Ken Greep

Table lamp with vintage Isamu Noguchi Akari shade

Burl-wood base, black metal stem, washi paper shade

21.5 in. H × 12 in. W × 11 in. D

A freeform burl base—knotted, figured, left in the round—carries a slim black stem and a tall, tapering Akari shade. The shade is crumpled washi on a wire frame, square in plan and wider at the hem than at the crown, with the classic red sun mark and Noguchi signature along the lower edge. The contrast is the point: raw, heavy wood against a paper lantern that barely occupies space.

Wood base design by Ken Greep. Shade is a vintage Akari by Isamu Noguchi.

Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988)American-Japanese sculptor and designer. Trained under Brâncuși in Paris; later worked across stone, bronze, landscape, and industrial design (the coffee table for Herman Miller, playgrounds, gardens). In 1951, after seeing traditional chōchin lanterns in Gifu, he designed the Akari series—hand-made washi paper over bamboo-and-wire frames, produced in Gifu and marked with the red sun ideogram. Akari means “light” as illumination and as weightlessness. The shades were meant to be folded, shipped flat, and lived with; authentic examples carry the sun mark and Noguchi’s name on the paper.

The base is original to this lamp; the shade is the vintage Noguchi element.