Light of Kyoto rounded

• Made with wood, a textile cable, and original japanese paper processed by hand using vegetable fibers from mulberry plants (Kōzo washi), this lamp is a homage to the light of Kyoto and the japanese culture. 

• 影 is the kanji for "shadow", which plays an important role in the culture and aesthetics of Japan. There is no beauty, and no truth, without the interplay between light and shadow.

• As Junichiro Tanizaki wrote in his essay ''In Praise of Shadows'', 'were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty' and 'beauty must always grow from the realities of life, so our ancestors, forced to live in dark rooms, presently came to discover beauty in shadows'.

• The japanese designer Kaoru Mende described the differences between East and West in lighting design: while in the West there is a preference for lamps from the ceiling or high vertical windows, in the East you find wall-mounted lamps or large horizontal windows being more common.

That reflects another difference in religious sensitivity: while in the West they think God is in the sky, looking at us from above, in the Eastern culture it's more common to believe God is immanent in this world, at our level.

So, designing this lamp, I imagined it installed at our eyes' level: it can be used as a table lamp on your desk or shelf, or wall-mounted.