Tokujin Yoshioka

Tokujin Yoshioka (吉岡徳仁) is a Japanese designer and artist active in the fields of design, architecture and contemporary art. Some of his works are part of permanent collections in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In 2007, he was named by Newsweek one of the 100 most respected Japanese in the world.

Biography
Tokujin Yoshioka was born in Saga Prefecture, Japan in 1967. After graduating from the Kuwasawa Design School in Tokyo in 1988, he studied under the designers Shiro Kuramata and Issey Miyake.

He established his own shop, Tokujin Yoshioka Inc., in 2000. He has designed for Issey Miyake and other global companies such as Cartier, Swarovski, Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Toyota, and Lexus, and has been announcing new works at Salone del Mobile Milano (world's largest international furniture exhibition) in collaboration with Italian furniture brands, including Kartell, Moroso, Glas Italia and Driade.

Style
Active in the fields of design, architecture and contemporary art, he creates works under the theme of light and nature, which also reflect the Japanese idea of beauty. By using immaterial elements, such as light, he creates unique expressions that go beyond the concept of shape.

Chairs created out of natural structure, 2001
Paper chair 'Honey-pop' (2000) is a chair that changes shape from plane to three-dimensional. By spreading open a 1 cm layer of 120 layers of thin paper, a honeycomb structure is born, and only when a person sits on it, the shape is fixed and the work is completed. 'PANE chair' (2006) is made like fiberous structure of plants, creating a structure with thin fibers of 1mm intertwining. During the production process, a block made of fibers is placed in a paper duct and put in oven as if baking a bread and by adding heat, the form of chair is shape memorized and completed. Chair made of natural crystals 'Venus – Natural crystal chair' (2008) is a work that is transformed into a chair by growing natural crystals in a water tank to create crystalline structure.

Glass projects, 2002
Has announced starting with glass bench 'Water Block' (2002), 'Transparent Japanese House '(2002), 'Chair that disappears in the rain' (2002), 'Waterfall' (2005–2006), 'Glass Tea House – KOU-AN' (2011), 'Water Block – PRISM' (2017). Glass bench 'Water Block' has been exhibited at Musée d'Orsay in Paris since 2011.

Musée d' Orsay, Paris, 2011
At Musée d' Orsay in Paris, participated in renewal project of the Impressionists Gallery. Together with works of representative Impressionists, Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 10 'Water Blocks', glass bench is permanently displayed. It blend in with light painted by the Impressionists painters, creating a space that starts a new conversation between history and contemporary.

Crystallized Project, 2008
Natural crystal chair 'VENUS – Natural crystal chair' (2008) is a work in which in a water tank, natural crystals are grown to form crystalline structures and transformed into a chair. One music piece creates one painting. With crystal paintings, 'Swan Lake', 'Destiny' and 'Moonlight', music is played during the growth process of crystals and is completed when forms of crystals are changed with the vibrations of sound. 'Rose' is a sculpture crystallizing colour pigments of rose, expressing the energy of life.

Rainbow Church, 2010, 2013
Architecture created using more than 500 crystal prisms, the 'Rainbow Church ', focuses on human sense of light perception, and is a work that is completed when a person experiences light. It is an architecture that expresses light itself, filling the space with rainbow colors as light is dispersed by prisms.

Glass Tea House – KOU-AN, 2011
At the 54th Venezia Biennnale International Art Exhibition, Glasstress 2011, the collateral event of the 54th La Biennale di Vennezia, the glass tea house – KOU-AN was presented as an architectural project and in 2015, was built on the stage (observation deck) of Shogun-zuka, a mound of Shogun, Seiryu-den, which is a precinct of Tendai Sect Shoren-in Temple. Ao (Blue) Fudo Myo-o statue, a national treasure, one of the three great Fudo, god of fire, is dedicated to Seiryu-den. From its 220 meters altitude big stage, you can enjoy a panoramic view over Kyoto city below. In the year 794, Emperor Kanmu visited this place and appreciating its basin formation (landscape) was convinced that Kyoto is the most suitable place to be designated a capital, initiating construction of the ancient capital city. So, it is said that this is the original point where ancient capital city of Kyoto, a city that symbolizes Japanese culture began.

Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Torch
On March 20, 2019, the torch for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo was unveiled. The torch was designed by Yoshioka to be built in the shape of an iconic Japanese cherry blossom (sakura) flower using the aluminium extrusion manufacturing technology employed to produce Shinkansen bullet trains. He also designed the Paralympic torch for the 2020 Summer Paralympics.

