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A number of influences glow in Nakashima's work. His admiration for New England rustic is evident in slab coffee tables that are halved cherry and walnut logs. He interprets Shaker design in a 10-ft.-long bench made from a single plank of black walnut set with a spidery backrest of hickory spindles. But his genius is essentially Oriental, akin to that of Zen rock gardening and Oriental flower arranging. Nakashima selects the exact natural object needed to serve a particular purpose. For a recent table, he used an 8-ft. cross section of redwood root. The wild energy of the wood, complete with cracks and holes, strains outward, as if it were trying to dissolve back into the ground. But the wood is held together in places with 4-in.-wide butterfly-shaped splints of walnut, Nakashima's signature method of prompting the ancient to new service.
There is nothing precious in either Nakashima's designs or his workshop. He employs ten assistant craftsmen and uses some power tools to do the rough work. The oil finish of his furniture merely needs to be cleaned with a wet cloth. "We recommend hard use," says Nakashima. "A wood surface that is without a scratch or mar is kind of distressing. It shows no life and has no time value." His business approach is equally straightforward. "I wanted," he says, "to make furniture out of real wood without it costing that much more than you would pay in a good store." He sells only directly to customers. Prices for stock items range from $155 for a plank stool to $4,000 for a wall case.
With his concern for traditional workmanship and his devotion to organic simplicity, Nakashima tends to be disdainful of many of the latest generation of craftspeople. "They're trying to be Picassos," he says. "They've got all the ego and glitz and high gloss of modern art. But crafts don't need that. | They can stand up by themselves."