AP obituary via the Philadelphia Inquirer of December 27, 2011
/ref> was a Japanese industrial designer. He played a role in Japanese modern design developed after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

to the high-growth period in the Japanese economy. He is both a representative of the wholly Japanese modern designer and a full-blown modernist who merged simplicity and practicality with elements of traditional Japanese crafts.

Early life

Yanagi was born in 1915 in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, Japan. His father is

Yanagi Sōetsu , also known as Yanagi Muneyoshi, was a Japanese art critic, philosopher, and founder of the ''mingei'' (folk craft) movement in Japan in the late 1920s and 1930s. Personal life Yanagi was born in 1889 to Yanagi Narayoshi, a hydrographer of the I ...

, founder of the Japanese folk crafts

mingei The concept of , variously translated into English as "folk craft", "folk art" or "popular art", was developed from the mid-1920s in Japan by a philosopher and aesthete, Yanagi Sōetsu (1889–1961), together with a group of craftsmen, including ...

movement, which celebrated the beauty of everyday objects, and the

Japanese Folk Crafts Museum The is a museum in Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo, Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo, Japan, dedicated to the hand-crafted art of ordinary people (''mingei'').Access is from Komaba-tōdaimae Station, Komaba-Tōdaimae Station of Keio Inokashira Line. The museum was es ...

(Nihon Mingeikan). Sōri entered Tokyo Art SchoolSori Yanagi Industrial Designer / DESIGN ARCHIVE
/ref> (now,

Tokyo University of the Arts or is the most prestigious art school in Japan. Located in Ueno Park, it also has facilities in Toride, Ibaraki, Yokohama, Kanagawa, and Kitasenju and Adachi, Tokyo. The university has trained renowned artists in the fields of painting, scul ...

) in 1934, where he studied both art and architecture.

Career

He was influenced by

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...

as well as by

Charlotte Perriand Charlotte Perriand (24 October 1903 – 27 October 1999) was a French architect and designer. Her work aimed to create functional living spaces in the belief that better design helps in creating a better society. In her article "L'Art de Vivre" f ...

, whom he translated for when she was in Tokyo during the early 1940s. Perriand introduced him to

product design Product design as a verb is to create a new product to be sold by a business to its customers. A very broad coefficient and effective generation and development of ideas through a process that leads to new products. Thus, it is a major aspect of n ...

, and his interests later moved from painting to buildings to design and objects. Most of Yanagi's designs are very simple and beautiful. His products illustrate his thinking: true beauty is not made, it is born naturally. When he created a new product, he made the first versions over and over by hand, seeking new forms that took shape from both new and old ideas. After World War II, he designed many products: furniture, three-wheeled vehicles, Olympic cauldrons, pedestrian overpasses, etc. One of the most famous pieces of furniture is his Butterfly Stool which won a gold prize at the

Milan Triennial XI The Milan Triennial XI was the Triennial in Milan of 1957 sanctioned by the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE). Its theme was ''Improving the Quality of Expression in Today’s Civilisation''. Contents There was a survey of sculpture of th ...

. Announced in 1956, its 2-piece form has been compared to a butterfly's open wings. Alternately, the shape can be seen as the gateway of a

Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...

shrine or even an antique samurai helmet. In effect, it is a form that is both modern and timeless, that has won critical acclaim and prizes, and is included in major collections such as the Museum of Modern Art New York and the Ruble Museum. Yanagi designed the official torch for the 1972 Winter Olympics in

Sapporo ( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous cit ...

, Japan. Sōri Yanagi died in 2011 at the age of 96.

Key Designs

*''Elephant Stool'', 1954 *''Butterfly Stool'', 1956

Honours

* Honorary Royal Designer for Industry (UK), 2008Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA)
Sori Yanagi
; retrieved 2012-5-27.

References

External links

People from Tokyo Japanese designers Japanese furniture designers 1915 births 2011 deaths Recipients of the Medal with Purple Ribbon Mingei {{Japan-artist-stub