Toshiyuki Kita (b.1942) Japanese Furniture and Interior Designer

Toshiyuki Kita
Toshiyuki Kita

Toshiyuki Kita (b.1942) is a Japanese furniture and interior designer. He was born in Osaka. Professor at the Osaka University of Arts. His earliest pieces, the Wink Chair and the Kick Table, are currently in the New York City Museum of Modern Art and Hamburg, Germany’s Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe.

Biography

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; had clients including Tribu, Interflex, and Sharp. Other work included 1983 Kick table by Cassina, 1983 Tomo lamp by Lucci, 1983 Tabola Altabasso table by Casadue; 1983 Icchio lamp by Yamagiwa, 1983 Bone-Rest chair by Johoku Mokko, 1986 Urushi dinnerware range by Koshudo, and 1989 Always table. He designed (with Keith Haring) 1988 On Taro and On Giro tables produced by Kreon. His designs are known for combining humour, technology, and comfort.

Promotion of Traditional Japanese Crafts

Very active in restoring and promoting local Japanese traditional crafts and industries. Producer of the international trade fair for home and lifestyle renovation “Living & Design” and proponent of Japanese lifestyle renovation, the “RENOVETTA” project. He has served as a governmental advisor to Singapore, Thailand, and China to revitalise its design resource. In 2015, his invitational exhibition “Il Lusso Della Natura” was held at Chiesa San Domenico Church in Alba, Italy.

Exhibitions

The Wink chair was shown at the 1981 Milan Furniture Fair, 1983-84 ”Design Since 1945’1945′ exhibition, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and 1991 ”Mobili Italiani 1961-1991: Le Varie Eta dei linguaggi” exhibition, Milan. Received 1975 Japan Interior Design Award for his furniture designs, Mainichi Design Award and 1981 Kitaro Kuni Industrial Arts Prize. In 1987, participated in the tenth-anniversary celebration of Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.

Recognition

He received multiple international awards include the 1990 “Delta de Oro (Gold Prize)” Award of Spain and the ADI prize “carrier Internazionale of Compasso d’Oro” of Italy in 2011.

He was bestowed with the honorary title of Commendatore by the Italian Republic in 2017.

Recent Publications

His recent publications include “Power of Design”(Nikkei Publishing Inc., 2007), “Local Industry + Design” (Gakugei Shuppan-Sha, 2009), “Venture for Design 1969 – Why I Went to Italy to Design” (Gakugei Shuppan-Sha, 2012), and many more. His DVD “Made with Heart and Soul”, 20 minutes documentary on Kita’s 40 years of collaboration with local Japanese traditional arts and craftsmanship, was awarded the Gold Prize of World Media Festival 2012 (Public Relations/Culture) at Hamburg, Germany, in 2012.

In Our Store

Toshiyuki Kita

Sources

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

Wikipedia contributors. (2020, March 28). Toshiyuki Kita. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 02:44, December 7, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Toshiyuki_Kita&oldid=947861426

Japanese Design on Amazon

More Japanese Designers

  • The Evolution of Sony: A Design Perspective

    The Evolution of Sony: A Design Perspective

    Founded in 1946 as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo Kabushikikaisha, Sony transformed the consumer electronics industry with its products, balancing cutting-edge technology and practical design. Landmarks include Japan’s first tape recorder, the TV 80 301, and the pioneering Walkman and Discman. Read More →

  • The Essence of Naoto Fukasawa: Merging Design and Behavior

    The Essence of Naoto Fukasawa: Merging Design and Behavior

    Naoto Fukasawa, renowned for his work with brands like Muji and B&B Italia, is a globally acclaimed designer. His design philosophy, called “Without Thought,” emphasizes unconscious behavior, aiming for designs to seamlessly integrate into everyday life. His contributions span product design, exhibitions, and academics.Read More →

  • Sakura Adachi: A Fusion of Concept and Craftsmanship in Design

    Sakura Adachi: A Fusion of Concept and Craftsmanship in Design

    Sakura Adachi is a highly acclaimed designer known for her unique fusion of conceptual thinking and expert craftsmanship. Born in Japan and educated in London, she established herself in Milan, collaborating with renowned design studios. Adachi gained international recognition at the Copenhagen International Furniture Fair and went on to establish her own design studio. Her…

