the constant thrusts of an ultra-modernity - typical of a country constantly projected towards the future - yet made possible from an equally strong and indisputable link between the Japanese people and their traditions.
Of course, times change and it is not for sure that this affection resists the social upheavals of recent decades, but in the meantime nobody seems to question one of the main institutions that protect and sustain the past cultural and craft traditions.