Set of 4 "Zaisu" Floor Chairs
Manufactured by Tendo Mokko
Japan, 1961
Wood
Measurements (each)
33 × 49,5 × 40h cm
13 × 19,5 × 15,8h in
Provenance
Private collection, Tokyo
Literature
Japanese Wooden Chairs. Published by Shotenkenchiku-Sha. Japan, 1005. Page 77
Eight decades of masterful designs from leading Japanese furniture maker Tendo Mokko. Published by Tendo Mokko. Japan, 2020. Pages 248
Design Japonais 1950-1995, exhibition catalogue, Editions du Centre Pompidou, 1996, similar model p. 76
Details
Stamped with manufacturer’s label
Notes
The Floor Chair designed by Kenji Fujimori for Tendo Mokko is a refined example of contemporary Japanese design that balances comfort, craftsmanship, and minimalism. Created with a deep respect for traditional Japanese seating culture, the chair is intended to be used directly on the floor, encouraging a closer relationship with the surrounding space and promoting a relaxed posture. Fujimori’s design combines Tendo Mokko’s advanced wood-bending techniques with a clean, modern aesthetic. The gently curved plywood structure supports the natural contours of the body, while the soft upholstered seat provides comfort without excess. Its low, elegant profile allows it to blend seamlessly into both modern and traditional interiors.
More than a piece of furniture, the Floor Chair reflects the Japanese philosophy of seijaku — quiet refinement — and embodies the idea that simplicity can enhance the user’s everyday experience. Through this work, Kenji Fujimori continuedTendo Mokko’s legacy of fusing craftsmanship with contemporary design sensibility.
About Tendo Mokko
In northwest Japan, in Yamagata Prefecture, a group of carpenters and joiners created a cooperative that primarily produced wooden objects, ammunition, and supply crates for the army. Incorporated in 1942, the cooperative worked with the Sendai Institute of Industrial Arts and used the new molded plywood technology to make decoy aircraft. After the war, Tendo opened an office in Tokyo (1947). It produced furniture for the occupying troops, then turned, in the early 1950s, to furniture for the domestic market. One of its first commissions came from the architect Kenzo Tange, who designed plywood seats for the Ehime Prefecture, built in 1953. Plywood was then a new material for designers, and Tendo was one of the first manufacturers to use it for its furniture, notably for the Butterfly stool, created in 1956 by Sori Yanagi. Tendo's policy of paying royalties for design projects attracted many other designers, so much so that, in the sixties, Tendo could boast among its ranks the leading furniture designers Isamu Kenmochi, Daisaku Choh, and Riki Watanabe, whose creations are still produced. In addition, Tendo encouraged young designers by funding an annual competition from 1960 to 1967 and by manufacturing some of the winning designs itself, such as Reiko Tanabe's plywood chair. In 1964, Tendo received the Mainichi Prize for Industrial Design for its pivotal role in furniture manufacturing.
Biography
Kenji Fujimori was a Japanese industrial designer active during the postwar decades, best known for his collaboration with the celebrated manufacturer Tendo Mokko. Although biographical records about Fujimori remain scarce, his work occupies an important position within the lineage of Japanese modern design that flourished during the 1950s and 1960s, a period defined by innovation in molded plywood and the fusion of traditional craftsmanship with modernist aesthetics.
Fujimori’s most recognized creation is the Zaisu — a legless floor chair that exemplifies the refined simplicity and functional elegance characteristic of Japanese domestic life. Produced by Tendo Mokko in the early 1960s, the model reflects the firm’s pioneering mastery of bent and molded plywood technology. The Zaisu’s compact, ergonomic form allowed it to adapt seamlessly to the tatami-based interiors of Japanese homes, embodying the balance between comfort, material economy, and modern expression.
The design achieved enduring recognition, becoming a recipient of Japan’s Good Design Long Life Design Award, and has remained in continuous production or circulation for decades — a testament to its timelessness and cultural resonance. Fujimori’s work, though modest in scale, demonstrates the same disciplined elegance found in the contemporaneous works of designers such as Isamu Kenmochi, Sori Yanagi, and Riki Watanabe, all of whom were associated with Tendo Mokko’s forward-thinking approach to industrial furniture design.
Beyond the Zaisu, Fujimori’s portfolio is believed to include several variations of slatted lounge and stacking chairs, produced in different veneers such as keyaki (zelkova) and maple. These pieces share the same sensibility of crafted minimalism, emphasizing tactile warmth and understated form over ornament.
While details of Fujimori’s personal life and training remain undocumented, his contribution aligns with the ethos that defined Tendo Mokko’s postwar identity — a vision rooted in the harmony of human use, material innovation, and cultural continuity. His designs, quietly influential and still admired by collectors and scholars of Japanese modernism, illustrate how mid-century Japanese design successfully bridged the artisanal and the industrial, producing furniture that is both deeply local and universally modern.
