Crafting a legacy out of wood

Nakashima grew up here, on the grounds of her company, Nakashima Woodworkers, in New Hope Pennsylvania. She said her father, the late George Nakashima, built their home, and the family business, with his own two hands. "He couldn't afford to hire builders," she said.

George Nakashima is considered a giant of 20th century furniture design, and a leader of the American craft movement. "Dad said, 'You create a good design, it should be a design forever. You shouldn't have to change it just because it's a different year or a different style or a different fashion that's going on at the time,'" said Mira.

When "Sunday Morning" visited with George in 1989, he told us, "My feeling about a fine piece of timber is that it should be realized to its fullest possibility and beauty."

His designs were renowned for their embrace of nature in all its glorious imperfection.

Asked whether it is the wood or the woodworker who takes the lead, Mira replied, "It's a collaboration. There are little nuances that happen. Sometimes there's knots, and sometimes there's knotholes, and sometimes there's cracks that need butterflies. So, you go with the flow."

And like the meandering edges of these pieces, the path for Nakashima Woodworkers hasn't been in a straight line.

Born in 1905 in the Pacific Northwest, George was a rising star in architecture. He studied at MIT, and with luminaries around the world. But in 1942, he and his family were sent to an internment camp in Idaho, as part of the forced relocation of 120,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II. Mira was six weeks old at the time.

While in the camp, Nakashima retrained himself to handcraft much-needed furniture for his young family. "He had to use whatever material was at hand," Mira said. "And it was leftover construction material, it was packing crates."

After their release, the Nakashimas moved to Pennsylvania. "We didn't have a place to live, so we lived in this army tent for several months," Mira recalled.

Out of the woods, the Nakashimas built a complex, now a national historic landmark.

After Mira graduated from Harvard and started a family of her own, in 1970 she began working here fulltime under her father, right up until his death in 1990.

"We were very concerned that the business would not survive," Mira said.

Was she scared? "Well, yeah, it was difficult. I don't know if it was scary. But a lot of people, because my father was no longer around to put his signature on the furniture, canceled their orders."

But she pressed on, and her business flourished, not only producing from her father's iconic designs, but also designing her own pieces.

Was she worried they would be compared to her father's? "Well, if you worry about it, you wouldn't do it!" she laughed.

The process is still similar to when George was running things, right down to the wood, mostly from undesirable walnut trees. "Dad used to call himself a rag picker because, you know, people didn't want their trees," said Mira. "And then he would make something beautiful out of them. But it was also a spiritual thing for him, because he said he's giving trees a second life."

Those trees take time to find their second life - around a year for an average custom piece. "Anybody who is used to instant gratification doesn't come to Nakashima's, or they have to develop a different way of thinking," Mira laughed.

Nakashima pieces are not for everyone, with prices starting in the thousands and going way up from there. After all, this is hand-crafted, from the initial drawing, to the finishing, and a final signature by Mira herself.

One of Mira's handful of employees is her grandson, Toshi. He says working for his grandmother has perks: "You give me tea and cookies and pie!" he laughed. "I'm very lucky to, you know, always have been surrounded with beautiful work and beautiful furniture, and intelligent and smart and good craftsmen."

Another branch to fill out the tree planted by the Nakashima family patriarch 80 years ago.

Mira said, "Whenever I go into one of the wood storages, I feel like he's still here. He's still watching us. And whenever we have, you know, administrative kind of problems, we think, 'What would George do? Would he like this or not?' He's still with us!"

Watch our 1989 profile of George Nakashima: 

     

For more info:

• George Nakashima Woodworkers, New Hope, Pa.
• Nakashima Foundation for Peace
• George Nakashima Woodworker Complex (National Park Service)

     

Story produced by Amol Mhatre. Editor: George Pozderec.  

Crafting a legacy out of wood

Crafting a legacy out of wood

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