  • Yohji Yamamoto (b.1943) Japanese Fashion Designer

    Yohji Yamamoto (b.1943) Japanese Fashion Designer

    Yohji Yamamoto fashion is exemplified by ease and wearability. READ MORE about this innovative radically different Japanese Designer.Read More →

  • Hiroshi Yamano – Exquisite Japanese Glass Designs

    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 →

  • Kenji Ekuan: Fusing Tradition and Modernity in Industrial Design

    Kenji Ekuan: Fusing Tradition and Modernity in Industrial Design

    Kenji Ekuan, born in 1929, was a pioneer in Japanese industrial design, blending tradition and modernity in various products. Kenji Ekuan, president of Japan Industrial Designers Association, ICSID, and ICSID, influenced design with philosophical approach, blending tradition and modernity.Read More →

  • Hiroshi Awatsuji (1929 – 1995) Japanese Textile Designer

    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 →

  • Kyohei Fujita: Master of Japanese Glass Artistry

    Kyohei Fujita: Master of Japanese Glass Artistry

    Kyohei Fujita, born in 1921, gained exposure to glass art through apprenticeship with Toshichi Iwata. He developed a unique style and established the Japan Glass Artcrafts Association in 1972. Kyohei Fujita, a prominent Japanese artist, combines traditional Japanese elements with modern spirit, creating a lasting legacy in the international studio glass movement.Read More →

  • Masakichi Awashima (1914 – 1979) Japanese Glassware Designer

    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 →

  • Naoto Fukasawa ( b.1956) Japanese product designer

    Naoto Fukasawa ( b.1956) Japanese product designer

    Fukasawa is well-known for his designs and design theories, endowed with a quiet strength that represents people’s dreams and expectations. Conveying them using such terms as “design dissolving in behaviour”, “centre of consciousness”, “normality”, “outline”, and “archetype”, he continues to put these philosophies into practice in his designs.Read More →

  • Makio Hasuike Japanese (b.1938) Japanese Industrial Designer

    Makio Hasuike Japanese (b.1938) Japanese Industrial Designer

    Hasuike founded his firm in Milan after studying architecture and industrial design in Tokyo and working for Seiko for a year. He has designed for various well-known brands, including Gaggia coffee machines, Panasonic electronic items, Villeroy & Boch sanitary ware and tableware, Grand Gourmet kitchen knives (1994), and WMF cookware. Read More →

  • Introducing Kazuhide Takahama (b.1930) Japanese Designer

    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 →

  • Hello Kitty a Japanese media franchise

    Hello Kitty a Japanese media franchise

    When the Japanese company Sanrio first launched “Hello Kitty” in 1974 as a greetings card for children, this patented brand cartoonlike image of a cat (a lucky emblem in Japan) was applied to over 1,000 products ranging from domestic appliances, computer keyboards, personal stereos, and credit cards to sweet wrappers, T-shirts, and eyelash curlersRead More…

  • Noguchi lamp space without clutter

    Noguchi lamp space without clutter

    Isamu Noguchi designed the first of his lamps to be produced by traditional construction methods in Gifu, Japan, known for its manufacture of lanterns and parasols made from mulberry bark paper and bamboo. Akari is handcrafted with washi paper from the inside bark of the mulberry tree and bamboo ribbing stretched across sculptural moulded wood…

  • Junichi Arai (1932 – 2017), Japanese textile designer and producer

    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…

  • Kisho Kurokawa (b.1934) Japanese Architect and Designer

    Kisho Kurokawa (b.1934) Japanese Architect and 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 →

  • Arata Isozaki (b. 1931) is a Japanese architect, urban designer

    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 →

  • Osamu Tezuka (1928 – 1989) Japanese manga artist and cartoonist

    Osamu Tezuka (1928 – 1989) Japanese manga artist and cartoonist

    OSAMU TEZUKA, who was revered as the “god of manga,” watched Bambi eighty times, until he had memorised every frame, and dreamed of equaling or surpassing Disney realism in his own animation.Read More →

