Dear Friends
Kenji Ekuan's passing is indeed a sad day for design in Asia and across the world. Kenji Ekuan represents a strong force for the establishment of professional design especially industrial design in Japan at a time when design was finding its roots as an economic driver in the more developed economies of the West and Japan.
I was fortunate to visit his office and meet him personally on my first visit to Japan in 1978 and with a reference from Ashoke Chatterjee a young NID faculty got a good reception and quality time to see and interact with the great man at his Tokyo office of GK and it was an experience that I am not likely to forget. In 1978 I had visited Kyoto to attend the World Crafts Council conference and on my return to India dropped by to Tokyo and Yokohama to meet Kenjisan and Jiro Inagaki san who was kind enough to be my host for the Tokyo leg of my visit. Inagakisan too had strong NID connections and in winter of 1977 we had organised a major exhibition at Sanskar Kendra through the newly formed NID Alumni Association and this helped us build long standing connections with design in Japan. Jiro Inagaki passed away in 2008.
The ICSID connection and NID history are closely linked and in 1979 Ashoke Chatterjee was able to pull of a virtual coup with the UNIDO ICSID conference at NID on Design for Development. Kenji san's passing brings all these memories back and we need to remember those who have in small and big ways shaped design here in India and Kenji Ekuan would be counted as an important friend whom we have all lost. Our thoughts are with him.
With regards
M P Ranjan
from my iPad at home
11 February 2015 at 7.00 am IST
Prof M P Ranjan
Independent Academic, Ahmedabad
Adjunct Professor (Design) Ahmedabad University
Author of blog : http://www.designforindia.com
Archive of papers : http://cept.academia.edu/RanjanMP
Sent from my iPad
> On 11-Feb-2015, at 2:18 am, Maria Cecilia Loschiavo <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Dear All -
>
> It is sad to lose a great leader and human being concerned with the promotion of wellbeing and peace. In 1997, at ICSID Conference in Toronto Kenji announced the creation of DESIGN FOR THE WORLD, an organization to promote wellbeing through design.
>
> Sayonara Ekuan-san!
>
> Yours,
>
> Maria Cecilia Loschiavo
>
> ----------------
> Dr. Maria Cecilia Loschiavo dos Santos
> Full Professor
> University of São Paulo - Brazil
> www.closchiavo.pro.br
>
> ----- Mensagem original -----
>
>> De: "Ken Friedman" <[log in to unmask]>
>> Para: [log in to unmask]
>> Enviadas: Terça-feira, 10 de Fevereiro de 2015 12:52:13
>> Assunto: Kenji Ekuan has died
>
>> Dear All,
>
>> It is with sadness that I note the death of Kenji Ekuan in today’s
>> New York Times.
>
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/11/world/asia/kenji-ekuan-japanese-designer-who-gave-soy-sauce-its-curves-dies-at-85.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=Moth-Visible&module=inside-nyt-region®ion=inside-nyt-region&WT.nav=inside-nyt-region
>
>> He was a lovely person who leaves a legacy of lovely artefacts and
>> projects. There are over 300,000,000 bottles of Kikkoman soy sauce
>> in the world today. He designed them. I am happy to say that I use
>> one several times a week.
>
>> Yours,
>
>> Ken
>
>> Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | Editor-in-Chief | 设计 She Ji. The
>> Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation | Published by Elsevier
>> in Cooperation with Tongji University Press | Launching in 2015
>
>> Chair Professor of Design Innovation Studies | College of Design and
>> Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China ||| University
>> Distinguished Professor | Centre for Design Innovation | Swinburne
>> University of Technology | Melbourne, Australia
>
>> Email [log in to unmask] | Academia
>> http://swinburne.academia.edu/KenFriedman | D&I
>> http://tjdi.tongji.edu.cn
>
>> --
>
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