Sori Yanagi Japanese Designer Midcentury Signed Bent Rosewood Butterfly Stool
View Similar Items
Sori Yanagi Japanese Designer Midcentury Signed Bent Rosewood Butterfly Stool
About the Item
- Creator:Sori Yanagi (Designer)
- Design:
- Dimensions:Height: 15.5 in (39.37 cm)Width: 16.75 in (42.55 cm)Depth: 12 in (30.48 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:20th Century
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. In good vintage condition with light wear (primarily to one side of the top seat. Please see photos). A beautiful, timeless piece overall.
- Seller Location:Studio City, CA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU2254314543522
Butterfly Stool
Consisting of two gracefully curving and identical molded plywood shells that recall butterfly wings and are fastened together by a single brass crossbar, the Butterfly stool by Sori Yanagi (1915–2011) is the most acute mid-century merging of Eastern and Western sensibilities.
When he introduced the structured chair to a market that had until then been defined by tatami mats, Yanagi upended Japanese tradition. But the Tokyo-born furniture designer, who created the all-plastic Elephant stool during the same year in 1954, demonstrated reverence for the past with his piece, too: The chair’s two inverted, L-shaped plywood components, constructed by molding methods made popular by forward-looking American designers Charles and Ray Eames, have been compared to calligraphic forms and resemble the regal, spare torii gates that serve as entrances to Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, bringing together the sacred and mundane worlds.
The son of Soetsu Yanagi — the founder of Mingei, the Japanese folk art movement — Sori studied painting and architecture, and later worked for French architect-designer Charlotte Perriand when she was appointed an arts and crafts advisor to the Japanese Board of Trade in 1940. Yanagi became her travel companion in Japan, learning about European modernism and French design, and eventually switched his focus from architecture to design. As a product designer, he was immensely prolific and worked steadily until his death in 2011. Yanagi’s wide range of items, from Sony’s early “H Type” tape recorder (1951) to children’s toys to pedestrian bridges to a best-selling stainless-steel teakettle, more than half a million of which are sold yearly in Japan, defined postwar Japanese society. His products are both practical and distinctly modern, and are characterized by an affinity for both new shapes and simple, functional forms. As a designer, Yanagi’s modernist focus on efficiency and structure yielded a legacy of creative pieces that not only struck a nerve in Japan, but defined its postwar society as well.
The Butterfly stool, an early-career design first manufactured by Tendo Mokko, has remained in production since the 1950s — it’s currently available from Vitra in maple and rosewood. Soon after it debuted, the stool won the Gold Medal at the Milan Triennale of 1957 and later entered the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and elsewhere. Simple and sculptural, the Butterfly stool is Yanagi’s most celebrated and well-received piece of furniture.
Sori Yanagi
Sōri Yanagi was a Japanese product designer. Born in 1915 in Tokyo, Japan. His father was Yanagi Sōetsu, founder of the Japanese folk crafts mingei movement, which celebrated the beauty of everyday objects, and the Japanese Folk Crafts Museum (Nihon Mingeikan). Yanagi entered Tokyo Art School in 1934, where he studied both art and architecture. He played a role in the Japanese modern design developed after the Second World War to the high-growth period in the Japanese economy. Yanagi was both a representative of the wholly Japanese modern designer and a full-blown Modernist, who merged simplicity and practicality with elements of traditional Japanese crafts. He designed the official torch for the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan. Yanagi died in 2011 at the age of 96.
