The Japan Times has got a nice profile up on designer Masatoshi Sakaegi that delves not only into his "origin story," to borrow a phrase from the superhero world, but also provides little-known footnotes about Japan's industrial design history. Sakaegi is currently the subject of an exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo for his ceramics work, and the article reveals how a fifty-year-old, milestone government initiative drove Sakaegi into the industry:

...In 1960, the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) established the "Good Design Award," its mission to select outstanding examples of industrial design based on their form and function. This was an important step in formalizing design as an important cultural endeavor and establishing designers as artists in their own right. [Well-known ceramicist Masahiro] Mori was one of the first to bring this kind of artistry through design to the masses in Japan, and it was the simplicity and accessibility of his designs that appealed to Sakaegi.

"I became immediately interested in industrial design when I saw Mori's work," says Sakaegi in a recent interview. "It was amazing to me that, even as a high school student, I could afford something so beautiful and I liked the idea of things of beauty being available to everyone."

Read the rest here.