Sori Yanagi

Yanagi's father, Sōetsu Yanagi, founded the Japan Folk Crafts Museum and was a leader of the Mingei movement, which promoted the beauty of practical, everyday objects.^3,5 Yanagi later became director of the Mingeikan, the museum his father founded.² According to Japan House London, in 1977, Yanagi was named Director of the Japanese Folk Art Museum in Tokyo.^2,4

In 1952 Yanagi founded the Yanagi Industrial Design Institute, which developed household and furnishing products.⁴ In 1972 he opened a shop in Tokyo's Yotsuya area selling only his own designs.⁶ A Japan Times columnist described it as possibly the first design shop stocked only with one designer's products.⁶ A study of Yanagi and Charlotte Perriand says he learned approaches to observing objects and designing while accompanying her.⁵

The Butterfly Stool was designed in 1954 and manufactured from 1956 by Tendo Mokko.¹ Yanagi developed the design in collaboration with the Sendai Research Institute, which had plywood-moulding equipment from its wartime aircraft-fuselage work.¹ According to Victoria and Albert Museum: Explore the Collections, Kenmochi Isamu directed the Sendai institute in the mid-1950s.¹

Japan House London reports that the stool was refined over three years with Tendo Mokko and plywood researcher Inui Saburo.⁴ The stool consists of two identical pieces of moulded plywood joined by a brass rod and two screws under the seat.⁴ The Victoria and Albert Museum's example is heat-moulded rosewood-faced plywood with a brass cross-bar.¹

The Victoria and Albert Museum calls the Butterfly Stool one of the most recognised 20th-century furniture designs.¹ According to Japan House London, the Butterfly Stool is held in major collections including MoMA and the Louvre.^1,4 The Victoria and Albert Museum interprets the stool's simple design as reflecting an inheritance from the early-20th-century Japanese Mingei movement.¹

Japan House London dates Yanagi's first bowl designs to 1960.⁴ The bowls' ergonomic form was developed through research with professional and home cooks.⁴

In 1977, Yanagi assumed the directorship of the Mingeikan, the museum founded by his father.⁴ An academic paper on his curatorial role discusses how the museum navigated modern societal changes during his tenure.³ Yanagi's designs are characterised as timeless and functional.⁴