Item Description
Rare early black lacquered square table by Kazuhide Takahama for Simon International that folds out to a rectangular table when desired. Magnificent lacquer quality, refined attention to detail and a very practical design by the renown Japanese master designer. With their spare simplicity, the designs of Kazuhide Takahama (1930-2010) appear perfectly in tune with the Japanese philosophy of Zen minimalism. They’re also a reflection of the designer himself, so quietly charismatic that he was known as ‘the stone man’. Yet Takahama’s work was far from being purely Japanese: he embraced a variety of Western influences, including modern European art. Born in Miyazaki on the Japanese island of Kyushu, Takahama studied architecture at the Tokyo Institute of Technology before joining the practice of architect Kazuo Fujioka. In 1957, he oversaw the design of Japan’s first pavilion at the Milan Triennale, which proved to be a life-changing event – he met the entrepreneur Dino Gavina, founder of Simon International (now part of Cassina), and began a lifelong collaboration with him. After Gavina persuaded Takahama to move to Italy permanently – which he did in 1963, settling with his wife Naeko in Bologna – the designer combined architectural and furniture projects. In 1967, he collaborated with Gavina on Bologna’s The Centre Duchamp, a space for creative innovation. He also continued to fuse his beloved modernist style with Japanese traditions, such as lacquerware.
