Yasuhiko Itoh

Yasuhiko Itoh (1933-1963) was a Japanese designer, remembered mainly for being chosen to represent his country at the third edition of the Selettiva del Mobile in Cantù in 1959. At the time, Itoh was a young architect, fresh from graduating from the prestigious Waseda University, and to create the prototype of the bookcase he sent for the competition he spent a few months in Italy in close contact with the craftsmen of Industria Mobili Molteni Angelo (now known as Molteni & C.). Having come in third place in the category of the competition for individual furniture, his prototype was also proposed in other future editions of the Selettiva but never reached mass production until 2016, in a celebratory operation in which Molteni & C., now an international furniture giant, intended to give lustre to its first experiments with design furniture. Upon his return to Japan, he worked in Toshiro Yamashita’s studio and participated in the design of the Kasumigaseki Building (1962-68), considered the first modern office skyscraper in Japan. His promising career was cut short by his premature death at the age of thirty in a tragic train accident.