Sori Yanagi was born in 1915 in Tokyo. In 1952, he founded the Yanagi Industrial Design Institute, which created a prolific number of articles of daily use and furnishings. Sori Yanagi’s organic forms combine western industrial designs with Japan’s native artisanal traditions. This successful synthesis made Sori Yanagi one of the most significant Japanese designers of the post-war era. In addition to furniture, he also designed lighting, glass objects, cutlery, children’s toys, metro stations, cars and motorcycles.

This book was published on occasion of the retrospective exhibition "Sori Yanagi Design" at the Sezon Museum of Art, 1998. With texts by Charlotte Perriand, Angelo Mangiarotti, Timo Sarpaneva, Sori Yanagi, Shukuro Habara, Shutaro Mukai, Masaru Katsumi, Kiyoshi Seike, Ren Suzuki, Akira Tamura, Wahei Sakai, Ikko Tanaka, Mayumi Miyawaki, Kohei Sugiura+Shoji Usuda, Motomi Kawakami, and Ryu Niimi. A biography & other texts by Yanagi are included.