A River of LED Fireflies in Tokyo
LOS ANGELES — Unlike the bright cities that surround them, rivers are usually dark spots at night, recognizable only as absences between well-lit buildings and highways. That’s what makes the image of 100,000 LED lights floating on Tokyo’s Sumida River so evocative. Installed during the Tokyo Hotaru
LOS ANGELES — Paris earned the moniker of “City of Light,” but many other cities are worthy of the title these days. From Hong Kong to Manhattan, most cities glow and sparkle at night; places like Los Angeles and Beijing, with their long, winding highways, glow white and red in the evening as traffic piles up like a river of lights.
Actual rivers, by contrast, are usually dark spots at night, recognizable only as absences between well-lit buildings and highways. That’s what makes the image of 100,000 LED lights floating on Tokyo’s Sumida River so evocative. Installed during the Tokyo Hotaru festival, these “prayer stars” are powered by solar energy and light up when touching water.
I wish I could have seen the installation in person. What’s even more poginant about this installation is that it references the original fireflies that once populated the Sumida River. According to Spoon & Tamago, it’s no longer possible to see fireflies there, so all we have left are these glowing balls, a reminder of what once was.
