Modern yet totally traditional, Isamu Noguchi’s Akari lights were made popular way back in the 1950s. Lovely to look at and surprisingly robust, the Akari lights not only fuse Isamu Noguchi’s Japanese and American influences, but art and design, craftsmanship and industry. For the shades, Noguchi used the silky Mino paper that had been made in a nearby village from locally grown mulberry bark since the eighth century. He replaced the wire frames then commonly used in Japanese candlelit lanterns with more traditional bamboo – talk about great sustainable design!

Some lamps were geometric, and others elaborately curved in the biomorphic style of 1950s furniture. Noguchi also enjoyed playing with the centuries-old shapes of the original candlelit lanterns. Like all great lighting designers (and unlike most artists who have become designers), Noguchi knew that the performance of his product, the quality of its light, was just as important as how it looked. His design was also supremely practical. The shade was so pliable that it could be collapsed and packed flat in a box for export. The Mino paper was not only tough, but acquired an endearing patina with age.

Noguchi called the Akari “restless wanderers between the realms of art and design.” They were, and they wandered equally restlessly – yet effectively – between craft and industry, East and West, with successful forays into economic regeneration and sustainability. Not bad for a light.

And for jewelry? We can’t help but see a parallel between Noguchi and our very own designer, Takashi – through his sculptured nature-inspired designs, Takashi attempts to do for contemporary jewelry what Noguchi did for the light.