Tomoya FurukawaKanagawa Still basking in the joy of how bright, unusually large, and beautiful last night’s full moon was, I headed out early in the morning to the wood deck along the beach. I went to take part in a radio calisthenics session together with elderly ladies, married couples, local runners, etc.  The morning after the Cold Moon, sunrise in the Shonan area on December 6 was at 6:33 a.m., and as we exercised, we ended up watching the sun rise.  I restarted radio calisthenics to add some rhythm and structure to my long days. I thought I would probably give up after about three days or so, but I have stuck with it for a month. I wonder why I have stuck with it this time?  What is my motivation?  The early bird catches the worm?  A growing sense of urgency to maintain physical health? Because I like the post-workout chat? “Mt. Fuji is very beautiful today.  So clear.  You can see Ohshima Island!” “Glad to see the sun rise, again today.  So peaceful.” At this time of year just before the winter solstice, the sun in the Shonan area gradually shifts to the right of Enoshima in the eastern sky and rises from behind the Miura Peninsula. As the sky turns pale and bright, about five minutes before sunrise the eastern horizon slowly deepens into shades of red. Then, for a few minutes until the very top of…

01 August 2007 Searching for Heroes and Villains of Light The Roppongi One-Mile. In a one-mile radius (1.6 km), there are over 40 embassies, 9 international schools, and National Art Center, Mori Art Museum, and Suntory Museum of Art completing a triangle of art. In the center of where world cultures and arts clash, Roppongi, Tokyo Midtown is trying to become a base for transmitting Japanese Design to the rest of the world. In this new landmark of Tokyo, Lighting Detective members went in search of Heroes and Villains of Light. See what they found in this new urban environment. Heroes and Villains …by: yuji sato My overall impression is of a typical commercial facility catering to adults with a well-balanced lighting plan. Prime example of a lighting hero is the unified appearance of the Galleria interior. Inside, simple translucent signage with black lettering gives the interior a clean-cut feeling. A single warm-colored fluorescent lamp in the bottom of the sign creates a beautiful gradation. The signs are also mounted at the perfect high, not blocked by people’s heads and all visible with one glance down the corridor. The shopping area has the feeling of a European high fashion street with most shops also using halogen lamps or similar low color temperature lamps to create a posh and unified space. The second lighting hero I`d like to recognize is the small gallery space along the large columns in the atrium….

Date of Issue: January 16, 2023・Activity 1 / City Night Survey : Koyasan（2022.10.01-03）・Activity 2 / Online activities City Night Survey : Koyasan 2022.10.01-10.03 Shunichi Ikeda + Genki Watanabe Koyasan (Wakayama Prefecture), a sacred site of Japanese Buddhism with a history of 1,200 years, was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2004 and again in 2016, and is one of the world’s most renowned religious cities. It is also a popular tourist destination, attracting many international visitors prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the distinctive light environment created by the numerous temples and shrines, as well as through the experience of staying at temple lodgings (shukubō), we conducted an investigation into this extraordinary lighting culture from the perspective of the Lighting Detectives. Koyasan is a town situated in a mountain basin at an altitude of 800 meters, surrounded by peaks of around 1,000 meters in northern Wakayama Prefecture. It was founded about 1,200 years ago, in the early Heian period, by the Buddhist monk Kōbō Daishi (Kūkai) as a sacred site of Japanese Buddhism, with Danjō Garan serving as the central temple complex of this religious city.Originally, the entire area of Koyasan was considered part of the grounds of Kongōbu-ji Temple.For us, this was the first time to focus on a religious city in an urban lighting survey. We wanted to examine what the nightscape of this temple town looks like and how the lighting culture of Japan and…

Night Walk @Marina Bay for Professional 2018/10/26 Mayumi Banno＋Sunyoung Hwang + Sherri Goh Group picture at the start of the walk! Introduction to Lighting Detectives Discussion at the commonly chosen Hero of tree uplight Interesting conversations about the skyline of the bay area ■PLDC Professional Walk at Marina Bay 　 The first PLDC (Professional Lighting Design convention) outside of Europe was held in Singapore on the 25-27th October 2018. There were moderated discussions, pre-convention meetings, conferences, exhibitions, evening walks and rounding off with a gala event. 　 Singapore Lighting Detectives initiated a Heroes and Villains night walk at Marina Bay in conjunction with the PLDC as an opportunity to interact with lighting designers from all over the world. It was a nice contrast to our first walk held in the same area to keep track of the progress made in the entire year, aside from different perspectives 　 We started with 15 participants at Marina Bay Sands Rain Oculus sculpture that comprised of lighting designers, educators, manufacturers and even a couple from the general public. 　 It was natural for many of the participants to pick up details of the lighting environment whilst the majority of time was spent discussion the nightscape of Marina Bay from a visitor point-of -view in comparison to various places around the world. 　 It was interesting to note that there were many similar pictures chosen from the participants as their Hero and Villain, but…

Date of Issue: August 6, 2025 ・Activity 1 / Light-up Ninja in Guangzhou（2025.06.11-06.12） Light-up Ninja in Guangzhou First Light-up Ninja in China!2025.06.11-06.12 Huangyi Lin Lighting Detectives debuted Light-up Ninja in China (June 2025, Guangzhou). Students created temporary night art with communities, combating light villains through sustainable urban darkness and cultural storytelling. From June 11 to 12, 2025, the “Light up Ninja” flash mob popped up in Nanting Village, Guangzhou University Town—lighting up the night for a moment, then quietly withdrawing. This was the first-ever ‘Light up Ninja’ event in China. We co-organized it with the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, whose faculty members Prof. Lin Hong, Yang Yiding, and Lu Haifeng were excited to join. The event also received support from the Guangzhou Lighting Society and sponsorship, including technical expertise, from CDN Lighting. The main purpose of the event was not to light up the monumental kind, often found extravagantly lighting up towers, bridges, or castles. Instead, it involved simple experiments to find appeal in the typical, by illuminating scenes buried in daily life. We wanted students to learn not just about adding light, but also about eliminating unnecessary or unpleasant light to create beauty and comfort in the nightscape closest to us. ■ DAY 1: June 11Around 30 students, along with LPA and CDN staff and professors, gathered at GAFA’s Art and Light Environment Lab for the opening ceremony. Prof. Lin Hong gave a talk on “Nightscape Lighting for…