Few lamps have travelled as far as Isamu Noguchi’s Akari. Today, isamu noguchi akari lamps glow in homes, offices, hotels, restaurants, and on film and television sets, casting a soft, even light that copycats have never fully matched. This year marks 75 years since Noguchi, who lived from 1904 to 1988, first designed them, and the anniversary is being marked with a new exhibition, No Ordinary Light: Akari at 75, at The Noguchi Museum, the namesake museum in New York.
A Gifu lantern industry in decline
The Akari began in 1951, when Noguchi stopped in Gifu, Japan, on his way to Hiroshima. The city was known for lanterns and umbrellas made from mulberry bark paper and bamboo. Noguchi reportedly watched a fishing festival on the Nagara River, where boats were lit by paper lanterns called chochin.
The local trade was already struggling. Cheap knockoffs had flooded the market, and most Gifu lanterns were used only as decorations or advertising. Noguchi met the city’s mayor, and accounts differ on the exact request. All agree the mayor wanted the craft revived.
Noguchi kept the traditional Gifu methods but made one decisive change. He replaced the customary candle with an incandescent lightbulb, which made the lantern a practical modern light source.
Noguchi’s lantern shows light can be craft. Hegren’s repairable Knekt floor lamp, minimalism meets craft offers a modern parallel.
Paper, bamboo and a collapsible frame
Noguchi named the series Akari, a Japanese word meaning light. The name also carries the sense of weightlessness, which suited a lamp that could be folded flat. He called the works light sculptures, a label that signalled his view that they were art first.
The shades are built from washi paper made from the inner bark of the mulberry tree, stretched over bamboo ribbing. Craftspeople make the paper by hand. They stretch bamboo ribbing across a sculpted wooden mould designed by Noguchi, then cut the washi into strips and glue them to both sides of the frame.
When the glue dries and the shape is set, the wooden mould is removed and reused. What remains is a delicate but resilient form that collapses and packs flat in boxes made for the lamps.
Kate Wiener, a curator at The Noguchi Museum, says Noguchi saw new designs as a way to stay ahead of imitators. He wanted innovation to make copying impossible. Wiener adds that he also treated the lamps as a cause, arguing that a new shape alone was not enough. The forms had to fit how people actually live.
More than a hundred models
Sources disagree on how many Akari models Noguchi designed. Noguchi created more than 200 Akari models over his lifetime. Either way, the range is wide. The earliest versions are a table lamp known as 9A and a floor lamp labelled 14A, according to Evan Scott, the museum’s director of retail and merchandising. Both sit on three-legged metal frames with wooden collars and evenly spaced bamboo ribbing.
Later designs include globe-shaped ceiling lights and tall column shades with sparse ribbing. Most come in an off-white tone, though some carry colourful screen-printed patterns. Sizes reportedly run from 24 to roughly 240 centimetres, depending on the source.
The lamps were not an instant success. The odd shapes did not match what people expected a lantern to look like.
The isamu noguchi akari lamps later earned wider recognition. Today, contemporary designers continue to reinterpret the form.
Why the light still works
Matthew Kirsch, curator and director of research at The Noguchi Museum, credits the paper for much of the lamps’ staying power in modern lighting design. Light diffuses through mulberry bark washi with a warmth, he says, that imitations rarely reproduce.
The soft glow of a hand-shaped shade also has a place in art. Alexandre Veillon’s illuminating found-object art pieces show how light can become sculpture.
The handmade process still follows the old method. Kirsch notes that construction on most models, based on the spiral bamboo ribbing of the chochin, has barely changed since Noguchi began working with the Ozeki family in Gifu in the 1950s. The natural wrinkles in the paper are part of the handmade character.
Buying authentic isamu noguchi akari lamps
Collectors and designers have gravitated to certain isamu noguchi akari lamps. Scott says the 1A and 1N table lamps remain among the most popular. The globe and saucer-shaped ceiling models, which come in several sizes and rib patterns, also sell well.
Authentic isamu noguchi akari lamps are sold through The Noguchi Museum, online, and at its shop in Queens. Ozeki & Co. sells Akari in Japan, and Vitra handles Europe and the Middle East, along with other regions. Some models are offered through exhibition and design partners listed on the museum’s website.
Checking for genuine marks
Every authentic Akari carries a red sun and moon stamp on the shade. Contemporary models also bear the signature “I. Noguchi” beside the Akari logo. Collectors should check for both marks, since many imitations have flooded the market and the stamp is the simplest test.
The lamp has outlasted its own skeptics. Noguchi once said that all a home needs is a room, a tatami and an Akari. Seventy-five years on, the line still makes the case for a single light that can fill a room with warmth.
Sources & Links
Source: wallpaper.com
Frequently asked questions
How did Isamu Noguchi’s Akari lamps originate in Gifu, Japan?
The Akari began in 1951, when Noguchi stopped in Gifu, Japan, on his way to Hiroshima. The city was known for traditional lanterns and umbrellas, but its lantern trade was already struggling because cheap knockoffs had flooded the market. Noguchi met the mayor, who wanted the local craft revived.
What did Noguchi change from traditional Gifu lanterns to make Akari?
Noguchi kept the traditional Gifu methods but replaced the customary candle with an incandescent lightbulb. This change made the lantern a practical modern light source.
What material are Akari lamp shades made from?
The shades are built from washi paper made from the inner bark of the mulberry tree, stretched over bamboo ribbing. Craftspeople make the paper by hand and glue it to the frame.
How can you tell whether an Akari lamp is authentic?
Every authentic Akari carries a red sun and moon stamp on the shade.
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