At a very young age in his hometown, Kunitachi, university city, Shigeaki Asahara was a pupil of Nakamoto Tatsuya who taught him painting. On the advice of the master, he moved to Turin, Italy, enrolling in the Accademia Albertina diBelle Arti. One of his paintings was selected at the ArteGiovane competition. He rarely attended the Institute, in fact, he cultivated an interest in car design and the automotive world. “Soon though,” he declares, “I convinced myself that by designing smaller objects, I could more easily imagine how they would be once made. This work finally suited me, that of product design. It represented the best choice for my ideative sensibility.” Upon returning to Japan he collaborated with Adam&Eve, gaining experience in the field of ceramics. Then he was a designer in Turin, from 1977 and 1978, with ABACO, a well-known architectural and interior design firm. In the 1980s he began his career as a freelance designer, leading in the lighting industry and dividing his professional time between Italy and Japan. Some of his lamps can be found in the permanent collections of important museums in New York and Tokyo.
