Chair Model "Mira" (Special Custom Version)
Manufactured by Sakura Seisakusho
Japan, 1970s
Solid wood
Measurements
42 × 50 × 71h cm
16,5 × 19,7 × 28h in
Details
Stamped with manufacturer's label.
(Branded with Nakashima, Sakura Seisakusho, and lot number).
Edition
Custom-made special order piece (non-standard configuration)
About
This custom version of the Mira Chair demonstrates a rare, client-specific adaptation within the Nakashima/Sakura Seisakusho production. Although dimensioned as a dining chair, it features the footrest typically reserved for the high-chair model—an unusual configuration suggesting a special commission.
The chair reflects the characteristic craftsmanship associated with the Japan-produced Nakashima line: a sculpted solid-wood seat carved from a single thick plank, gentle curvatures for comfort, and a balanced, quiet presence. Despite the addition of a footrest—functionally unnecessary at standard dining height—the chair retains visual harmony, and using the footrest surprisingly enhances the sense of groundedness and ease.
Wear is present on the seat and backrest, but the piece maintains its structural integrity and aesthetic coherence, exemplifying the longevity and tactile beauty of hand-crafted wood furniture.
Biography
George Nakashima (1905–1990) was more than an architect or furniture maker; he was a poet of wood. Born in Spokane, Washington, to Japanese immigrant parents, Nakashima’s life straddled two worlds: the modernist movements of the West and the deep, meditative traditions of Japanese craftsmanship. He trained in architecture in the United States and Europe, yet it was Japan—its philosophy, artisans, and ancient techniques—that profoundly shaped his approach to furniture.
In the 1930s, Nakashima worked in Japan under Antonin Raymond, the Czech-American architect who introduced modernist ideas to the country. It was here that Nakashima first absorbed Japanese woodworking’s reverence for natural materials and subtle joinery. Later, during his internment in World War II, Nakashima honed these skills under traditional Japanese craftsmen, learning to see wood not merely as material but as a living entity, each knot and crack a story to be honored.
By the 1960s, Nakashima sought a way to produce his designs with the meticulous care he demanded but beyond the confines of his Pennsylvania workshop. This led him to Sakura Seisakusho, a Japanese studio and workshop renowned for its craftsmanship. In 1964, Nakashima formalized a collaboration: Sakura would produce his furniture in Japan, strictly adhering to his designs and philosophy. The pieces they made—tables, chairs, and benches—were more than furniture; they were conversations with the wood itself.
The tables crafted for Sakura were his signature live-edge designs, massive slabs that retained the natural contours and imperfections of the trees. Saws and planes could not erase the grain’s story; every crack was joined carefully, every surface respected. Chairs and benches combined elegance with ergonomics, simple yet profoundly human in their presence. Nakashima personally guided the artisans at Sakura, ensuring that the delicate balance between precision and spirit—the soul of his work—remained intact.
This partnership was not purely commercial. It was a meeting of philosophies. Nakashima and the artisans of Sakura shared a belief that furniture should endure, that making something beautiful was inseparable from making it well. The Sakura pieces, though produced in Japan, carry the same poetic essence as those made in New Hope, Pennsylvania—a testament to Nakashima’s vision and the workshop’s dedication.
Through this collaboration, Nakashima’s work bridged continents. Japan offered not only skilled hands but a continuity of tradition, a lineage of craft that resonated deeply with his own convictions. Today, furniture produced for Sakura Seisakusho is celebrated in exhibitions, archives, and private collections, standing as a living memory of Nakashima’s time in Japan and his dialogue with wood across cultures.
Nakashima’s legacy is more than tables and chairs—it is a philosophy: respect for material, reverence for tradition, and the courage to let nature speak through craft. His Japanese period, crystallized in his work with Sakura Seisakusho, represents the perfect fusion of East and West, art and utility, human hand and living wood.
