The present lot is a dyadic design and elegantly separates into two individual sofas. The sofa was part of Shiro Kuramata’s important 1976 commission for the interior of the Bub Yoshino beauty parlour, which was housed on the third and fourth floors of a building near Minami-aoyama in Tokyo. The interior construction was undertaken by Ishimaru Co., Ltd, and the furniture was produced by Aoshima Shoten Co., Ltd, and Mihoya Glass Co., Ltd. The first floor plan illustrated in the magazine Japan Interior Design depicts the present lot occupying almost the entirety of the back wall. During the same year Kuramata completed the ‘House with Stairs Project’, where he continued his investigation further by incorporating functioning drawers within a structure. Always fascinated by drawers Kuramata remarked “I believe that a chest of drawers is the kind of furniture that most strongly communicates with man, even psychologically” (Shitsunai, January, 1972). Indeed communication and psychological effects appear to be far more intriguing concepts to the designer, as he wishes to evoke the object and only leave a vestige of its existence; either by the immolation of the ‘Homage to Josef Hoffman’ chair, the diaphanous ‘Miss Blanche’, or the dichotomy of ‘Furniture with Drawers’ series.

Phillips wishes to thank the Kuramata Design Office for their confirmation that the present lot is from the Bub Yoshino commission.