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Murano, Togo
(b Karatsu, Saga Prefect., 15 May 1891; d Ashiya, Osaka, 26 Nov 1984). Japanese architect. After graduating from Waseda University, Tokyo, he worked in the office of the architect Setsu Watanabe in Osaka (1918–29) and then established his own office in Osaka. During this time he spent periods of study in the USA and Europe. An early example of his work is the Sogo department store (1936) in Osaka, the first modern building of its kind in the city. Its façade of slender vertical louvres and mosaic revealed his particular interest in the quality of surface textures. Murano, whose practice became Murano & Mori in 1949, was a Modernist who was distinguished by his commitment to a humanistic architecture, creating spaces that were practical yet richly expressive; he aimed to provide a bridge between the expectations of his clients and those of the public who used his buildings. As well as several department stores in Osaka, Kobe, Nagoya and Tokyo, he also built hotels, theatres, office buildings and the World Peace Memorial Cathedral (1953) in Hiroshima; this is an austerely simple building with an exposed frame of concrete columns and beams with infill walls of grey cement bricks made with ash from the atomic bomb explosion. Other major works include the Miyako Hotel (1934 and 1960), Kyoto; the New Kabuki Theatre (1958), Osaka, with traditional Japanese roof forms; and the Nippon Life Insurance Co. offices (1963), Tokyo, a granite-faced block with ornate window openings containing the Gaudíesque Nissei Theatre, with free-form walls and fantastic Art Nouveau decoration of seashells and glass mosaic. He also designed head offices for the Chiyoda Life Insurance Co. (1966) and Nihon Kangyo Bank (1974), both in Tokyo. Murano was a master of the sukiya (tea house) style (see JAPAN, §XIV, 2), a reinterpretation of traditional Japanese residential architecture; examples of this work include the Kasuien Annexe (1959) of the Miyako Hotel, Kyoto, and the Nadaman Tea House (1977) in the gardens of the New Otani Hotel, Tokyo.
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