The Soul of a Tree: A Woodworkers Reflections

Nakashima, George

ISBN 10: 0870119036 / ISBN 13: 9780870119033

Published by Kodansha USA, 1988

About this Item

SIGNED! Tokyo and New York: Kodansha International, 1988. 1st paperback edition. 4to. 221pp. Illus. Signed and dated by author on flyleaf. Very Good book. Very Good dust jacket. Dust jacket bumped and creased at spine crown. Covers mildly edgeworn. Photo of author and family tipped on to flyleaf, with names labeled (Setsuko Impali?, Roz Halper, George Nakashima, Kevin Nakashima, Jan Karezpa?, June Campos, Mira Nakashima) and same date as inscription. Also laid in: article by Carol Lutfy from Architecture digest, featuring Isamu Noguchi's residence and the Nakashima furnishings; article by Roberta Smith from New York Times, reviewing a 1989 Nakashima exhibitionat the American Craft Museum; invitation to a 1995 joint exhition of works by Nakashima and Noguchi. (woodworking, furniture making, trees) Inquire if you need further information.

Seller Inventory # MA04A-04755

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Soul of a Tree: A Woodworkers Reflections
• Publisher: Kodansha USA
• Publication Date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0870119036
• ISBN 13: 9780870119033
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

A master woodworker, George Nakashima, shares his experiences, techniques and devotion to his medium in this text. A beautiful book in which this remarkable Japanese American craftsman and philosopher impresses us with his devotion to discovering the inherent beauty of wood so that noble trees might have a second life as furniture. The first part of this meditative book reveals the development of Nakashima as a spiritual artist and the influence of life in an Indian ashram in the 1930's. The second reveals the inner truth and nature of the different trees with which he works,

About the Author

GEORGE NAKASHIMA, woodworker and architectural designer, is a native of Seattle, Washington. A graduate of MIT in architecture, he worked briefly in New York, then traveled to Paris, Tokyo, and India. It was while in Japan that he was sent on an extended architectural assignment to Pondicherry, India, where he designed Golconda, the primary disciples' residence at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, which was his first major architectural project. Running a small integrated business near New Hope, Pennsylvania, since 1943, Mr. Nakashima's major commissions include furnishings for the country home of the late Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, Pocantico Hills, in Tarrytown, New, York, and interiors for Columbia University, Mt. Holyoke College, the International Paper Corporation, and the Monastery of Christ in the Desert, Abiquiu, New Mexico, for which he also provided the architectural design. Featured in such publications as Smithsonian, Town & Country, House Beautiful, Life, and Fine Woodworking, Mr. Nakashima has exhibited at many institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Renwick Gallery, Washington, D.C.; the Nelson Gallery, Kansas City; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He was awarded the Gold Medal for craftsmanship by the American Institute of Architects in 1952, was named a Fellow of the American Craft Council in 1979, received the 1981 Hazlett Award, and in 1989 will be the first honoree in a series of major retrospective exhibitions of "America's Living National Treasures" at the American Craft Museum.

GEORGE WALD, Higgins Professor of Biology Emeritus at Harvard University, has been a close friend of George Nakashima for many years. He was co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1967 for his work on mechanisms of vision. He spends most of his time now in what he thinks of as "survival politics"-the sharp struggle to preserve life upon this planet: human, animal, and plant.