Sori Yanagi is a Japanese designer been born in 1915 in Tokyo. He studied at the Art College there and became an assistant for designer Charlotte Perriand from 1940 to 1942.

In 1952, he established the Yanagi Industrial Design Institute that created, year after year, an extraordinary number of functional design objects and furnitures. The most famous Sori Yanagi's design is the "Butterfly" stool in 1954, made of two slightly curvilinear elements of plywood. "The Butterfly" got its name from its graceful shape. 1954 is also the year when Sori Yanagi created "The Elephant Stool", a simple but beautiful stool makes of resin of polyester strengthened fiberglass. The organic form creations of Sori Yanagi combines the western industrial design and his home-made tradition of Japan.

Sori Yanagi became one of the most important Japanese designers for general purpose objects in the post-war years. Besides furniture, he also designed lamps, glass objects, flatware, toys and even subway stations, cars and motorcycles.

In 1977, Sori Yanagi became a director of the Museum of Japanese popular art of Tokyo.