The chair Long was created with a motif of the chairs from the Ming Dynasty in China. Many chairs
in present times are influenced by the designs from this time, such as the chairs designed by
furniture designer Hans J. Wegner, which show a hint of such influence. The Chinese chairs from the
Ming Dynasty have greatly influenced as basic chair designs worldwide up until today.
In 2012, a showroom of TIME & STYLE was opened in Shanghai, China. There was a concern about
opening the showroom at that time, since there was a strong anti-Japanese feeling in China, due to
historical background. However, our Chinese partners in China were friendly to Japan, and did not
mind the existing issue between China and Japan. Much of Japanese culture originally came from
China and Korea, and uniquely developed in Japan. Therefore a lot of things in Japanese living,
such as cultural aspects and religions, originated from China. When proposing a Japanese product
to China, we – Japanese with such a cultural background – desired to create a product that could
become a common language for the two countries, by designing a Ming Dynasty style chair that
originated from China. It was an attempt to design a Ming Dynasty style chair based on chairs from
the Ming Dynasty, by using a Japanese approach, which is different from the North European style.
With a concept of simplicity and completeness of the Japanese culture, a design with connections
between each part was determined, while utilizing the outlines of the Ming Dynasty style. What
does a Ming Dynasty style chair designed by Japanese look like? We believed that creation of a
Ming Dynasty style chair – a representative design of China – would be an expression of respect to
the Chinese culture. The idea of this chair was developed from a desire to create a chair beyond the
cross-national issues, or create a fusion of the cultures of both countries.
The vertically-extending round bars of the legs are connected to the arms at the tip. The joints are
clearly angled but have linear connections. The arms are slightly curved from outside to inside, then
they curve outward and are connected to the backrest. The curves from the arms to the backrest
were most carefully designed with the Ming Dynasty design in mind. In order to provide connection
and a sense of tension within the soft lines, we placed an importance on a traversable-like design,
of which the lines from the arms to the backrest are smoothly connected to the front legs. The back
legs arise from the bottom, connect to the seat frame, and gradually curve and extend to the arms in
a natural manner. They are connected to fit in with the arms, and spread upwards as if they are tree
branches. A completeness from natural connections of entire pieces was our goal: a Ming Dynasty
style chair designed by Japanese.