Teruo Kurosaki, Idée founder who launched Marc Newson, dies at 76

Teruo Kurosaki, the Japanese design entrepreneur who founded Tokyo-based furniture company Idée in 1982, passed away on 23 March 2026. Born in 1949, Kurosaki began importing Western antiques to Japan in the early 1980s after encountering them while visiting his brother in London. He was among the first to introduce midcentury French designer Jean Prouvé's work to Japan. Idée started with original furniture production, working with designers like Jasper Morrison and Marc Newson. In the mid-1980s, Kurosaki met Newson in Tokyo and became his first patron, setting him up at Idée's workshop where Newson created the 'Super Guppy' lamp and the iconic 'Embryo' chair, the latter made with neoprene from a surfing wetsuit manufacturer in Zushi, Kanagawa. Idée opened a four-storey shop in Aoyama in 1995, helping transform the neighborhood into a design hub. In 1999, Kurosaki organized Tokyo Designers Block, a series of simultaneous design exhibitions that ran until 2005. Kurosaki later exited Idée, which is now under Ryohinkeikaku, the firm behind Muji. Idée pioneered the integration of curated books, music, florist, and coffee within a design shop, broadening the definition of design.