Fujiwo Ishimoto Japanese born textile & ceramic designer

Fujiwo Ishimoto (b. 1941) is a textile and ceramic designer from Japan. In 1974, Fujiwo Ishimoto became a permanent employee of Marimekko. He had previously worked at the Décembre company for four years, where he was involved in the design and production of Marimekko’s canvas bags, among other things. Fujiwo Ishimoto saw fabrics designed by Maija Isola in the 1960s in Tokyo and was so taken with them that he decided to fly to Finland to learn more about Marimekko and Finnish design. He has designed the Ujo towel collection for Marimekko, which is a classic of Marimekko’s terrycloth range, among other things. Fujiwo Ishimoto has been a ceramic designer in the Arabia Art Department since 1989, creating one-of-a-kind ceramic artwork. In the same year, he was awarded a scholarship from the Arabia Cultural Foundation.

The natural world and its phenomena influence Ishimoto’s works. His designs have basic forms that are coupled with vibrant exterior constructions and lavish ornamentation. Ishimoto has won the State Industrial Arts Prize, the Kaj Franck Design Prize, and Honourable Mentions at the Finland Designs show in 1983, 1989, and 1993, among other awards. He was given the Pro Finlandia Medal in 2011. His ceramics and textiles have been featured in several private and group shows. Fujiwo Ishimoto has also designed opera stage sets and costumes.

Sources

Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing. https://amzn.to/3ElmSlL

Shop, F. D. (n.d.). Fujiwo Ishimoto. Finnish Design Shop. Retrieved November 7, 2021, from https://www.finnishdesignshop.com/Fujiwo_Ishimoto-d-58.html.

More Japanese Designers

Shoji Hamada (1894 – 1978) Japanese Potter

Shoji Hamada, along with Bernard Leach, was one of the key figures in the development of studio pottery in the 20th century. His influence both in England and the US as well as in his native Japan cannot be underestimated. Read More →
Ikko Tanaka (1930 -2002) 🇯🇵 Graphic Design blend of East and West

Ikko Tanaka was a Leading Graphic Designer in Japan. He had an enormous impact on the post-war visual culture in Japan.Read More →
RIP – Issey Miyake, the Japanese fashion designer, dies 84.

Issey Miyake died on August 5, 2022, in a Tokyo hospital of liver cancer. He founded the Miyake Design Studio in 1970.Read More →
Masakazu Kobayashi (b.1944) Japanese textile designer

Masakazu Kobayashi studied at the University of Arts, Kyoto, Japan. He manifested traditional textile techniques and aesthetics in his work. Between 1966 and 1975, he worked as a textile designer for Kawashima. His 1982 fabric evoked komon, a textile dyeing technique which uses paper patterns with small motifs.Read More →
Yoshitomo Nara (b.1959) Japanese Artist and Designer

Nara grew up in Aomori Prefecture, Japan, about 300 miles north of the Tochigi Prefecture. His exposure to Western music on the American military radio station Far East Network in Honshu influenced his artistic imagination early. Later, he would provide cover art for bands including Shonen Knife, R.E.M., and Bloodthirsty Butchers.Read More →
Shiro Kuramata (1934 – 1991) Japanese interior designer

He has created almost 300 stores and restaurants since 1965. Despite designing furniture for Aoshima and Ishimaru, he is best known for his 1970 Furniture in Irregular Forms collection for Fijiko. Cappellini International Interiors’ 1970 wavy 18-drawer chests garnered him accolades while exhibiting his odd and surreal sense of humour.Read More →
Poster for Nikon (1957) by Yusaku Kamekura

Yusaku Kamekura’s poster emphasises the brilliance and clarity attained with the Nikon lens and the technical perfection of his client’s camera by using brilliant optical patterns and powerful, white letter-forms against an intensely dark background. Read More →
Junichi Arai (1932 – 2017) Japanese textile designer and producer

Junichi Arai (1932 – 2017) was a Japanese textile designer and producer born in Kiryu, Gunma. As the sixth generation of a mill-owning family, Arai grew up with fabrics being woven for obis and kimonos. He held traditional weaving methods in high regard and the skills that only the human hand can have in the…
Soichiro Sasakura (b.1949) Japanese Glassware Designer

He worked for Sasaki Glass, for which he designed the 1988 San Marino glassware range.Read More →
Arata Isozaki (b. 1931) is a Japanese architect, urban designer

Arata Isozaki is a Japanese architect, urban designer, and theorist from Ōita. He was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal in 1986 and the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2019.Read More →
Masakichi Awashima (1914 – 1979) Japanese Glassware Designer

After studying design at the Japan Art School in Tokyo, Awashima worked for artisan Kozo Kagami, who had studied Western glass methods in Germany from 1935 to 1946. Read More →
Hiroshi Awatsuji (1929 – 1995) Japanese Textile Designer

Hiroshi Awatsuji (1929- 1995) was a Japanese textile and graphic designer: born in Kyoto. He was considered the first Japanese textile designer to be recognised for contemporary design rather than for traditional art and craft. The main characteristic of his work was over sized motifs.Read More →
Hiroshi Yamano – Exquisite Japanese Glass Designs

Kiroshi Yamano is a Japanese Glass Designer. He studied at the Tokyo Glass Crafts Institute to 1984 and Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York, to 1989. Read More →
Introducing Kazuhide Takahama (b.1930) Japanese Designer

At the X Milan Triennale exhibition in 1954, he met the furniture manufacturer, Dino Gavina, who subsequently invited Takahama to work for him in Italy. Takahama’s first design for Gavina was the geometrically severe Naeko sofa-bed (1957). Read More →
Toshiyuki Kita (b.1942) Japanese Furniture and Interior Designer

He set up his own design office in Osaka in 1964; in 1969, he began designing furniture for Italian and Japanese firms; he collaborated with Silvio Coppola, Giotto Stoppino, and Bepi Fiori for Bernini. He is best known for the 1980 Wink articulated armchair produced by Cassina, which took four years to design; Read More…
Katsuji Wakisaka ( b.1944 ) 🗻 Japanese Textile Designer

Katsuji Wakisaka is a Japanese textile designer. Between 1960 -1963 he studied textile design in Kyoto.Read More →
Suehari Fukami (b.1947) Japanese Studio Potter

Suehari Fukami (b.1947) is a Japanese studio potter based in Kyoto. He works in the bluish-white porcelain known in Japanese as seihakuji, developed in the Song dynasty JINGDEZEN wares. Read More →
Listening to Stone (paperback) – Art and Life of Isamu Noguchi

A master of what he called “the sculpturing of space,” Isamu Noguchi was an essential figure for modern public art. Noguchi, born to an American mother and a Japanese father, never felt at home anywhere and spent his life creating identities through his sculptures, monuments, and gardens. Read More →
Susumu Ilkuta Japanese Ceramicist

He worked as a fashion designer in Tokyo. In 1958, he moved to New York at the invitation of hatter Lilly Daché. He studied ceramics in night classes in New York. In 1973, he returned to Japan, where he studied with Kohbei and painted on unfired porcelain.Read More →
Kisho Kurokawa (b.1934) Japanese Architect and Furniture Designer

In 1960, at the age of 26, he made his debut into the world as one of the founders of the Metabolism Movement. Read More →