倉俣史朗

Kuramata Shirō was born on November 29, 1934 in the company housing of RIKEN (the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research) in Hongo Ward, Tokyo City (now Hongo, Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo). The Western-style architecture of RIKEN made a profound impression on him in his earliest years. In elementary school, he often played at a carpenter’s workshop and, intrigued by architectural blueprints, aspired to become an architect. After World War II, in 1947, he entered Daiku Junior High School in Bunkyo Ward. Around this time he developed an interest in art and literature, and attended the Yomiuri Independent Exhibition (sponsored by the Yomiuri Shimbun) starting with the first edition in 1949. In 1953, Kuramata graduated from Tokyo Metropolitan Kogei High School and sought to enter the Tokyo Junior College of Photography (now Tokyo Polytechnic University), but did not gain admission, and faced another year of preparing for entrance examinations. However, his father’s deteriorating health prompted him to start working instead. He first went to work in the design department of Teikoku Kizai, Co., Ltd., a manufacturer of furniture for school classrooms, and after about a year, moved to a furniture trading company. In 1955, Kuramata enrolled in the Living Design department at Kuwasawa Design School, which had just been established the year before. Instructors at the school included Watanabe Riki and Kenmochi Isamu. As part of a class, he attended the 1st Gutai Art Exhibition at Ohara School Hall and was powerfully affected. After graduating in 1956, he discovered the Italian architectural design magazine “Domus,” and aspired to produce designs that would be acknowledged by such esteemed publications. Upon learning of the upcoming construction of the San-ai building at the Ginza 4-chome intersection in Tokyo, he aimed to handle its interior design, and in 1957 he became an employee of San-ai, where he was assigned to the advertising department. The San-ai Dream Center was completed in 1963, and Kuramata was in fact put in charge of its interior design. He left San-ai in 1964 and, after working as a consultant in the interior design department of the Matsuya department store company, established Kuramata Design Office in 1965. The following year, he undertook the interior design of the women’s clothing store Tomboya in Shizuoka City. He commissioned illustrator Uno Aquirax to paint the ceiling, marking his first collaboration with a contemporary creator. Subsequently, he commissioned artists such as Isaka Yoshitarō, Yamazaki Eisuke, Yokoo Tadanori, and Takamatsu Jirō to create murals and ceiling paintings, working jointly on the creation of numerous spaces. In February 1969, issue no. 118 of “Design” magazine ran the first special feature on Kuramata, “The World of Shiro Kuramata,” with a main article by Yamaguchi Katsuhiro focusing on the theme of Marcel Duchamp. The feature, spanning 20 pages, included Kuramata’s work from his time at San-ai. In 1970, at the Japan World Exposition (Osaka Expo, commonly known as Expo ’70 Osaka), Kuramata supervised the interior design of the Mitsui Group Pavilion, for which Yamaguchi served as chief producer. In June of the same year, his work first appeared in “Domus” magazine (issue no. 487). In 1972, Kuramata was recognized in the commercial architecture field for his series of furniture and displays, and won an award at the 18th Mainichi Design Awards. His first book of works, “The Work of Shiro Kuramata 1967–1974,” was published by Kajima Institute Publishing in 1976. That same year he designed the Issey Miyake store interior in Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo, and he subsequently designed Issey Miyake stores around the world for the rest of his life. Around this time, his works also began to be exhibited in museums. At the invitation of Italian designer Ettore Sottsass, Kuramata joined the design group Memphis in 1981, and presented his own work at the first Memphis exhibition (Arc ’74) in Milan. The same year he also held a solo exhibition in London, which raised his profile in Europe. Also that year, he won the second Japan Inter-Design Award, presented by the Japan Inter-Design Forum. In the 1980s, his volume of commissions from Japan and abroad grew, and his participation in store designs and exhibitions increased dramatically. Kuramata had a solo exhibition at Galerie Yves Gastou in Paris in 1989, and lectured on his work at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. The following year, he was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture. Kuramata died in 1991 of heart failure caused by myocarditis at Toho University Omori Medical Center in Ota Ward, Tokyo. Kuramata’s designs are often described with words such as “buoyant” and “poetic,” in large part due to one of his best-known designs, the late work “Miss Blanche” (designed in 1988). This chair, made of transparent acrylic resin with artificial roses embedded, and supported by thin aluminum legs, is visually extremely light despite its actual considerable weight. In addition to clear acrylic, he worked with other materials that convey no sense of weight, including plate glass, chrome-plated “expanded metal,” and milk-white acrylic implanted with lights, aiming to minimize the physical presence of substances through the effects of transparency, translucency and reflection. The title Miss Blanche is derived from the name of the protagonist in the play “A Streetcar Named Desire”, and connects to the character’s image. His use of such non-literal titles began with “Sing Sing Sing” in 1985. Earlier works were mostly given straightforward titles such as “Chair for ***” or “Furniture for ***”, and directly referenced the work’s material or form. In structural terms, “Glass Chair” (1976), assembled from six square glass panels affixed together, and “Furniture in Irregular Forms” (1970), featuring movable drawers and curved sides or fronts, are examples of works marked by radical simplicity and anonymity. This simplicity of form paradoxically honed Kuramata’s intent to pursue designs that went beyond functionality and practicality and acted on the memory and psyche. The unreal and dreamlike quality of Kuramata’s furniture stems from his use of transparent, translucent, or reflecting materials, anonymous and streamlined forms, and a free-thinking approach that disrupted conventional concepts of furniture. This radical design approach stood out in the design world of the 1970s and 1980s, where the main areas of focus were decoration and color. It is perhaps for this reason that Kuramata’s work feels less like design than like art, conveying a strong sense of authorship and self-expression. Kuramata Shirō is a singular figure among Japanese interior designers in terms of his global fan base, but considering his popularity, there have been relatively few posthumous retrospectives. They include “Shiro Kuramata 1934–1991” held at the Hara Museum, Tokyo and other venues around the world from 1996 to 1999, and the two-person exhibition “Shiro Kuramata and Ettore Sottsass” at 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, Tokyo in 2011. The scarcity of exhibitions can partially be attributed to the fact that many of Kuramata’s works were interior designs for stores, few of which still exist as physical spaces. However, the M+ museum in Hong Kong, which opened in 2021, features the Kiyotomo Sushi Bar relocated from Shinbashi, Tokyo, designed late in Kuramata’s career. In 2022, the Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation, acquired a comprehensive collection of his works, including drawings for interiors and furniture, magazine clippings, and audiovisual materials that had been stored at his office, establishing a framework for preservation of his legacy. Reevaluation of Kuramata’s achievements has been gathering momentum recently, with the first retrospective in approximately ten years taking place in 2023–2024. Titled “The Work of Shiro Kuramata: A Microcosmos of Memory,” it opened at the Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo and toured three venues in Japan. Such developments set the stage for further study of Kuramata’s work in the future. (Miki Keisuke / Translated by Christopher Stephens) (Published online: 2025-02-26)