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Akari 6A
Akari 6A
Akari 6A
Akari 6A
Akari 6A
Akari 6A
Akari 6A
Akari 6A
Akari 6A
Akari 6A

Akari 6A

Designed c. 1952
The Akari 6A is among the first Akari light sculptures designed by Isamu Noguchi. It features mulberry bark washi paper with tight, evenly-spaced bamboo ribbing, wooden collars (wa), and a cylindrical form. The top of its three-legged metal frame is accented with wrapped bamboo.
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6A
25
14
6A IROHA
25
14
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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 6—and exhibited them at the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura.1 An early catalogue (c. 1952) notes that the four models numbered 6–9 have “interchangeable shades...with or without colored designs.”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 6 appears again at the Chuo Koron Gallery exhibition of 1954,3–5 designed with a hiragana version of the Iroha, a pangram Buddhist poem which explores themes of nature, ephemerality, and spiritual resilience.
Installation view, “Isamu Noguchi Exhibition,” Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura, September 23–October 19, 1952. Photo: Isamu Noguchi. The Noguchi Museum Archives, 05503. ©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, 05510. ©INFGM / ARS
Fig. 3
Installation view, “Isamu Noguchi Exhibition,” Chuo Koron Gallery, Tokyo, August 2–7, 1954. The Noguchi Museum Archives, 07137. ©INFGM / ARS
Fig. 4
Isamu Noguchi photographing “Isamu Noguchi Exhibition,” Chuo Koron Gallery, Tokyo, August 2–7, 1954. The Noguchi Museum Archives, 03607. ©INFGM / ARS
Fig. 5
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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