Akari 1A, 1951

In 1951, the American / Japanese artist and designer Isamu Noguchi started to design the Akari Light Sculptures, a total of over 100 handmade Shoji-paper models for table lights, standard lamps or ceiling luminaires. For the name of this lighting series he chose the word akari, the Japanese term for brightness, light.

'The light of the Akari is like the light of the sun filtered through the paper of shoji. The harshness of electricity is thus transformed through the magic of paper back to the light of our origin - the sun - so that its warmth may continue to fill our rooms at night'. Isamu Noguchi