  • Exploring the Life and Legacy of Shiro Kuramata (1934 – 1991)

    Exploring the Life and Legacy of Shiro Kuramata (1934 – 1991)

    Shiro Kuramata is a Japanese interior and furniture designer who has executed many interiors for Issey Miyake shops. His best-known pieces are his glass chair (1976) and homage to Hoffmann, Begin the Beguine (1985). His interior designs make use of expanded lattice metal and moiré effects. His portfolio includes furniture in irregular forms and large…

  • Shoji Hamada (1894 – 1978) Japanese National Treasure

    Shoji Hamada (1894 – 1978)  Japanese National Treasure

    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 (1930 -2002)  🇯🇵 Graphic Design blend of East and West

    Ikko Tanaka was a significant Japanese Graphic Designer, known for integrating modernism with Japanese culture. His prominent creations included logos, visual materials for brands and the graphic identity for Muji. He won multiple awards and contributed to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.Read More →

  • RIP – Issey Miyake, the Japanese fashion designer, dies 84.

    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 (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

    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 →

  • Poster for Nikon (1957) by Yusaku Kamekura

    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 →

  • Soichiro Sasakura (b.1949) Japanese Glassware Designer

    Soichiro Sasakura (b.1949) Japanese Glassware Designer

    He worked for Sasaki Glass, for which he designed the 1988 San Marino glassware range.Read More →

  • Toshiyuki Kita (b.1942) Japanese Furniture and Interior Designer

    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 ( 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) 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

    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

    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 →

  • Black Wire Chair by Oki Sato

    Black Wire Chair by Oki Sato

    Oki Santo designed this chair; it was a part of a series called Thin Black Lines. The series includes a chair and clothes rack intended to appear as sketches in the air or calligraphy symbols. Thin black lines like the traces of sketches drawn in the air made transparent surfaces and volumes appear, which we…

  • Etsuko Nishi (b.1955) Japanese Glass Designer

    Etsuko Nishi (b.1955) Japanese Glass Designer

    Etsuko Nishi is a Japanese Glass Designer. She is a leading expert in pâte de verre, one of the oldest and most difficult glass-making forms. The desired shape is first made of clay, which is used as the basis for the mould. The glass powder is then mixed with a special type of paste, and…

  • Teruo Yamada (b.1945) Japanese Glassware Designer

    Teruo Yamada (b.1945) Japanese Glassware Designer

    His work was shown at 1980 ‘Japan Traditional Crafts Exhibition,’ Tokyo; 1981 and 1990 ‘Glass in Japan,’ Tokyo; 1985 ‘New Glass in Japan,’ Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe; 1987 ‘The Art of Contemporary Japanese Studio Glass,’ Heller Gallery, New York; 1991 (V) Triennale of the Japan Glass Art Crafts Association, Heller Gallery.Read More →

  • Dorodango Japanese Polished Dirt Balls

    Dorodango Japanese Polished Dirt Balls

    Dorodango, a traditional Japanese pastime, involves creating shiny balls from mud and dirt, a process that requires considerable skill and patience. After forming and sun-drying the balls, they’re polished using olive oil to reveal their shine.Read More →

  • Yūsuke Aida (1931 – 2015) – Japanese ceramics & industrial designer

    Yūsuke Aida (1931 – 2015) – Japanese ceramics & industrial designer

    Yūsuke Aida (1931-2015) – Japanese ceramics designer and industrial designer. He studied town planning at Chiba University and ceramics under Ken Miyanohara. Read More →

  • Yuri Masaki Japanese glass designer

    Yuri Masaki Japanese glass designer

    Yuri Masaki is a Japanese glass designer she was president of the Masaki Glass and Art Studio. Her work was included in 1987 and 1990…Read More →

  • Sori Yanagi – Japanese Industrial Designer

    Sori Yanagi – Japanese Industrial Designer

    Sori Yanagi (1915-2011) was an industrial designer from Japan. Although previously trained as a fine artist and worked in an architectural studio, Yanagi went on to study industrial design in 1947.Read More →

