George Nakashima

After studying architecture at the University of Washington and doing postgraduate architectural studies at MIT, George Nakashima worked in Japan at the architectural offices of Antonin Raymond. He was an American of Czech birth who had come to Japan to work with Frank Lloyd Wright on the Imperial Hotel, and had stayed on to set up his own practice, creating buildings that were a synthesis of modern architecture and traditional Japanese design.

In the mid 1930s, Raymond’s office was awarded the design and construction project for Golconde in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. George volunteered to supervise the design and construction of the building. Drawn to Sri Aurobindo’s teachings, he soon felt that he was receiving far more than he was able to give: “it was the answer to all my searches, finally conferring meaning to my life.” He became a member of the Ashram and Sri Aurobindo in 1938 gave him the Sanskrit name of Sundaranananda, which in English means ‘One who delights in beauty’.

Of his life there, he said, “In a sense, I participated in life at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram during its golden age, when all the disciples were in close touch with both the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. It was, in a way, an ideal existence on earth, without a trace of rancor or harsh words, arguments, egotism, but with all in concert in search of a divine consciousness. The way of life was perhaps as close to heaven on earth as possible.”

Golconde was something of a do-it-yourself project – George acting as designer and general contractor, providing the architectural drawings, arranging for the construction equipment, raw materials, and designing the furniture. The railings, doors, cabinets, chairs, beds and tables were fashioned from great timber squares, sometimes two feet by two feet. “They were sawn by hand with a pit saw, which requires two men – one on the timber and one in the pit,” recollected George. “It would often take half a day to cut a board. Furniture making at Pondicherry was an elemental baptism in the craft of woodworking.”

However, in 1939, with the Second World War imminent, George felt the need to leave the security of the Ashram and venture back into the world. “As with all major questions, the Mother had the final stay as to what my future was to be. When I finally decided that I wanted to leave, I asked for her permission. She wrote her answer in the centre of a sheet of paper: ‘yes,’ in letters so small that I could barely read them.”

He went back to the USA via Japan and subsequently married in 1941. But after the bombing of Pearl Harbour he, along with his wife and daughter, were incarcerated in a concentration camp in Idaho in 1942. Yet, this seeming calamity was a blessing in disguise for in those harsh conditions he met a fine Japanese carpenter trained in Japan along traditional lines, and they joined forces. In 1943, he moved from the West Coast area to a farm Antonin Raymond owned in Pennsylvania – and that was the start of his life and work in New Hope.

What made his work unique is that, for George, every piece of furniture that left his workshop was an object of peace, intended to contribute to peace in the home. The tree, he said, has a second lease of life by being turned into furniture. The tree is a teacher, it has an aspiration, it is always in motion, but it is very slow – and at peace. Some of that is preserved in the furniture.

George came back to Pondicherry shortly before The Mother left her body. She looked at him and said, ‘Sundarananda – you have come back. We knew you would come back.’ She had never forgotten him.