George Nakashima

George Katsutoshi Nakashima (1905 –1990) was a Japanese-American woodworker, architect, furniture maker, one of the leading innovators of 20th century furniture design, and a father of the American craft movement. In 1983, he accepted the Order of the Sacred Treasure, an honor bestowed by the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese government. He studied architecture at the University of Washington in Seattle, the Ecole Americaine des Beaux-Arts Fontainebleau in France, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received the gold medal for craftsmanship from the American Institute of Architects and the Hazlett Award. The subject of several one-man exhibitions, Nakashima also authored The Soul of a Tree: A Woodworker's Reflections.