Michiko Yamawaki

Michiko Yamawaki was born on 13 July 1910, the eldest daughter of a well-to-do family from Tokyo with close ties to the traditional Japanese tea ceremony. From 1928, she attended the university of education for women in Tokyo (now Ochanomizu University). Her marriage to the architect Iwao Fujita, who was twelve years older than her, was arranged the same year. Michiko had become the head of the family following the death of her uncle and as a result, her husband was required to adopt the surname Yamawaki. In return, he requested financial support to study at the Bauhaus Dessau. The couple travelled by ship to Germany in 1930 and began to study in the winter semester that year. As Michiko writes in her autobiography, although she was not interested in design prior to meeting Iwao, she too attended the preliminary course and went on to study in the textile workshop under Gunta Stölzl and Otti Berger. With just a rudimentary grasp of German, following the lessons cannot have been easy for her. However, she writes that after the classes, both Josef Albers and Wassily Kandinsky took the time to explain the subject matter in English to her and Iwao. Albers is said to have been particularly forthcoming; his appearance reminded her of someone who performed a chanoyu (tea ceremony).
Michiko and Iwao Yamawaki’s studies ended with the closure of the Bauhaus Dessau. Michiko had familial obligations in Japan; they therefore decided not to continue their studies in Berlin under Mies van der Rohe and returned to Japan without qualifying in 1933. Michiko worked as a textile designer, wrote numerous newspaper articles and presented lectures and seminars that raised awareness of the teaching methods of the Bauhaus. From Dessau, they had brought with them many Bauhaus objects, books and even furniture. These created a Bauhaus ambience in their fashionable flat in Tokyo’s Ginza district, which quickly became an important meeting point. One frequent visitor was Kawakita Renshichirō, founder of the so-called Japanese Bauhaus, Shinkenchiku Kōgei Gakuin (School of new architecture and design, Tokyo), who invited the couple to teach at his school. In 1934, Michiko was appointed head of the weaving class, but relinquished the post soon thereafter because she was expecting a child. Like the Bauhaus, Kawakita Renshichirō’s school was short-lived. It was refused a permit by the Ministry of Education and, in the face of rising nationalism and militarism, was closed down in 1936.
From 1960, Michiko taught modern design at Showa Women’s University in Tokyo. In her 1995 autobiography Bauhausu to chanoyu (The Bauhaus and the tea ceremony), she wrote about her memories of the Bauhaus and made comparisons with one of Japan’s traditional arts, the tea ceremony.
Michiko Yamawaki died in Tokyo in 2000. [IS 2021]