Background
He was born in 1915 in Tokyo, Japan, as the son of Soetsu Yanagi, who founded the "mingei" movement which celebrated Japanese folk crafts and the beauty of everyday objects.
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Sori Yanagi
Edit Profile柳宗理
Education
Sori entered Tokyo Art School in 1934, where he studied both art and architecture.
Career
He played a role in Japanese modern design developed after World War 2 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. Soetsu helped establish the Nihon Mingeikon, the Folk Crafts Museum of Japan.
He was influenced by Le Corbusier as well as by Charlotte Perriand when she worked in Japan in the early 1940s.
So, his interests moved from painting to buildings to design and objects. After World World War II, he designed many products: furniture, three-wheeled vehicles, Olympic cauldrons, pedestrian overpasses, et cetera
One of the most famous pieces of furniture is his Butterfly Stool. Announced in 1956, its 2-piece form has been compared to a butterfly"s open wings.
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. Sori Yanagi died at the age of 96 in 2011.
Butterfly Stool, 1954 Elephant Stool, 1954.
Achievements
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Born
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Died
December 25, 2011 (aged 96) -
Nationality
Japan