Cooper Hewitt says...
Hiroshi Awatsuji is one of Japan’s best known designers of printed textiles. He studied design at Kyoto University of Fine Arts and graduated in 1950. He then began working as a designer for Kanegafuchi spinning company (now Kanebo) in Kyoto. After this he spent a four years working at Kenjiro Oishi Studio, until opening his own design studio in 1958. Since then he has designed furnishing fabrics for Fujie Textile and other large companies. He has also been involved with several official projects designing tapestries, carpets, and furnishing fabrics for banks, hotels, and other businesses. He also designed the carpets and curtains for two pavilions at the Expo ’70 in Osaka. Awatsuji founded his own manufacturing company in 1988, through which he produced a series of black-and-white-patterned textiles and tablewares. His textile patterns are known for their bright use of color, abstraction, evoking fantastical flowers, and creating a textural terrain.
In 1968 Awatsuji was made a member of the Japan Design Committee. In the following years he was awarded many prizes and honors including the Japan Interior Designers Association Prize in 1972. Awatsuji taught first at the Otsuka Textile Design Institute (1963-1985), and then as a professor at Tama Art University in Tokyo starting in 1988.
