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Akari 3A UKAI
Akari 3A UKAI
Akari 3A UKAI
Akari 3A UKAI
Akari 3A UKAI
Akari 3A UKAI
Akari 3A UKAI
Akari 3A UKAI
Akari 3A UKAI
Akari 3A UKAI

Akari 3A UKAI

Designed c. 1954
The Akari 3A UKAI is one of the first Akari light sculptures designed by Isamu Noguchi. A variation of the 3A, it features a screenprinted abstraction based on traditional cormorant fishing (ukai), mulberry bark washi paper, tight, evenly-spaced bamboo ribbing, and wooden collars (wa) on each side of its rounded form. The top of its three-legged metal frame is accented with wrapped bamboo.
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3A
23
12
3AD
23
12
3A-UKAI
23
12
3AB
23
12
3AR
23
12
3AV
23
12
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From the Archives
In 1952, Noguchi continued working on the Akari light sculpture series he had begun a year earlier in Gifu. He created around eighteen models—some with screenprinted designs, like the 3—and exhibited them at the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura.1 A promotional sheet from the period shows most of the new Akari and, helpfully, assembly instructions.2

Summarizing reception to the show, Hugo Munsterberg wrote in 1953’s College Art Journal, “Critics differed widely as regards the success of these sculptures, but all of them were unanimous in hailing his lamps, which combine modern design with the traditional Japanese lanterns, as eminently successful.”

The 3 prototype, with its paneled blue paper, appears again at the Chuo Koron Gallery exhibition of 1954,3–6 as does a plain 3A, and a black and red teardrop designed 3A, later called the 3AD. Noguchi demonstrated the playful versatility of Akari at this early show, which he also photographed, placing the 3A and 3AD shades on the top of an early version of the cast-iron and bamboo BB base.

Noguchi cited the traditional nighttime cormorant fishing in Gifu (Ukai) as a crux of Akari’s origin story: “It is like a chariot race of birds in which we take part, caught in the excitement, drifting along beside the busy fishing in our lantern-bedecked boat,” he wrote in 1954.7,8 The 3A UKAI, along with the 2A UKAI, pay homage to the tradition.
Installation view, “Isamu Noguchi Exhibition,” Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura, September 23–October 19, 1952. Photo: Isamu Noguchi. The Noguchi Museum Archives, 09229.3. ©INFGM / ARS
Fig. 1
Akari Lamps by Isamu Noguchi promotional sheet, c. 1952. The Noguchi Museum Archives, LBD_50S_025_005. ©INFGM / ARS
Fig. 2
Installation view, “Isamu Noguchi Exhibition,” Chuo Koron Gallery, Tokyo, August 2–7, 1954. The Noguchi Museum Archives, 07137. ©INFGM / ARS
Fig. 3
Isamu Noguchi photographing “Isamu Noguchi Exhibition,” Chuo Koron Gallery, Tokyo, August 2–7, 1954. The Noguchi Museum Archives, 03607. ©INFGM / ARS
Fig. 4
Installation view, “Isamu Noguchi Exhibition,” Chuo Koron Gallery, Tokyo, August 2–7, 1954. The Noguchi Museum Archives, 07141. ©INFGM / ARS
Fig. 5
Installation view, “Isamu Noguchi Exhibition,” Chuo Koron Gallery, Tokyo, August 2–7, 1954. The Noguchi Museum Archives, 09314.5. ©INFGM / ARS
Fig. 6
Isamu Noguchi, “Japanese Akari Lamps,” Craft Horizons, October 1954, 17–18. The Noguchi Museum Archives, BM_JOU_0578_1954. ©INFGM / ARS
Fig. 7
Isamu Noguchi, “Japanese Akari Lamps,” Craft Horizons, October 1954, 17–18. The Noguchi Museum Archives, BM_JOU_0578_1954. ©INFGM / ARS
Fig. 8
About Akari Light Sculptures

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.”

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