  • Fujiwo Ishimoto Japanese born textile & ceramic designer

    Fujiwo Ishimoto Japanese born textile & ceramic designer

    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…

  • Jiro Kosugi (1915 – 1981) Japanese Industrial Designer

    Jiro Kosugi (1915 – 1981) Japanese Industrial Designer

    After WWII, he worked as an independent designer, designing a series of three-wheeled trucks for the Toyo Kogyo Company (now Mazda) in Hiroshima, which he worked on from 1948 until 1960. These designs were trendy since they were both practical and reasonably inexpensive to purchase. Read More →

  • Harue Koga delightful illustrations and paintings ♥︎

    Harue Koga delightful illustrations and paintings ♥︎

    . He dropped out of junior high school to pursue a career as a painter, and in 1912, he relocated to Tokyo. He studied at the Taiheiyoga-institute kai’s and then the Japan Watercolor Painting Society’s institute. Koga became a priest in 1915 and studied Buddhism at Taisho University. Read More →

  • How High the Moon armchair (1986) by Shiro Kuramata

    How High the Moon armchair (1986) by Shiro Kuramata

    Shiro Kuramata’s inventive transformations of everyday industrial materials, including steel mesh, terrazzo, corrugated aluminium, and steel cables, pushed material technology to new design limits. Read More >Read More →

  • 6 Works That Explain Yayoi Kusama’s Rise to Art World Stardom

    6 Works That Explain Yayoi Kusama’s Rise to Art World Stardom

    In 1965, Kusama erected the first of her now-famous immersive environments. Infinity Mirror Room – Phalli’s Field (Floor Show) fused her interests in repetition, sexual exploration, psychology, and perception by filling a roughly 25-square-meter mirrored room with a thick carpet of soft, twisting phalluses camouflaged in the artist’s signature polka dots.Read More →

  • Osamu Tezuka book collection – the godfather of Japanese Manga comics

    Osamu Tezuka book collection – the godfather of Japanese Manga comics

    Osamu Tezuka (1928-1989) is widely regarded as the godfather of Japanese manga comics. He originally wanted to be a doctor and earned his degree before turning to what was then a children’s medium. Among his many early masterpieces was the Astro Boy series, which was popular in the United States.Read More →

  • Ukiyo-e inspired gifts – available now

    Ukiyo-e inspired gifts – available now

    Ukiyo-e is a Japanese art form that flourished between the 17th and 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of female beauties, kabuki performers, and sumo wrestlers, historical and folk tale scenes, travel scenes and landscapes, flora and fauna, and erotica, among other subjects. “Pictures of the Floating Planet” is how the word…

  • Tanaka Ikko: Graphic Master (DESIGN)

    Tanaka Ikko: Graphic Master (DESIGN)

    Tanaka Ikko (born 1930 in Nara) is a well-known master of graphic design. His work combines influences from the East and the West, acknowledging the vocabulary of European Modernism while remaining distinctively Japanese.Read More →

  • Japan Style: Architecture + Interiors + Design (hardcover)

    Japan Style: Architecture + Interiors + Design (hardcover)

    Japanese homes speak to the soul and provide a contemplative environment from which to experience the world.Read More →

  • Kimono, Vanishing Tradition: Japanese Textiles of the 20th Century

    Kimono, Vanishing Tradition: Japanese Textiles of the 20th Century

    Kimono, Vanishing Tradition: Japanese Textiles of the 20th Century. The lovely design of this revised 2nd edition also renders it a “coffee table worthy” purchase or gift. The subject is particularly timely now—since although people have been talking about the Japanese “vanishing” kimono tradition” for years, the most wondrous of the vintage garments from 1970s…

  • Forms Stackable Stool by Ookkuu

    Forms Stackable Stool by Ookkuu

    The Forms Stackable Stool features a lovely circle seat with a convenient stacking capability. Solid wood frame and plywood wood veneer seat.Read More →

❤️ Receive our newsletter

Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.