A Japanese design classic, the Akari collection, designed by Isamu Noguchi in 1951, is to this day still hand-crafted in a family workshop in Gifu, Japan. Traditional dried Washi paper, derived from the Mulberry tree, is sculpted over a metal frame, supported by thin, delicate legs. This produces a gentle and refined form, adding simplicity and unique styling to your chosen space.
The collection, comprising over 100 distinctive models, has guaranteed authenticity by way of a makers mark, in this case, a logo of a stylised sun and moon, designed to resemble the corresponding Japanese characters.
Isamu Noguchi was an American-Japanese designer who originally trained as a sculptor and brought a sculptural sensibility to everything he created: lighting, furniture, gardens and stage sets. He studied sculpture, after dropping out of medical school, in late 1920s New York and then in Paris as an assistant to Constantin Brancusi.
Noguchi designed a range of paper Akari lights throughout the 1950s and 1960s, alongside the popular organic furniture he made in curvy sculpted wood now part of the Vitra Collection, such as the Freeform Sofa and Coffee Table. He was equally prolific as a landscape architect; he recreated the ancient Buddhist stone gardens he had loved in Kyoto at Lever House in New York (1951), UNESCO in Paris (1951), the Yale campus (1960) and Jerusalem’s Israel Museum (1960).
