A key figure in Japanese postmodern design, Shiro Kuramata (1934-1991) belongs to a generation of brilliant designers who revolutionized post-war design. Described as minimal, his design is far more complex and plays on oxymorons.
Shiro Kuramata grew up in Tokyo in accommodation provided by the Physics Research Institute where his father worked. Under the influence of a master carpenter named Mr. Seta and his workshop, which was located near where he lived, Shiro Kuramata wanted to become an architect. After studying at a technical college, in 1956 he graduated from the Kuwasa Design School, where he studied interior design in particular. Shiro Kuramata began his career designing interiors on a freelance basis and under contract to the Matsuya department store in Ginza, Tokyo. In 1965, he created the Kuramata Design Office. "Pyramid furniture" (1968) was a variable form that Shiro Kuramata designed based on a series of stacked mobile drawers. Key to his work, it foreshadowed 1980s design. In 1969, when Shiro Kuramata installed floor-to-ceiling light pillars in the showroom of the Edward company, light became a fundamental element in his work. In his early work it is possible to observe key concepts that would crop up over and over again in his later pieces, for example "transparency", "lightness", "drawer", and "humour". Fascinated by the revolutionary possibilities offered by new technologies and industrial materials in the 1970s and 1980s, Shiro Kuramata concentrated his creation and production on objects made of acrylic, glass, aluminium and steel mesh which defy the laws of gravity and apply innovative assembly techniques to create extremely lightweight forms. In 1972 he received the Mainichi Design Award. In the same year, he designed "Oba-Q", a draped luminous form. In 1976 he designed his most emblematic piece: "Glass Chair", made up of assembled glass plates. Shiro Kuramata received the Japan Cultural Design Award in 1981. He drew his inspiration from Japanese culture and the creativity of the
Memphis group with which he was associated from 1981 to 1983, following an invitation by
Ettore Sottsass, who became a great friend. In 1986 he designed "How High Is The Moon", a steel mesh armchair that became a 20th-century design icon. Designed in 1988, his chair titled Miss Blanche was names after the main character in A Streetcar Named Desire. Roses are encased in acrylic, symbolising the passage of time frozen for an instant. Shiro Kuramata said: "One of the earliest inspirations for producing this chair was my desire to present it in Paris. I think there was a kind of anticipation or a part of me that felt it would be better understood in France, especially in Paris". Inspired by the same creative principles as those of his furniture, he worked as an interior designer for Issey Miyake's stores in New York, Paris and Tokyo. In 1990, the French government awarded him the medal of the Ordre des Arts et Lettres.
