Nakashima, George

Nakashima, George

(1905–90) furniture maker; born in Spokane, Wash. Following early work as an architect in Tokyo and India, he moved to New Hope, Pa., in the mid-1940s to begin making sculptural furniture by hand. His creations were informed by Japanese grace and Shaker design. Known as the dean of 20th-century American woodworkers because of his high professional standards, he wrote a book describing his reverence for wood, The Soul of a Tree (1981).