Akari Light Sculpture Model "BB1-30DL"
Manufactured by Ozeki & Co., Ltd.
Japan, 1978
Washi paper, bamboo, enameled cast iron

Measurements
19 × 19 × 58h cm
7,5 × 7,5 × 23h in

Provenance
Private collection, Japan

Details
Two available.
Stamped "Sun and Moon" ideogram to the shade.

Literature
NEW Akari Light Sculpture, Ozeki & Co., Gifu, 1977.
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, p. 102.
Dore Ashton, Noguchi East and West, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1992.

About
The BB1-30DL belongs to Isamu Noguchi's celebrated Akari series, a body of work that transformed traditional Japanese lantern-making into one of the defining achievements of twentieth-century lighting design. Designed around 1978, the model combines a slender cylindrical washi paper shade with a cast iron base, creating a refined dialogue between visual lightness and structural solidity.
Like all Akari light sculptures, the BB1-30DL was handcrafted in Gifu using traditional washi paper stretched over a bamboo framework. Noguchi regarded these objects not simply as lamps, but as sculptures of light, capable of transforming an interior through the subtle diffusion of illumination and the expressive qualities of natural materials.
The contrast between the delicate handmade paper and the robust enameled cast iron base gives the design a remarkable architectural presence while preserving the poetic simplicity that defines the Akari collection. The model demonstrates Noguchi's lifelong ambition to unite sculpture, craftsmanship, and everyday life, producing objects that are at once functional, timeless, and deeply human.

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.