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 structure and decoration of the whole church. He was well aware that he would not finish the church and that he would need to set an artistic and architectural example for others to follow. He also chose for this façade to be the first on which to begin construction and for it to be, in his opinion, the most attractive and accessible to the public. He believed that if he had begun construction with the Passion Façade, one that would be hard and bare (as if made of bones), before the Nativity Façade, people would have withdrawn at the sight