historic monuments, was something of an uphill
struggle. The Light-Up Yokohama festival in 1986 –
where she was commissioned to light 12 historic post-Meiji (post-1912) buildings, attracting 800,000 people
over a three-week period – was the culmination of her
voluntary proof-of-the-pudding tour of the country
lighting up monuments at her own expense.
Ishii’s half-century career has encompassed an
enormous and diverse range of projects. In Japan,
Osaka and Himeji Castles; the Akashi Straits and
the Yokohama Bay Bridges; the Heisei Building at
the Tokyo National Museum; the Gifu World Fresh
Water Aquarium; the station building of Tokyo
Station; Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, and Ebisu
Garden Place. Internationally there has been the Royal
Reception Pavilion in Jeddah; Northwestern National
Life Insurance Co HQ in Minneapolis; the Hong Kong
Convention and Exhibition Centre; Melbourne Centre
in Australia, among many others.
Her 1989 redesign of the lighting for the 333m-high
Tokyo Tower, the world’s tallest self-supported steel
tower, attracted international attention. She won
an IESNA award for the Fantasy of Light Electricity
Pavilion at the International Garden and Greenery
Exposition (Osaka, 1990) and again for the Rainbow
Bridge (Tokyo, 1994), one of her more celebrated
and inspirational schemes. One of the first designers
to make extensive use of coloured light in exterior
schemes, Ishii’s application of colour is always rooted
in a clear rationale, informed by symbolic meaning
and cultural association.
She has designed lighting for the cities of Osaka,
Hakodate, Himeji and Kurashiki, and famously
created a moonlit mise-en-scene for the Unesco World
Heritage Site gasshō-zukuri (traditional thatched
house) village at Shirakawa, Gifu Prefecture. The heart
of the concept was the figurative representations the
Japanese have for the light of the full moon – hanging
and floorstanding paper lanterns diffusing gentle light
through traditional washi paper.
‘That’s what inspired me to shine this tranquil light
upon the entire village,’ she told NHK World Japan.
‘There’s a lookout spot on the mountainside with a
great view of everything. I set the floodlights at the foot
of the platform. And we’re talking the full moon here,
so one angle wasn’t going to be enough. The village is
surrounded by mountains. I set up more floodlights
use of coloured lighting in exterior
schemes, Ishii’s application of colour
is always rooted in a clear rationale’
Ishii’s redesign of the lighting for the 333m-high Tokyo Tower
in 1989 brought her international attention
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