AKARI

Akari is a Japanese word meaning light and is used in a variety of contexts. In Japanese, the term can function as a given name for girls and is often associated with brightness or illumination, though the kanji used to write it can vary. Beyond personal names, akari appears in poetry, song, and everyday language to evoke light or glow.

In design and art, AKARI refers to Isamu Noguchi’s Akari lamp series. Initiated in the mid-20th century, these lamps are sculptural light fixtures made with washi paper shades supported by bamboo or wire frames. They emit a soft, diffuse light and come in multiple sizes for floor, table, and ceiling use. The Akari lamps are regarded as iconic examples of modern lighting design that blend sculpture with functional illumination.

In puzzles, Akari is a Nikoli logic game also known as Light Up in English. The puzzle is played on a grid containing black and white cells. The objective is to place light bulbs on some white cells so that every white cell is illuminated by at least one bulb, while no two bulbs illuminate each other. Black cells may carry numbers indicating the count of adjacent bulbs, providing constraints that guide the solution.

In astronomy, AKARI (also known as ASTRO-F) is a Japanese infrared space telescope launched by JAXA in 2006. It conducted an all-sky infrared survey and performed pointed observations across multiple infrared wavelengths using instruments such as the Infrared Camera and the Far-Infrared Surveyor. The mission contributed to catalogs of celestial objects and improved understanding of dust, star formation, and galaxy evolution.