INAHO by Hideki Yoshimoto
and Yoshinaka Ono

Little tubes of golden light gently lean towards approaching visitors in this installation by Japanese design duo Hideki Yoshimoto and Yoshinaka Ono.

Hideki Yoshimoto and Yoshinaka Ono of tangent: studio wanted to create the impression of golden ears of rice slowly swaying in the wind.

INAHO, which means “ear of rice” in Japanese, is composed of LEDs encased in golden tubes fixed to the end of three-millimeter-wide carbon fibre stems.

Tiny perforations in the tubes distribute the light into a smattering of blurry dots reminiscent of a rice paddy field, while movement sensors within the base of each stem draw the golden tips in the direction of passing people.

The installation was awarded first place in the Lexus Design Awards and was subsequently presented at the Lexus space during the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan last month.

We recently interviewed the new Salone del Mobile president on how he plans to tackle issues that “damage Milan”.

We previously featured a music box that uses the movement of the musical mechanism to cause sticks of barley to gently sway.

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Here’s a description of Inaho from the designers:

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INAHO is an interior lighting inspired by a golden ear of rice slowly swinging in the wind. The product’s 3 mm wide stem is made of carbon fibre and a LED covered by a golden perforated tube is attached to its end, which creates light in dots reminding us of paddy rice. Human-detection sensors are embedded in the base and when a person comes by the INAHO, it begins to sway in that direction.

Dozens of Inaho would create a landscape that responds to and follows people, which will make an attractive entrance or corridor. By extracting the characteristics from an ear of rice and representing them with minimal elements, we approached a product which possesses novelty and nature-oriented familiarity together.

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