Yoshinobu Ashihara was an influential Japanese architect sometimes associated with the post-war Metabolist movement. Born in 1918, he studied at the University of Tokyo before moving to the United States to study at Harvard University on a Fulbright Grant. Graduating in 1953, he worked at Marcel Breuer's firm in New York before returning to Japan, founding Yoshinobu Ashihara Architect and Associates in 1956 at the age of 38. His notable works include the Japanese Pavilion at Montreal’s Expo 67, Komazawa Olympic Park Control Tower and Olympic Gymnasium, Sony Building in Tokyo's Ginza District, and the Fine Arts Building for Musashino Art University.

Ashihara’s was also an influential teacher and writer on architecture - a visit to Europe in 1960 catalysed his theories on the integration of interior and exterior spaces, as documented in Exterior Space in Architecture (1962). He served as a professor of architecture at Hosei University, Musashino Art University, and University of Tokyo, and in 1966 was visiting professor at the University of New South Wales Faculty of Architecture. Ashihara’s engagement with Australia and Australian architects was extensive - he was co-architect of the Australian Pavilion at Expo 70 Osaka, was involved in unrealised plans for the Australian Embassy in Tokyo, and was in regular contact with Australian architects, including Harry Seidler, David Jackson and Ronald Lyon.

Robin Boyd kept a catalogue of Ashihara’s work in his home library, and wrote letters of introduction to Ashihara for Norma Redpath and Daryl Jackson. Ashihara’s correspondence with Robin Boyd around New Directions was warm and familiar.