Tag: Isamu Kenmochi

Round Rattan Chair by Isamu Kenmochi

Round Rattan Chair C-315-E by Kenmochi Design Associates
Found this photo of Isamu Kenmochi’s round rattan chair at the site of Artnet Magazine

More importantly:

Isamu Kenmochi Chairs are now available!!
Noguchi Museum is now distributing the iconic Isamu Kenmochi Rattan Chair.
Kenmochi Chair c. 1960 Retail Price $2200.00 with black cushion

The Chair is in the Design Collection of the Museum of Modern Art and has not been widely available in North America.

Corresponding Exhibition

Design: Isamu Noguchi and Isamu Kenmochi
From September 19, 2007 through March 16, 2008

The Noguchi Museum will present Design: Isamu Noguchi and Isamu Kenmochi, an exploration of the dynamic relationship between the two designers, and how the cross-fertilization of traditional Japanese aesthetics, materials and fabrication techniques and western modernism and production methods influenced in each designer’s work. Additionally, the exhibition will trace Noguchi’s early furniture designs and how they affected his work in Japan in the early 1950s as well as its impact on Kenmochi and the Industrial Arts Research Institute. It will also bring to the forefront an awareness and appreciation of the significance of Kenmochi’s contribution to modern 20th century design. The exhibition will include approximately 25 furniture, interior and industrial design objects by Kenmochi and drawings and vintage photographs. Most will be borrowed from collections in Japan. There will be approximately 25 objects by Noguchi, most importantly his furniture from the Shin Banraisha, borrowed from Keio University, in addition to drawings and photographs. Of particular interest and pivotal to this exhibition will be the replication of the strikingly original iron and woven bamboo chair that Noguchi and Kenmochi collaborated on in 1950, which is no longer extant.

See the Nochuchi Museum at Long Island City.

Australian Chair Distributor: Youshiki


Kashiwado Chair
Youshiki is [Ed: was?] an Australian Chair distributor. It had an interesting website [Ed: Its website dissappeared] that gave some information about Japanese chair designers and chair manufacturers.

I was drawn to this site by the photo of the Kashiwado Chair by Isamu Kenmochi

One of the most significant figures in the emergence of Japanese industrial design after the Second World War, Isamu Kenmochi graduated in 1932 from the Tokyo College of Industrial Arts. Like many of the first generation of Japanese industrial designers he was also a member of the Industrial Arts Institute (IAI) where he worked in the Woodwork Technology Department. At the IAI he worked alongside design pioneers such as Jiro Kosugi and Mosuke Yoshitake and was influenced by European Modernist designers such as Bruno Taut. In 1952 he also became a founding member of the Japan Industrial Designers Association. In 1953, together with other leading designers of the post-Second World War years such as Masaru Katsumie, Yusaku Kamekura, Riki Watanabe, and Sori Yanagi, he was also involved in the formation of the International Design Committee.

Last edited by Guido J. van den Elshout on November 26, 2011 at 9:56 AM