Designer of the Month: George Nakashima

A tree provides perhaps our most intimate contact with nature. A tree sits like an avatar, an embodiment of the immutable, far beyond the pains of man. There are specimens, like the Yaku sugi, a type of Japanese cedar, which in their single lives have spanned the entire history of civilized man. These specimens were already substantial trees when Mohenjo-Daro was in flower and Europe lived in caves. Hundreds of generations have marched past. Civilizations much greater than ours have risen and turned to dust.

We woodworkers have the audacity to shape timber from these noble trees. In a sense it is our Karma Yoga, the path of action we must take to lead to our union with the Divine. Each tree, each part of each tree, has its own particular destiny and its own special relationship to be fulfilled. We roam the world to find our relationships with these trees.

-George Nakashima [1]

Japanese-Amer. furniture maker George Nakashima standing w. huge rough-hewn boards which he uses in the construction of furniture in his workshop in Bucks County, July 1970. Photo by John Loengard. Courtesy of LIFE Magazine Archives.

It's a new month, which of course means that I have for you a new Designer of the Month, a woodworker whose work I greatly admire, George Nakashima (1905-1990). Born in Spokane, Washington, after a childhood spent hiking in the forests of the Olympic Peninsula, Nakashima went on to study architecture at the University of Washington, earning his Master's from MIT in 1930.[2] After his postgraduate work at MIT, Nakashima traveled the world, living in Paris, Tokyo and Pondicherry, India, three very different places that would each exert its particular influence.[3] In 1941, with the escalation of World War II, Nakashima moved back to the U.S. and established a furniture workshop in Seattle, an enterprise that would only last a year before he, his wife Marion, and his daughter Mira were sent to an internment camp in Minidoka, Idaho.[4] When it was later announced that they could leave the camp if they were willing to move away from the West Coast, Nakashima and his family were invited to the New Hope, PA farm of Antonin Raymond, whom Nakashima had worked for in Japan.[5] It was in New Hope that Nakashima would gradually build the workshop where he would create the gorgeous furniture for which he would become famous.

Workshop of Japanese-American furniture maker George Nakashima, 1970. Photo by John Loengard. Courtesy of LIFE Magazine Archives.

This month is going to be greatly inspired by Nakashima's book The Soul of a Tree: A Woodworker's Reflections, in which he recounts his life and work. I'll devote these next three weeks to a more in-depth look into Nakashima's biography, his workshop, the creation of his furniture, and his reflections on the tree itself, discussing a little bit of everything each week instead of focusing on a particular topic or two at a time, as I usually do. I hope you all enjoy.

[1] George Nakashima, "Introduction," from The Soul of a Tree: A Woodworker's Reflections, (New York: Kodansha International, 1981), xxi.

[2] George Nakashima: Woodworker online, "About Us: George Nakashima," http://www.nakashimawoodworker.com/about_us/george (accessed June 2, 2010).

[3] Ibid.

[4] Gorge Nakashima, "Chronology," from The Soul of a Tree: A Woodworker's Reflections, (New York: Kodansha International, 1981), 196-7.

[5] Gorge Nakashima, "New Hope," from The Soul of a Tree: A Woodworker's Reflections, (New York: Kodansha International, 1981), 70.