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 Loreto. The apse crypt of the church, funded by donations, was begun 19 March 1882, on the festival of St. Joseph, to the design of the architect Francisco de Paula del Villar, whose plan was for a Gothic revival church of a standard form. The apse crypt was completed before Villar's resignation on 18 March 1883, when Gaudí assumed responsibility for its design, which he changed radically. Antoni Gaudí began work on the church in 1883 but was not appointed Architect Director until 1884. On the subject of the extremely long construction period, Gaudí is said to have remarked: "My