- Beautiful Moorish Syrian or Asian Inlaid Inlay Wood Box Storage Chest TrunkLocated in Studio City, CAStunning mosaic, geometric design, and gorgeous craftsmanship. This work is made of beautiful dark wood and shell and/or bone inlay. The iron handles are also a nice touch. A genuine...Category
20th Century Asian Moorish Decorative Boxes
MaterialsWood
- Kiyoshi Saito Signed Japanese Woodblock Print BuddhaBy Kiyoshi SaitōLocated in Studio City, CAA beautifully and serenely composed woodblock print by famed Japanese printmaker Kiyoshi Saito. Many consider Saito to be one of the most important, if not the most important, contem...Category
Vintage 1960s Japanese Showa Prints
MaterialsPaper
- Shozo Komatsu Signed Limited Edition Japanese Abstract Expressionism EtchingLocated in Studio City, CAA fantastic and quite rare Mid-century Modern abstract etching by Japanese artist Shozo Kamatsu. The work is hand-pencil signed, dated (1964), and numbered (4/10) by the artist ...Category
Vintage 1960s Japanese Mid-Century Modern Prints
MaterialsPaper
- Shiko Shikou Munakata Rare Signed Japanese Pottery Chawan Tea Bowl Signed BoxBy Shikou MunakataLocated in Studio City, CAAn exceptionally rare, wonderfully designed Chawan tea bowl by famed Japanese master woodblock printmaker/ artist Shiko Munakata (1903-1975) who is widely considered to be the most important Japanese visual artist of the 20th century and the Pablo Picasso of Japan. This hand-painted work clearly illustrates Munakata's whimsical side as it is of a Koma - a child's spinning top toy. Very few examples of Munakata's work in ceramics exist still today. The work is signed by Munakata on the base as well as the original wood protective storage box (his seal can also be seen faintly in the lower-left corner). The bowl has a small kintsugi or "golden joinery" repair - the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold - on the inside. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise. Munakata who is often compared to Picasso was primarily associated with and a principal figure in both the Sosaku-Hanga (which stressed the artist as the sole creator ) and the Mingei (folk art) movements. His many accolades and awards include the "Prize of Excellence" at the Second International Print Exhibition in Lugano, Switzerland in 1952, and first prize at the São Paulo Bienal Exhibition in Brazil in 1955, followed by the Grand Prix Award at the Venice Biennale in 1956, and the Order of Cultural Merit, the highest honor in the arts by the Japanese government in 1970. In 1960 after returning from a year abroad exhibiting his work in the United States, the Horinji Temple in Kyoto bestowed upon him the honorary rank of “Hokkyo”. In 1962, he received the rank of “Hogan” from Nisseki Temple in Toyama prefecture. He also received a Medal of Honor in 1963 and the Asahi Shimbun culture prize in 1965. Munakata's work can be found in numerous international collections and museums including: The Britsih Museum, UK The Chicago Art Institute Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), NY The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met), NY The Philadelphia Museum of Art The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM), Washington DC Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis And his own museum The Munakata Shiko...Category
Mid-20th Century Japanese Showa Ceramics
MaterialsCeramic
- Japanese Signed Polychrome Ceramic Pottery Plate, Showa PeriodLocated in Studio City, CAA wonderfully decorated, hand painted Japanese plate. From a collection of Japanese art, pottery, and artifacts. Signed or stamped o...Category
Mid-20th Century Japanese Showa Ceramics
MaterialsCeramic
- Robert Crowder Signed 5 Panel Large Japanese Nihonga Lanscape Pastoral PaintingBy Robert CrowderLocated in Studio City, CAA beautiful, engaging, original, and quite rare work of art by American artist Robert Crowder (1911-2010). Crowder lived in Japan in the 1930s (u...Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Paintings
MaterialsWood, Paint, Paper
- Sori Yanagi BUTTERFLY StoolBy Sori YanagiLocated in Lake Worth Beach, FLArtist/Designer; Manufacturer: Sori Yanagi (Japanese, 1915-2011); Tendo (Japan) Marking(s); notes: no marking(s) apparent Materials: rosewood plywood, brass Dimensions (H, W, D): 15....Category
20th Century Stools
MaterialsWood
- Butterfly Stool by Sori YanagiBy Sori YanagiLocated in Lille, Hauts-de-FranceA butterfly stool, model "S-0521/M", by Sori Yanagi, in wood and patinated brass, manufactured by Tendo Mokko, Japan, with the old editor’s label, model designed in 1954.Category
Vintage 1950s Japanese Mid-Century Modern Stools
MaterialsBrass
- Sori Yanagi, "Butterfly" Stools, Walnut, Brass, Japan, 1954By Sori Yanagi, Tendo MokkoLocated in High Point, NCA set of first production walnut "Butterfly" stools, designed in 1954 by Sori Yanagi and produced by Tendo Mokko, Japan, c. 1960s. Unlabeled. Seat height: 15.75"Category
Vintage 1950s Japanese Mid-Century Modern Stools
MaterialsBrass
- Sori Yanagi Rosewood and Brass Butterfly Stool VintageBy Sori YanagiLocated in North Miami, FLThis iconic and collectable butterfly stool is a work of simple and elegant sculpture by the Japanese designer Sori Yanagi. It is rosewood and brass structure. The combination aesthe...Category
Vintage 1960s Japanese Mid-Century Modern Footstools
MaterialsBrass
- Sori Yanagi ‘Elephant’ stool for Kotobuki, Japan 1954By Sori Yanagi, KotobukiLocated in Rotterdam, NLElephant stool by Sori Yanagi for Kotobuki Seating Company, Tokyo 1954. Yanagi originally designed the stool as a work chair for his studio, a couple of years later it was released b...Category
Vintage 1950s Japanese Mid-Century Modern Stools
MaterialsFiberglass
- Sori Yanagi "Butterfly" Mid Century Stool in Plywood Produced by Tendo, 1980sBy Sori Yanagi, Tendo MokkoLocated in Stockholm, SERare and iconic mid century stool model "Butterfly" in molded plywood by Sori Yanagi produced by Tendo Mokko, Japan ca 1980s. Acquired from the very original owner who bought this st...Category
Vintage 1980s Japanese Mid-Century Modern Stools
MaterialsPlywood