From 1936 to 1939, George Nakasima (1905-1990) traveled in Europe and also visited India and China, before returning to Japan where he worked for two years in the office of the architect Raymond Antonin.
Back in Seattle in 1940, he opened his first studio with the priest Tibesar. During the Second World War, from 1942 to 1943, because of his Japanese origins, he was interned in a camp in Idaho, during which time he learned traditional Japanese woodworking. It was the architect Raymond Antonin who got him out of the camp and offered him a place on his farm in New Hope, Pennsylvania. It is from this new workshop that his most famous pieces will come out.
A true craftsman, he limited his production to what he could make himself with the help of a few assistants. Each piece is a work of art created for a specific place and most often intended for private individuals.