Product designer Yanagi Sori was born in Tokyo on June 29, 1915. He passed away in 2011 at the age of 96.
He was the eldest son of thinker and philosopher Yanagi Soetsu and alto singer Kaneko. He enrolled in the Western Painting Department of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1934. He became interested in design while there and graduated in 1940. He began researching design after the Pacific War.
In 1952, his "Record Player," which he entered in the first Industrial Design Competition sponsored by the Mainichi Shimbun (now the Mainichi Design Award), won first place. This led to the founding of the Yanagi Industrial Design Research Association.
In 1957, he was invited to the 11th Milan Triennale, where his "Butterfly Stool" and "White Porcelain Teapot" won gold medals. He continued his international activities and was appointed director of the Japan Folk Crafts Museum in 1977. In 1980, he held his first solo exhibition sponsored by the City of Milan at the Milan Museum of Modern Art. In 1984, he became the head professor of the Industrial Design Department at Kanazawa College of Art.

He was awarded the Purple Ribbon Medal in 1983 and was selected as a Person of Cultural Merit in 2002, demonstrating his lifetime of activity as one of Japan's leading product designers. His works are currently housed in museums such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Louvre. In addition to furniture, his kitchenware and tableware are also popular and are sold in department stores and interior design shops.