Blog - 5/23/10 - Nakashima Speech given at George Nakashima Room in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
I've been going to the Nakashima room at the Met to celebrate my birthday every year since 1999. In 2009 I gave a speech about George Nakashima which I improved upon in 2010. Here it is:
Welcome to this year’s Nakashima room gathering. Japanese woodworking is some of the most respected, revered woodworking in the world, but what makes Japanese woodwork truly famous is the work that goes into it. The Japanese word Shokunin is defined as “craftsman” or “artisan” but such a literal description does not fully express the deeper meaning. The Japanese apprentice is taught that shokunin means not only having technical skill but also implies an attitude and social consciousness. The Shokunin demonstrates knowledge of tools and skill with them, the ability to create beauty and the capacity to work with incredible speed. The value of an object is dependent on a subtle combination of skill and speed; this is what the apprentice’s master and his colleagues teach, and this is what the Shokunin believes. Such teaching is basic and continues to be significant from the earliest stages of apprenticeship through mastery of the craft. The Shokunin has a social obligation to work his best for the general welfare of the people. This obligation is both spiritual and material in that no matter what it is, if society requires it, the Shokunin’s responsibility is to fulfill the requirement.
George Nakashima was a Shokunin. He was a Japanese American woodworker, architect, and furniture maker who was one of the leading innovators of 20th Century furniture design.
Nakashima was born in May 24, 1905 in Spokane, Washington (coincidentally, my birthday is one day before Nakashima’s, May 23rd, which may be the reason I regularly drag people here). He died in 1990 in New Hope, PA
Nakashima’s mother was a picture bride which refers to the practice in the early 20th century of immigrant workers (chiefly Japanese and Korean) selecting brides from their native countries via a matchmaker, who paired bride and groom using only photographs and family recommendations of the possible candidates
He got a BA from the University of Washington, and a Master's degree in architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
In his early life, Nakashima toured Japan extensively, studying the subtleties of Japanese architecture and design.
Like others of Japanese ancestry, he was interned during the Second World War and sent to a camp in Idaho, in March 1942. Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. An immigrant’s life can be full of such indignities. At the camp he met a man trained in traditional Japanese carpentry. Nakashima became his apprentice and learned to master traditional Japanese hand tools and joinery techniques. He began to approach woodworking with discipline and patience, striving for perfection in every stage of construction. (In every cloud there’s a silver lining)
In his studio in New Hope, Pennsylvania, Nakashima’s work was influenced by Japanese designs and shop practices, as well as on American and International Modern styles. He explored the organic expressiveness of wood choosing boards for his pieces with knots, burls and figured grain.
This large-scale table (in the Nakashima room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art) is an example of Nakashima's signature woodworking design. It’s made of large wood slabs cut in half with the halves connected to give it somewhat of a symmetrical look. It has a smooth top but its unfinished natural edges evoke nature’s seemingly random forms. The slabs are connected with butterfly joints. The pedestal is unusual in that it deviates from the traditional four-legged table.