# Shiro Kuramata artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/shiro-kuramata/
Profile generated: 2026-08-19T13:53:02.844Z
Quality: medium confidence, adequate sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1934-11-29
- Death date: 1991-02-01
- Nationality: Japanese
- Common media: Furniture and product design, Interior design

## About Shiro Kuramata

Shiro Kuramata (1934–1991) was a Japanese designer, product designer, and interior architect whose work sits at the intersection of furniture, objects, and spatial design. Authority records identify him under both westernized and Japanese name forms, while his official profile separates his practice into product design and interior design. Collectors frequently encounter Kuramata through seating and other design objects; documented examples in the source pack include How High the Moon, Miss Blanche, and Sing Sing Sing chairs. His institutional visibility is reinforced by an artist record at The Museum of Modern Art and by international authority files including VIAF, Getty ULAN, IdRef, and Wikidata. The available evidence does not support assigning him to one named movement, so his page is better framed through twentieth-century Japanese design and his cross-disciplinary practice. At auction, identity should be matched through the exact model, date, materials, production details, and provenance rather than by name alone.

## Common works and media

The source pack documents Kuramata furniture and seating, including the How High the Moon armchair, Miss Blanche armchair, and Sing Sing Sing chair. His official profile also distinguishes product design from interior-design commissions. Auction and appraisal records may therefore include furniture, seating, design objects, and broader decorative-art entries. Records categorized as paintings, prints, sculpture, or mixed media should be checked against the individual lot description and attribution rather than assumed to represent his established design practice.

## Market and appraisal context

Appraising a work attributed to Shiro Kuramata begins with the object type, materials, dimensions, date, condition, and restoration history. Signatures or inscriptions, edition and production details, provenance, exhibition history, catalogue references, and attribution confidence can also affect how closely a work compares with public sales. Comparable lots should match the same model or a genuinely related design whenever possible. Public auction results can establish context, but they do not by themselves predict value: private transactions, incomplete feeds, reporting conventions, and later attribution changes may alter the available picture. Current auction-record counts should also be reconciled before numerical summaries from the collected page are published.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist-identity research with matched auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. Public-market data is contextual evidence, not a substitute for object-specific authentication and condition review.

## Sources

- IdRef: https://www.idref.fr/163044708
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/3484149108408068780003/
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/7210
- Shiro Kuramata: https://e-daylight.jp/interior/designers/shiro-kuramata/
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2759674
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500093619
- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/artist/shiro-kuramata/
- Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Poltrona_di_Shiro_Kuramata,_1981.jpg
- Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shiro_kuramata,_poltrona_miss_blanche,_1989.JPG
- Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shiro_kuramata,_poltroncina_sing_sing_sing,_1985.JPG