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TAWARAYA "Boxing Ring" Seating Pod by Masanori Umed, Memphis Design, Japan, 1983

About the Item

The TAWARAYA Ring by Masanori Umeda for MEMPHIS srl is one of that design movements most famous & critically-discussed pieces from the inaugural MEMPHIS exhibition of 1981. The installation was particularly remembered as the seating area for the iconic early photo of Sottsass & the entire MEMPHIS team sitting within it --- smiling, laughing, kibitzing et al! Tawaraya as a concept is the notion that in a country as heavily-populated as Japan is, a safe or quiet space to repose & collect one's thoughts seemed the perfect antidote to the briskness of the streets & the huge throngs of people. In fact, the real Tawaraya in Kyoto is widely considered to be Japan's finest ryokan (traditional Japanese inn). Born in Japan in 1941, Umeda moved to Milan in 1967 and worked with Italian designer Ettore Sottsass at the manufacturer Olivetti for almost ten years. He returned to Tokyo in 1979. In 1980, Umeda received a letter from Sottsass inviting him to join a group exhibition, which was to be the launch of a provocative new design movement: the Memphis Group. Sottsass—who had participated in an earlier experimental design movement in Italy—wrote that this new movement would emphasise what he called a ‘new international style’. The letter included a list of other participating designers, such as Michael Graves and Andrea Branzi, and example sketches drawn in Sottsass’ signature style: geometric, colourful, with laminate surfaces. While Umeda didn’t fully understand what ‘new international style’ meant, he immediately intuited from the sketches what Sottsass was aiming for and began developing his response. He interpreted ‘new international’ to mean a blend of Sottsass’ colourful surfaces with traditional Japanese crafts and architectural systems—a combination that he hoped would prove entirely unique. For the MEMPHIS inaugural exhibition, Sottsass renamed every object after hotels from different parts of the world. Tawaraya was named after a high-end Kyoto ryokan—a traditional Japanese inn with tatami-matted rooms—where Sottsass had stayed before. Umeda found this amusing because for him, the work represented the simplest, cheapest type of room or a public square that belongs to everyone. Like the Memphis Group, he was interested in dismantling the modernist spell that had taken hold of design. For Sottsass, it didn’t matter. The associations didn't have to make sense; they were meant to play with and open up the system of design. The exhibition was a big success—almost 2,000 people attended the opening. But what Umeda remembers most from the event was the smell of the tatami mats. The mats had been fabricated by craftsmen in Italy according to instructions drawn by a Japanese mat-maker. Freshly made tatami mats have an intense, grassy smell that hints at starting anew. This smell, which many Italians had never encountered, permeated the exhibition. Umeda and Shiro Kuramata were two of three Japanese designers participating in the exhibition (alongside architect Isozaki Arata), and Umeda later modestly positioned their roles using a theatre analogy: if Sottsass and the Italian designers were the stars, Umeda and Kuramata were the jesters, adding some exotic spice but ultimately on the sidelines. However, the inclusion of Japanese designers, together with French, Spanish, British, and American designers, helped fulfil the Memphis Group’s aspirations of an ‘international’ style. Thirty-five years later, at a Memphis Group exhibition in Seoul, Umeda was positively surprised by the crowds of enthusiastic people born long after the group was formed. He had always been a bit ironic about the Memphis style and felt that of all the hundreds of objects and interiors he designed during his career, only Tawaraya and his flower-shaped, velvet chair Getsuen were worthwhile. But seeing young people from Asia with no previous knowledge of the Memphis Group enjoying the exhibition made Umeda feel that maybe he did contribute something to design after all.

Creator:
Masanori Umeda (Designer)
Dimensions:
Height: 48 in (121.92 cm)Width: 110 in (279.4 cm)Depth: 110 in (279.4 cm)Seat Height: 20 in (50.8 cm)
Style:
Post-Modern (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Laminate,Wood,Hand-Crafted
Place of Origin:
Italy
Period:
1980-1989
Date of Manufacture:
1983
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
Tinton Falls, NJ
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU10626246715282

Shop All Masanori Umeda

Masanori Umeda

From his cheerful Getsuen Lily chair to his provocative Ginza robot cabinet, Masanori Umeda’s furniture designs are often described by critics and collectors alike as poetic, ironic and full of whimsy.

Umeda was born in 1941 in Kanagawa, graduating from Tokyo’s Kuwasawa Design School in 1962. In 1967, he moved to Milan, Italy, where he began his design career working in the studio of Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni. From 1970 to 1979, Umeda was a design consultant for the Olivetti studio, and there he met prolific furniture designer and architect Ettore Sottsass, who founded the Memphis Group, Italy's boldest, brashest postmodern design movement.

In the early 1980s, Umeda joined Memphis, creating his most famous piece, the Tawayara boxing ring seating unit in 1981. Comprising a monochrome, Tatami matte floor, tie-dyed cushions, bungee-style ropes and flexible lighting at each of the four corners, the Tawayara was Umeda’s homage to space-constrained Japanese living areas. It remains one of Umeda’s rarest pieces (only 30 were ever made). Fashion designer and icon Karl Lagerfeld once owned a Tawayara boxing ring that featured prominently in his Monaco apartment.

In 1986, Umeda returned to Japan and opened his U-MetaDesign Studio (now Umeda Design Studio Inc.) in Tokyo, garnering accolades for his uniquely lighthearted collection of armchairs, lounge chairs, table lamps and decorative objects.

Over the course of his career, Umeda has won several awards, including the BraunPrize in 1968, the Grand Prix of Japan Display Design Award in 1981, the Japan Commercial Space Design Award in 1984 and the Grand Prix of Good Design Award in 1990.

Umeda continues to design furnishings that embody the spirit of postmodernism, enjoying collaborations with Memphis Milano and Italian furniture manufacturer Edra. His pieces have been exhibited internationally and are held in the collections of museums around the world, including the M+ Museum in Hong Kong, which acquired more than 180 of his works in 2015.

On 1stDibs, find a range of vintage Masanori Umeda seating, lighting and serveware.