Etsuro Sotoo Rias Sanriku (Japan). He was also vice president of the Nipon Center of Canet de Mar. Sotoo Etsuro (2010). Vertical Freedom. Conversations on the Sagrada Familia . . Etsuro Sotoo Etsuro Sotoo (born 1953 in Fukuoka Prefecture) is a Japanese sculptor strongly influenced by Antoni Gaudí. His interest in Gaudí led him to convert to the Roman Catholic Church. His most noted work are sculptures located in the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. In 1978 Etsuro Sotoo visited Barcelona and was impressed by the Sagrada Familia. He worked as a stonecutter and also on the Nativity façade, following the instructions left
Sagrada Família stability. Describing Sagrada Família, art critic Rainer Zerbst said "it is probably impossible to find a church building anything like it in the entire history of art", and Paul Goldberger describes it as "the most extraordinary personal interpretation of Gothic architecture since the Middle Ages". The Basilica of the Sagrada Família was the inspiration of a bookseller, Josep Maria Bocabella, founder of Asociación Espiritual de Devotos de San José (Spiritual Association of Devotees of St. Joseph). After a visit to the Vatican in 1872, Bocabella returned from Italy with the intention of building a church inspired by the basilica at