Akari Lighting

Available Akari Lighting Products

Akari 20N Table $155.00	Akari 24N Table $175.00	Akari 26N Table $175.00	Akari 2N Table $90.00
Akari 3X Table $85.00	Akari 4N Table $95.00	Akari 5X Table $85.00	Akari XP1 Table $95.00
Akari YA2 Table $145.00

One of the most important artists of the twentieth century, Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) expanded the traditional notion of sculpture to include the creation of dance sets, gardens, playgrounds, fountains and furniture. Within this range of spatial environment Isamu Noguchi’s Akari lanterns hold a unique place, expressing his Japanese–American heritage in works designed to enhance the quality everyday life.

In 1951 Isamu Noguchi visited the Japanese town of Gifu, know for its manufacture of lanterns and umbrellas from the mulberry bark paper and bamboo. Inspired by the lanterns illuminating night fishing on the Nagara River, 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. Extending the concept of illuminated sculpture that he developed during the 1940s in New York, Noguchi employed abstract shapes to unite the simplicity of Japanese aesthetics with the principles of contemporary art and design. More than home furnishing, Akari are light sculptures.

With the warm glow of light cast through hand-made 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. "

Isamu Noguchi Online