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Tomoko Azumi / London

In a British design scene full of limited-edition pieces and experimentalism, Tomoko Azumi’s furniture is striking for its elegance and simplicity – so much so that the Japanese designer has been awarded a solo show in her adopted homeland.

“Usually you have to be a maestro designer in your late sixties in Italy to have a solo show,” says furniture designer Tomoko Azumi.

Azumi is neither in her sixties nor Italian, but she is a designer with an interesting story and a collection that Jonathan Stephenson, owner of London’s Rocket Gallery, thinks worthy of a show in its own right. “Quite a few of my designs aren’t sold in the UK because the foreign manufacturers I work with, such as Swiss firm Röthlisberger and Italian company Zilio, don’t have a large distribution network.

Jonathan’s gallery and clients are the perfect platform to ­introduce them.”

Born in Hiroshima, Azumi studie