Born in 1911 in Tokyo, Riki Watanabe studied woodcraft at Tokyo Advanced School of Industrial Crafts and graduated in 1936. He eventually established his own design office in 1949, supporting a large amount of design projects in the dawn of the postwar era. In 1952, he established the Japan Industrial Design Association and became the director, leading him to be deeply involved in many projects and establish organizations such as Japan Design Committee, Craft Center Japan, and the department of interior architecture at Tokyo University of Art and Design. In 1976, he was awarded Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon (an award given for scholastic or artistic achievement), and went on to receive several other prizes until his passing in 2013.