Sori Yanagi

Sori Yanagi, born in 1915 in Tokyo, attended the city’s art school and worked from 1940 to 1942 in the office of designer Charlotte Perriand. In 1952, he founded the Yanagi Industrial Design Institute, which created a prolific a number of articles of daily use and furnishings. Sori Yanagi’s organic forms combine Western industrial design with Japan’s native craft traditions. Thanks to this successful synthesis, Sori Yanagi became one of the most important Japanese designers of the post-war period. In addition to furniture, he also designed lighting fixtures, glass objects, cutlery, children's toys, subway stations, cars and motorcycles. In 1977, Sori Yanagi was appointed Director of the Japanese Folk Art Museum in Tokyo. He died in Tokyo in 2011.