Born in Tokyo, graduated from the Woodcraft Departmentat Tokyo Higher School of Arts and Design (now Chiba University) in 1936, and after joined Gunma Prefecture Industrial Arts Center under the direction of Bruno Taut, established his own design office in 1949. He got famous with the low-cost String Chair "Himo Chair" in 1952. In 1956, he formed the Q-designers, which brought about reforms in the early days of after-war Japanese design by inventing the "Torii Stool" and the "Riki Stool," among others. In his later years, he focused on clock design, and the "Riki Clock," named after his own name and released in 2003, became his masterpiece.