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 lamps made from milk-white plastic sheets heated in an electric kiln.
Groundbreaking household items
Shiro Kuramata (1934 – 1991) was a furniture and interior designer from Japan. He was born and raised in Tokyo, where he continued to work. Kuramata trained in architecture and, later, cabinet-making. He has executed many interiors for the shops of the internationally known clothes designer Issey Miyake. In furniture, perhaps his best-known pieces are his glass chair (1976) and his homage to Hoffmann, Begin the Begume (1985).
Education
From 1953 to 1956, he studied woodworking at Tokyo Municipal Polytechnic High School and the Department of Living Design at the Kuwazawa Institute of Design.
Biography
In 1953, he began working at the Teikokukizai furniture manufacturer. After that, he worked in the interior design divisions of major Japanese department stores, including the San-Ai Co design studio of the Matsuya department store in Tokyo, which he joined in 1957. In 1965, he established his design studio in Tokyo. He used a minimalist approach to his furniture and interiors, evoking traditional Japanese austerity. Yet, the result was a mix of Eastern and Western views.
Summary of Works
The 1970 Revolving Cabinet was his first notable furniture work. Interiors for Issey Miyake’s clothing boutiques (1984 in Paris, 1986 in Tokyo, and 1987 internationally) and the Lucchino Bar and Caffe Oyx for the Seibu store (1987 in Tokyo).
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 Fujiko. Cappellini International Interiors’ 1970 wavy 18-drawer chests garnered him accolades while exhibiting his odd and surreal sense of humour.
His Blues in the Night table included dozens of red diode tubes lit inside translucent acrylic, making it the ultimate statement in high-tech romance. His vast 1972 lamps were made from heated milk-white plastic sheets stretched over poles to create naturally formed curves.
From 1975, he was a consultant at Mainichi Design Awards. He set up an office in the Rue Royale, Paris. In 1988, he bought the 1927 house designed by Robert Mallet-Stevens for Joél and Jan Martell in rue Mallet-Stevens, Paris. He created the woman’s handbag Copacabana. Working with the Memphis group and its leader Ettore Sottsass from 1981-83, designs included a 1972 lamp Fantéme, a 1978 Marilyn Monroe chest of drawers by Lappelini, 1981 Imperial three-part cabinets, a 1982 Kyoto cement and glass side table, and 1987 Sally side table with a broken-glass top.
Other work included;
- 1964 49 Drawers by Aoshima Shoten,
- 1968 Pyramid furniture by Ishimaru,
- 1970 revolving cabinet by Ishimaru,
- 1976 glass chair for Mhoya Glass Shop,
- 1977 Solaris by Aoshima Shoten,
- 1983 Star Peace table by Ishimaru,
- 1985 Begin the Beguine chair homage to Josef Hoffmann,
- 1986 How High the Moon metal-mesh chair by Kurosaki (later, by Vitra),
- 1986 Sing Sing Sing armchair by XO, and
- 1986 Drawers in Irregular Form by Cappellini International Interiors,
- 1988 BK 86000 bar stool by Pastoe, and
- 1989 Miss Blanche plexiglass chair.
Recognition
Many shows included his work, including the 1978 ‘MA Espace/temps au Japon’ exhibition, the Paris Musée des Arts Décoratifs, and various Memphis exhibitions. He won the Mainichi Design Award in 1972 and the Japan Culture Design Award in 1981.
Sources
Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing. https://amzn.to/3ElmSlL
The Illustrated Dictionary of Twentieth Century Designers. (1991). United Kingdom: B. Mitchell.
Design Store
Books | Japanese Design
Architecture: Form, Space, and Order: Form, Space, and Order
Just Enough Design: Reflections on the Japanese Philosophy of Hodo-hodo
Interior Design Illustrated
Japanese Layout Design
Shikake: The Japanese Art of Shaping Behavior Through Design
Japanese Interiors
Japandi Style: When Japanese and Scandinavian Designs Blend
A Collection Of Food Can Labels Made In Japan (Japanese Edition)
Japanese Design Since 1945: A Complete Sourcebook
Made in Japan: Awe-Inspiring Japanese Graphics
WA: The Essence of Japanese Design
Hiroshige. Visioni del Giappone
Hokusai, Hiroshige, Utamaro
Intérieurs japonais
Japandi Living
Authentic Japanese Gardens: Creating Japanese Design and Detail in the Western Garden
More Japanese Designers
You may also be interested in
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. When asked if his design approach was influenced by the materials themselves rather than his ideas, Kuramata answered, “The design image comes first..”
Katsuji Wakisaka (1944 – ) Japanese Textile Designer
Katsuji Wakisaka is a Japanese textile designer. Between 1960 -1963 he studied textile design in Kyoto. Between 1963 and 1965 he worked for Itoh, Osaka and, 1965 – 68 for Samejima, Kyoto. Between 1968 and 1976 he designed printed fabrics for Marimekko in Helsinki.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.