Kenzo Tange was born in Tokyo on December 13, 1910. He graduated from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and was a student of Professor Kishida Shigeru. He joined the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Association as a designer in 1930. In 1932 he became a member of the Japan Art Academy and became a member of the Society for Contemporary Crafts in 1936
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In 1938 he began to work as an industrial designer for Mitsui. In 1941 he became an instructor at the Fine Arts College of Tokyo University. In 1943 he left Japan to take part in the French resistance movement during World War II.
In 1945 he returned to Japan and spent a year designing sets for a theater group, but returned to Europe in 1946 to establish his architectural office in Paris. In 1948 he moved his company to Milan where, together with Renzo Piano, he designed the Pirelli building.