Representative works

 * 2000　Tokujin Yoshioka Design
 * 2000　TōFU / Yamagiwa
 * 2001　Honey-pop
 * 2001　THINK ZONE / Mori building
 * 2002　Water Block
 * 2002　Transparent Japanese House
 * 2002–2003　Chair that disappears in the rain
 * 2004　Souffle / Maison Hermès
 * 2005–2007　MEDIA SKIN / au design project KDDI
 * 2006　The Gate – Tokujin Yoshioka x Lexus
 * 2006　Waterfall
 * 2006　PANE chair
 * 2007　Tornado / Design Miami
 * 2007　Rainbow chair
 * 2007　Tear Drop / Yamagiwa
 * 2006–2008　Swarovski Ginza flagship store
 * 2007–2008　VENUS – Natural crystal chair
 * 2007–2008　Crystallized Painting – Moonlight / Destiny / Unfinished
 * 2008　Eternal / Swarovski Crystal Palace
 * 2009　Moon Fragment / Cartier
 * 2009　Lake of Shimmer / Basel World / Swarovski
 * 2010　X-RAY / KDDI iida
 * 2010　Stellar / Swarovski Crystal Palace
 * 2010–2013　Rainbow Church
 * 2010　Snow
 * 2011　Glass Tea House – KOU-AN / The 54th La Biennale di Venezia – Glasstress 2011
 * 2011　The Impressionist Gallery renewal project / Musée d'Orsay
 * 2013　Crystallized Painting – Swan Lake, Spider's Thread, Rose
 * 2013　Wings of Sparkle / Basel World / Swarovski
 * 2014　Cartier Time Art – Mechanic of Passion / Power Station of Art
 * 2015–2017　Glass Tea House – KOU-AN / Shogunzuka Seiryu-den, Kyoto
 * 2017　Spectrum
 * 2017　Water Block – PRISM
 * 2017　S.F chair
 * 2019　Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Torch
 * 2020　Crystal of Light / Tokyo Metro Ginza Station Public art
 * 2022　Star / Tokyo Midtown Yaesu Public art

Major exhibitions

 * 1998–2000　ISSEY MIYAKE Making Things / Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, Ace Gallery NY, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
 * 2002　Tokujin Yoshioka Honey-pop, MDS/G
 * 2005–2006　Tokujin Yoshioka x Lexus / Museum of Permanente
 * 2005　Stardust / Swarovski Crystal Palace / Milano Design Week
 * 2007　Tornado / Design Miami / Designer of the year 2007
 * 2007　Tokujin x Moroso / Milano Design Week
 * 2009　Story of … Memories of Cartier Creations / Tokyo National Museum Hyokeikan
 * 2008　Second Nature / 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT
 * 2010　Sensing Nature / Mori Art Museum
 * 2010　The Invisibles Snowflake / Kartell Gallery
 * 2011　TWILIGHT – Tokujin Yoshioka / Moroso / Milano Design Week
 * 2011　Tokujin Yoshioka : Waterfall / Sharman Contemporary Art Foundation
 * 2011　Glass Tea House – KOU-AN / The 54th La Biennale di Venezia – Glasstress 2011
 * 2011–2012, 2014　Cartier Time Art / Bellerive Museum, Artscience Museum, Power Station of Art
 * 2012　TOKUJIN YOSHIOKA 2012 CREATOR OF THE YEAR / Maison & Objet
 * 2013　TOKUJIN YOSHIOKA_Crystallize / Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
 * 2014　La Biennale di Venezia – The 14th International Architecture Exhibition 2014
 * 2015　Make Yourself Comfortable / Chatsworth House
 * 2015　TOKUJIN YOSHIOKA_TORNADO / Saga Prefectural Art Museum
 * 2015–2017　Glass Tea House – KOU-AN / Shogunzuka Seiryu-den, Kyoto
 * 2017　TOKUJIN YOSHIOKA_SPECTRUM / Shiseido Gallery
 * 2017　TOKUJIN YOSHIOKA x LG : S.F / Milano Design Week

Permanent collections

 * Museum of Modern Art, New York
 * Centre Pompidou, Paris
 * Musée d'Orsay, Paris
 * Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
 * Victoria and Albert Museum, London
 * Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
 * Vitra Design Museum
 * The Art Institute of Chicago
 * San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
 * Saint Louis Art Museum
 * Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
 * Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
 * Israel Museum
 * Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art

Major awards

 * 1997　JCD Design Award – Grand prize (Japan)
 * 2000　I.D. Annual Design Review (USA)
 * 2001　I.D. Annual Design Review (USA)
 * 2001　A&W Award The Coming Designer for the Future (Germany)
 * 2002　Mainichi Design Award 2001 (Japan)
 * 2005　Talents du Luxe (France)
 * 2007　The 57th Art Encouragement Prize for New Artist (Japan)
 * 2007　Good Design Award – Gold prize (Japan)
 * 2007　Design Miami – Designer of the Year 2007 (USA)
 * 2008　Wallpaper Design Awards 2008 – Best furniture designer (UK)
 * 2008　DFA Design for Asia Awards 2008 – Grand Award (Hong Kong)
 * 2009　ELLE DECO International Design Awards – Designer of the Year 2009 (Italy)
 * 2010　Fast Company – The 100 Most Creative People in Business 2010 (USA)
 * 2010　TOKYO Design & Art ENVIRONMENTAL AWARDS – Artist of the Year (Japan)
 * 2011　A&W Architektur & Wohnen – Designer of the Year 2011 (Germany)
 * 2012　Maison & Objet – Creator of the Year 2012 (France)
 * 2016　ELLE DECO International Design Awards (EDIDA) 2016 (Italy)
 * 2017　Milano Design Award 2017 – Winner (Italy)

Publications, collection of works

 * 2001　Tokujin Design (gap / Japan)
 * 2006　Tokujin Yoshioka Design (English edition, Japanese edition) (Phaidon / UK)
 * 2008　Second Nature (Kyuryudo / Japan)
 * 2009　Invisible Forms (Esquire Magazine / Japan)
 * 2010　SENSING NATURE (Heibonsha / Japan)
 * 2010　TOKUJIN YOSHIOKA (Rizzoli / USA)
 * 2013　TOKUJIN YOSHIOKA_Crystallize (Seigensha / Japan)
 * 2017　KOU-AN Glass Tea House (Kyuryudo / Japan)