Akari light sculptures are 10% off with code SALE10 at checkout. Orders are currently shipping in 5 to 6 days. More details here.

Group Created with Sketch.
Group Created with Sketch.
Group 2 Created with Sketch.
Group Created with Sketch.
Isamu Nocuchi

Akari Light Sculptures

Akari 3A and 10A. Photo: Kevin Noble. ©INFGM / ARS
Isamu Nocuchi
Group 7 Created with Sketch.
Video: The making of Akari at Ozeki & Co. Courtesy of Vitra.

In 1951 Isamu Noguchi visited the town of Gifu, Japan, known for its manufacture of lanterns and umbrellas from mulberry bark paper and bamboo. Noguchi designed the first of his lamps that would be produced by the traditional Gifu methods of construction. He called these works Akari, a term meaning light as illumination, but also implying the idea of weightlessness.

The fabrication of Akari in Japan at Ozeki & Co. since 1951 follows the traditional methods for Japanese Gifu lanterns. Each Akari is handcrafted beginning with the making of washi paper from the inner bark of the mulberry tree. Bamboo ribbing is stretched across sculptural molded wood forms. The washi paper is cut into strips and glued onto both sides of the framework. Once the glue has dried and the shape is set, the internal wooden form is disassembled and removed. The outcome is a resilient paper form, which can be collapsed and packed flat for shipping.

With the warm glow of light cast through handmade paper on a bamboo frame, Isamu Noguchi utilized traditional Japanese materials to bring modern design to the home. Like the beauty of falling leaves and the cherry blossom, Noguchi wrote, Akari are “poetic, ephemeral, and tentative.” And he was fond of saying, “All that you require to start a home are a room, a tatami, and Akari.”

Table

Ceiling

Floor

Learn more about the history of Akari, one of Isamu Noguchi’s most successful efforts “to bring sculpture into a more direct involvement with the common experience of living.”

Read More
Group Created with Sketch.
  • My Cart

Your cart is currently empty.

Enable cookies to use the shopping cart

Group 2 Created with Sketch.
Group Created with Sketch.
Your browser is out-of-date!

Update your browser to view this website correctly. Update my browser now

×

Our site uses cookies for a better experience. Privacy Policy

Group Created with Sketch.
Group Created with Sketch.

We will send your member code by email.