Shiro Kuramata

Shiro Kuramata was a relative of mine. I never worked with him, but his furniture has been in my life for as long as I can remember.

When AXIS once asked me what “Japanese design” meant to me, the piece I named was Miss Blanche. All a chair really needs is that someone can sit on it. Kuramata went the other way—roses held in acrylic, a chair that seems to have no weight, no presence. I think he designed the air around the object, not the object itself. That has stayed with me, and I suspect it is somewhere in everything I make with glass and light.

My father/ Gallery Tamura Joe has kept Kuramata’s furniture in production with the same workshop in Japan, and now there is a place to see it. The project is supervised by Mieko Kuramata and Kuramata Design Office.