In 1951, American/Japanese artist and designer Isamu Noguchi started to designthe Akari Light Sculptures, a total of over 100 hand-made 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 terms for brightness, light. Vitra Design Museum Collection.
"The light of 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 backto the light of our origin - the sun - so that its warmth may continue to fill our rooms at night." (Isamu Noguchi)