Ubunji Kidokoro

Ubunji Kidokoro is a Japanese cabinetmaker from the early 20th century. In 193, he made a series of armchairs and sofas for Mitsukoshi, a department store that played a role in introducing and promoting European modernism in Japan. Aalto's armchair, and Kidokoro's later version, expresses an artisanal response to the Bauhaus and international modernist style, using warm, natural materials instead of cold metals. In the 1940s, Charlotte Perriand exhibited the Kikokoro armchair in the Takashimaya department stores in Tokyo and Kyoto and produced furniture designs using similar methods. The Kikokoro armchair perfectly illustrates the mutual exchange and influence between Western and Japanese modernisms.