George Nakashima on Classicdesign.it

A pioneer of the twentieth-century American Craft movement, George Nakashima (1905–1990) elevated woodworking into a timeless art form. Formally trained in architecture in both the United States and France, he enriched his artistic vision in Japan and mastered traditional Japanese joinery while interned during World War II.

After establishing his studio in Pennsylvania, Nakashima crafted bespoke furniture for high-profile commissions—including the Rockefeller residence—celebrating the knots, grain patterns, and natural live edges of raw wood. His reverent devotion to wood, captured in his book The Soul of a Tree, led to a celebrated and rare venture into serial production through a 1940s collaboration with Knoll, yielding mid-century design icons such as the Splay Leg Table and the Straight Chair.

Honored internationally with the AIA Craftsmanship Medal and the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Nakashima left behind a legacy preserved and continued today by his daughter, Mira.