NAKASHIMA George

George Katsutoshi Nakashima was born in 1905 in Washington, D.C. and died in 1990. The architect, cabinetmaker and craftsman is one of the fathers of American craftsmanship. Early in his career, Nakashima studied architecture at the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After graduating in 1931, the Japanese American embarked on a journey around the world to find inspiration for future designs. Nakashima spent a year in France and also visited North Africa and Japan.

In 1943, he was released from the camp in which his own had locked him up because of his Japanese origins thanks to the favorable words of respected architect Antonin Raymond. He then began working for fashionable manufacturers such as Knoll. George Nakashima’s style has become legendary and many of his designs are classics today. He likes to combine traditional American and Japanese styles with modern style.

In 1945, George Nakashima opened his woodworking business simply to earn a living using the skills he had learned as an Eagle Scout in the Pacific Northwest, as an architect in the Far East, and as a woodworker in the Idaho desert.

“The woodworker has a special intensity, a striving for perfection, a conviction that any task must be executed with all his skill…to create the best object he is capable of creating.” George Nakashima