Mira Nakashima is a renowned American woodworker and designer, recognized for her exceptional craftsmanship and dedication to continuing the legacy of her father, George Nakashima.

• Born: 1942
• Hometown: Seattle, WA
• Education: Harvard University (AB 1963)
  Waseda University

About Mira Nakashima

Mira Shizuko Nakashima was born in Seattle, Washington, incarcerated with her family at the Minidoka Concentration Camp on the Idaho Desert and moved to New Hope, Pennsylvania in 1943. She attended Solebury highschool in Bucks County, graduated cum laude from Harvard University in 1963, and received a Masters in Architecture from Waseda University, Tokyo, in 1966. The family then moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania until 1970, when she returned to work as her father’s assistant until his death in 1990.

Mira Nakashima Works

Since 1990, Mira has Mira has evolved Nakashima Woodworker by defining and building on her father’s legacy (and wood-pile). She has been curating, building and designing numerous furniture shows in the United States and abroad as well as preserving the architecture on the property her father created.

She picked up right where her father left off, continuing his tradition as well as exploring some new possibilities. She is upholding the foundational philosophies of George Nakashima to create forms that are reverential to the trees, giving them a second life. In 2003, Mira published a book titled Nature, Form & Spirit: The Life and Legacy of George Nakashima which coincided with a documentary film and an exhibit of George Nakashima’s work at the Mingei International Museum in San Diego.

In 2001, Nakashima held an exhibition at Moderne Gallery in Philadelphia showcasing her father’s original work alongside new works created under her supervision. “The Keisho Collection: Continuity and Change in the Nakashima Tradition” was the first catalogue of works designed and produced by Mira Nakashima and was meant to show the new direction in the Nakashima Studio. She displayed work at the Moderne Gallery again in September of 2013, in an exhibition titled “Nakashima Woodworkers: An Evolving Legacy.” In 2019 she curated a show at the Michener Art Museum titled “Nakashima Looks: Studio Furniture at the Michener.” The exhibition featured her own work alongside work by Wharton Esherick, Isamu Noguchi, Harry Bertoia, Phillip Lloyd Powell, Paul Evans, and Noémi Raymond.