Akari Light Sculpture Model "BB1-30DD"
Manufactured by Ozeki & Co., Ltd.
Japan, designed 1956
Washi paper, bamboo, lacquered metal

Measurements
28 × 28 × 63h cm
11 × 11 × 24,8h in

Provenance
Private collection, Japan

Details
Pair available. Rare variation of the Akari series featuring the sought-after BB bamboo stem construction. Washi paper shade stretched over a bamboo frame with lacquered metal base. Pull-chain switch. Stamped "Sun and Moon" ideogram to the shade.

Literature
NEW Akari Light Sculpture, Ozeki & Co., Gifu, 1977.
Catalog of Latest Akari, Ozeki & Co., Gifu, 1988.
Bonnie Rychlak, Dakin Hart, Mutsuko Mori, Masayo Murayama and Kengo Matsumoto, Design: Isamu Noguchi and Isamu Kenmochi, The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York, 2022.
Dore Ashton, Noguchi East and West, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1992.

About
The BB1-30DD is a rare variation within Isamu Noguchi's celebrated Akari series, distinguished by the elegant bamboo support column that defines the sought-after BB models. Designed in 1956, the lamp reflects Noguchi's continued exploration of the relationship between traditional Japanese craftsmanship and modern sculptural form.
Handcrafted in Gifu by Ozeki & Co., the lamp combines a washi paper shade made from mulberry bark stretched over a bamboo frame with a lacquered metal base. The slender bamboo stem creates a remarkable sense of visual lightness, allowing the illuminated form to appear delicately suspended above its base. A pull-chain switch completes the design while preserving its understated architectural character.
Noguchi conceived the Akari Light Sculptures not simply as lighting fixtures but as "sculptures of light." By transforming the harshness of electric light through handmade paper, he sought to recreate the warmth and softness of natural sunlight within the domestic interior. The BB1-30DD beautifully embodies this philosophy, uniting sculpture, craftsmanship, and functionality in one of the most poetic expressions of twentieth-century lighting design.

Biography
Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) was one of the most important and intellectually ambitious artists of the twentieth century, whose work moved fluidly between sculpture, architecture, landscape, furniture, and industrial design. Born in Los Angeles to the Japanese poet Yone Noguchi and the American writer Leonie Gilmour, he grew up between the United States and Japan, an experience that profoundly shaped his artistic vision. Noguchi never accepted the division between East and West, art and utility, or sculpture and design; instead, he sought to create a unified visual language capable of shaping how people live, move, and experience space.
Noguchi's early artistic formation took place in New York, where he studied at Columbia University before training as a sculptor. In 1927 he traveled to Paris on a Guggenheim Fellowship to apprentice with Constantin Brancusi, an experience that proved decisive for his understanding of form and abstraction. Throughout his life he expanded sculpture beyond conventional limits, creating furniture, stage sets, landscapes, and environments that redefined the role of design in daily life.
His Akari Light Sculptures, begun in 1951, remain among his most influential creations and continue to embody his lifelong pursuit of harmony between tradition, technology, material, and human experience.