AKARI
In Japan, there are numerous traditional crafts using ancient designs and techniques.
We have developed lighting devices that transform these traditional designs and crafts into lampshades and fuse them with the latest electronics technology to create fantastic and healing spaces.We propose a peaceful and rich lifestyle for residential spaces through the production of light.We focused on katagami, which has been used in dyeing, a traditional Japanese craft. We aimed to create products that would preserve this wonderful traditional Japanese technique and design for future generations.
In particular, we focused on Ise-katagami, which has a history of more than 1,000 years, and aimed to create a product that would introduce a wide range of traditional Japanese techniques by changing the form of an ancient Japanese kimono design.
This interior craft lighting uses the beauty of the delicate patterns and designs of Ise-katagami in lampshades. The projected patterns are projected onto the room space as shadow pictures.
Ise-katagami is a dyeing stencil used to dye patterns and designs on kimono fabric. It has flourished for more than 1,000 years centered in the Shirako and Teraya areas of Suzuka City, Mie Prefecture.
Three sheets of Japanese paper are laminated together with persimmon tannin, and the skilled technique and spirit are concentrated on the fingertips on the processed kataji paper.The artisan concentrates his skill and spirit on the processed katagami and carves it out. The origin of Ise-katagami is not clear.
However, there is a picture of a katagami craftsman from the Muromachi period. In the Edo period, most orders for Ise-katagami came from all over Japan.Most of the orders came to Shirako and Teraya, and it developed very well.
The "Honoka" series was newly designed by a traditional craftsman (Mr. Isao Uchida) to reproduce traditional Japanese craftsmanship, and this pattern was used for the lampshade.
2017 Awarded Omotenashi Selection
2018 Cover of the November issue of ANA in-flight magazine "WINGSPAN" (international edition)
2019 Selected for Challenge Local Cool Japan in Paris, a project of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and exhibited at Maison wa, Paris from April
2019 Selected as one of the 100 best in Japan (TAKUMI NEXT 2019) by JETRO, an independent administrative agency of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
2020 Selected as one of the 100 best in Japan (TAKUMI NEXT 2020) by JETRO, an independent administrative agency of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, for two consecutive years
2023 Selected for the Excellence Award in the Japanese Culture Promotion Project and the Japanese Culture Grand Prix