Mira Nakashima Decorative Objects
For nearly two decades, Mira Nakashima worked in the shadow of her legendary father, master woodworker George Nakashima. She never intended to follow in his footsteps, but she was persuaded to join him in his woodworking business after earning a graduate degree in architecture from Tokyo’s Waseda University.
“My father was an architect who went to Harvard, didn’t like it and switched to MIT,” Nakashima explains.
“I went to Harvard and loved it. He encouraged me to study architecture, so I did. I would rather have studied music. I was in a dance group and a choral group. After college, my godmother took me on a tour of Zen monasteries in Japan. I went to live there with an aunt to master Japanese, flower arranging and the tea ceremony. Then I went to Waseda University, learning architecture by the atelier system, where you actually build things. I married a fellow student and we began having children. After we moved to Pittsburgh and had more babies, my father asked me if I wanted to come ‘home,’ promising to build us a house near him. My husband liked the idea, so we went. I began to do part-time work for my father. It was just a job. Then my husband and I parted, so I went to work with Dad. It was never planned.”
That part-time position turned into a full-time job, and when George Nakashima died, in 1990, Mira was faced with a choice: continue the family legacy or shutter the business. As news of her father’s death spread, clients started canceling orders, fearing that the studio’s innovation would wane without him at the helm.
Skeptics proved wrong. Mira Nakashima continued to execute her father’s iconic designs — such as his Conoid chair — while also creating new ones of her own that take advantage of and highlight the unique characteristics and allure of her, and her father’s, favored material.
“Keisho means ‘continuation’ in Japanese,” she says. “I am just as interested in traditional lines, classic proportions and fine wood specimens, but I work out my designs differently. The boards tell you what they want to reveal.”
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Early 2000s American Arts and Crafts Mira Nakashima Decorative Objects
Wood
1990s Italian Mira Nakashima Decorative Objects
Porcelain
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Mira Nakashima Decorative Objects
Chrome
1970s Italian Vintage Mira Nakashima Decorative Objects
Metal
20th Century European Neoclassical Revival Mira Nakashima Decorative Objects
Silver Plate
Early 20th Century American Arts and Crafts Mira Nakashima Decorative Objects
Bronze
1960s European Vintage Mira Nakashima Decorative Objects
Art Glass
1970s European Vintage Mira Nakashima Decorative Objects
Murano Glass
2010s Italian Mira Nakashima Decorative Objects
Marble, Brass
Mid-20th Century European Art Deco Mira Nakashima Decorative Objects
Marble, Bronze
1930s French Art Deco Vintage Mira Nakashima Decorative Objects
Malachite
Early 20th Century American Arts and Crafts Mira Nakashima Decorative Objects
Bronze
21st Century and Contemporary European Modern Mira Nakashima Decorative Objects
Marble
Early 2000s American Arts and Crafts Mira Nakashima Decorative Objects
Wood
Early 2000s American Arts and Crafts Mira Nakashima Decorative Objects
Wood
Early 2000s American Arts and Crafts Mira Nakashima Decorative Objects
Wood
2010s American Mid-Century Modern Mira Nakashima Decorative Objects
Wood
1990s American Organic Modern Mira Nakashima Decorative Objects
Wood
Early 2000s American Mira Nakashima Decorative Objects
21st Century and Contemporary American Mira Nakashima Decorative Objects
Wood