Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) was the son of an American mother and a Japanese father. Born in Los Angeles, Noguchi spent his childhood in Japan before returning to the US for his education. As a young man he travelled to Paris to work with sculptor Constantin Brancusi, and he went on to develop his own career as an artist in New York.

After visiting Japan in 1931, Noguchi began to integrate elements of Japanese art with Western modernism. Throughout the 1950s Noguchi spent a great deal of time in Japan, embracing Japanese forms for the design of gardens and sculpture.