A few months ago I saw Nao Matsumoto’s Throne chair in his Brooklyn apartment.  I asked him what the angle of the backrest was, and he replied that he didn’t know.  I thought that was odd since I knew he had recently completed it.  It seemed like somewhat of a deviation of his usual work.  This made me want to know more about it, and share that.

Here is a description of the project in the designer’s words:

The “Throne” was constructed with out any prior drawings nor predetermined measurements.  Every component was designed and fabricated in an ad-lib manner, where every decision was made on the spot.  Due to this process, the markings were made directly on the wood and fabricated.
Recently, I have been bored with the typical woodworking process of generating a detailed drawing and pre-determining the form by making renderings on the computer or on paper, before the fabrication process. I knew that this was not the most efficient way to construct this piece, yet I was compelled to accomplish this project as a challenge and also an experiment. Through this piece, I wanted to appropriate the beauty of natural materials with out streamlining and over sophisticating the form.   I am happy about the balance of primitive form and craft in this piece.
This chair was a long-overdue gift for my father.  The overall form was derived from my experiences and memories of him.   This is another reason why I did not rely on any drawings for the build. There are certain things in life that has no blueprints, no such thing existed between me and my father.  Maybe he had one, but I was always the child who broke those expectations.  My body proportions are similar to his so I used my body as a reference to the scale and location of the components.
The Throne is a chair designed and fitted for a King.  The sitting posture is not too relaxed, yet not too stiff.  Its was carefully decided so that it was a functioning sitting device for that individual to make orders with dignity and alertness.  The solidness of the construction and the materials give a sense of stability and strength, which are attributes of a King.
Every component is made out of thick pieces of American Walnut harvested in the East Coast. The seat is about 4” thick, the thicker components of the grid are 2.5” thick and the grid is composed of stock that are 1 5/8” thick.
The joinery is all traditional lap joints and mortise and tenon joints.  All the mortises are shouldered about  1/8”~ ¼” deep.  The leg and backrest are directly mortised into the seat.   The finish is hand rubbed oil.

Butterfly keys hold the wood together, preventing cracks from opening up.  Each key is about 1 1/4″ thick.  Hand cut and jointed.

Mortises on the seat.

Underside of the seat. The Leg grid gets jointed directly into the seat.

Gluing the back rest together. The grid is made out of 1 5/8″ stock , alternating half lap joint and mortised into the outer frame.

The Mortise and tenon joint for the arm rest. Shouldering each tenon increases the rigidity and the stability of the structure.

Routing the butterfly key.  A router is used to remove the bulk of the negative space needed to accept the butterflies.  After the rough removal, specialized chisels and hand tools are used to precisely cut the joint.

Mock up of the seat and the leg portion.  Mock ups like this happened numerous times during the process.

Mock up of the back rest, arm rest and the leg grid.  Each component was assembled individually and fitted.  The mock up process was the most time consuming part of the build since things had to be determined as each component was completed.  It was a challenge to figure out the balance and the structure; then make everything fit precisely with no loose joints or gaps.

Detail on the arm rest, backrest portion.

Nao Matsumoto lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.  He first wanted to work in wood after seeing wood carvers in Tanzania.  He is from Yokohama where he did wood carving but did not begin furniture until he moved to the United States.   You can see more of Nao’s work at www.naomatsumoto.com