Mitsugi Ohno
Artist and scientist. Born 1926 in Japan. Died in Manhattan in 1999.
Mitsugi Ohno was born in Japan on June 28, 1926. He was sent at an early age to a glassblowing apprenticeship. During World War II he served as a glassblowing for the Japanese navy. The glassblowing factory was destroyed in the fire-bombing of Tokyo.
Ohno immigrated to the U.S. in 1961 and soon became a scientific glassblower at Kansas State University where he remained until his retirement in 1996. There Ohno constructed the first true Klein bottle, "an enclosure continuous with its outer surface constructed by twisting a tube through an opening in the side of the tube and joining it to the other end."
He also created numerous glass sculptures of historic buildings and ships, including the USS Constitution, presented to First Lady Mamie Eisenhower for the Eisenhower Center, and the U.S. Capitol.
Entry: Ohno, Mitsugi
Author: Kansas Historical Society
Author information: The Kansas Historical Society is a state agency charged with actively safeguarding and sharing the state's history.
Date Created: June 2011
Date Modified: May 2019
The author of this article is solely responsible for its content.
