George Nakashima – 20th Century Woodworking Design Innovator

George Nakashima studio by soulellis, on Flickr

“A tree is our most intimate contact with nature.” This is a quote from George Nakashima (1905–1990), the influential Japanese American woodworker who was a leading innovator in twentieth century furniture design and the father of the American Craft movement. Nakashima’s contribution to woodworking design came through his early life, early woodworking experiences, and his work at his studio in New Hope, Pennsylvania.

George Nakashima was born in 1905 in Spokane, Washington, to Japanese American parents. After becoming trained as an architect at the University of Washington and M.I.T., he began to travel around the world and live as a bohemian. After living in France and North Africa for a time, he went to Japan. There, he met American architect Antonin Raymond, who had collaborated with Frank Lloyd Wright on the Imperial Hotel. He began working for Raymond and traveled around Japan studying Japanese architecture and design.

Nakashima’s woodworking began with his work with Raymond in Asia. In 1940, he returned to the United States to make furniture and teach woodworking in Seattle. During World War II, he was sent to a Japanese internment camp in Idaho. It was there that he met a traditional Japanese carpenter named Gentaro Hikogawa, who taught him to use traditional Japanese hand tools as well as joinery techniques. It was also at this time that Nakashima became a perfectionist in his craft and began to develop his signature piece — the large table made with a smooth slab top with unfinished edges, composed of multiple slabs connected with butterfly joints.

In 1943, Raymond sponsored the release of Nakashima from the internment camp and invited him to his farm in New Hope, Pennsylvania. It was there that Nakashima founded his own studio, designing furniture lines for Knoll and Widdicomb-Mueller and doing private commissions. Drawing from Japanese and American and International Modern styles, Nakashima’s work flourished and was at the forefront of American Art furniture in the twentieth century.

George Nakashima’s training as an architect, early travels, studying of Japanese carpentry, and studio in New Hope went toward molding him as a formidable woodworker. A true passion for the medium was the foundation of his contribution to woodworking design.