Fluorescent lights emit light with a very high color temperature, containing a lot of ultraviolet, that resembles the light of the noonday sun. Light with a high color temperature but low luminosity creates psychological unease in people, which is why we tend to feel depressed when thick clouds cover the sky. The same is true of an old fluorescent tube that has become dim and why the sight of the railway station after the last train has left will evoke feelings of loneliness. On the other hand, light bulbs have a much lower color temperature, resembling the light of sunset or of flames. If this kind of light is reduced in luminosity it creates a feeling of wellbeing and peace, the way that people are drawn to stare into the embers of a fire being a good example of how low color temperature effects us psychologically.

In the West, the use of fluorescent lights is limited to factories and offices and even then the tubes are rarely exposed as they are in Japan. In places where people wish to relax, they use light bulbs for the lighting, this being particularly true in the home where light stands are used to provide localized areas of light or the light is reflected off the walls or ceilings. This kind of interior design reflects a deep understanding of the influence that lighting can have on the psyche. Of course, fluorescent lights use less power than light bulbs and last much longer making them more economical, but their lack of ambiance represents a large minus factor.

It is said that the soft light that comes through the translucent paper windows of a Japanese room or from the old oil lamps of the past brings out the beauty of Japanese architecture best. Japanese aesthetics are to be found in the alcove where a picture is hung and flowers arranged or in the shadows of the wooden ceiling. The Japanese genius for lighting lies in the past, with stone lanterns, lamps with translucent paper shades and pierced metal hanging lanterns, but the environment in which the Japanese live today, particularly the schools where the children spend half their days, the prep schools they attend in the evenings, their living rooms and their study desks at home are all lit by naked fluorescent tubes. Looked at from the point of view of emotional stability, I am sure that this must have a bad influence on them.

In a slightly different context, compared to the beautiful black-and-white movies that were made by KUROSAWA Akira and OZU Yasujiro, the films, television dramas and variety programs that are produced in Japan today exhibit a total lack of aesthetic sense and a blandness in their lighting that should never be allowed. The lighting that we see in foreign movies and even foreign news programs on satellite television is vastly superior, it displays a much richer interplay of light and shade and creates a greater aesthetic ambience. I think that this is a reflection of the richer lighting environment that the people involved in producing such programs enjoy in their daily lives.

The art room in schools or the studios provided for students at art school are also lit with fluorescent lights but is this really what the painters, sculptors and other creative people of the future need in order to develop their skills? It is a fact that somebody who has never known the beauty produced by shadows, who has never been moved by the illumination of a serene light, will be unable to create the kind of representational painting that flourished in the days before fluorescent lighting held sway.Before fluorescent lights found their way into the studio, artists would work with the soft, unsteady light that came in through north-facing skylights. It may even have been the fascinating interplay of light and shade or the wavering tones produced by oil lamps and candles that inspired them to paint in the first place, but it is something that can never be experienced in a world that is illuminated by fluorescent lights, a world uninfluenced by the passing of time, where everything shares the same glaring monotony.

A representational expression is achieved when the artist captures the interplay of light and shade on the motif at the moment it awakens a responsive chord in his heart. The object of Western painting is to capture the feeling of light in a scene but for some reason it is often said that very few masterpieces have been produced in recent years. Various ideas have been suggested to explain this dearth of good work, but I think that it is largely due to the fact that artists today all work under the light of fluorescent tubes.

The same can be said of west-European-style nude sculpture, in which the sculptors use grey clay to capture the beauty of form and movement within the interplay of light and shade as the natural light passes over the body of the model. However, when I studied the subject as a student, the model stood in the glare of the studio's fluorescent lights, everything obvious to the eye and far from exciting artistic fervour, her evenly-lit body failed to possess even sexual allure resulting in the whole process becoming an exercise in banality.

I sometimes wonder whether the reason for the loss of the happy family circle, once the hallmark of the Japanese home, might not be due to the introduction of the fluorescent light to the living room. The pitiless glare of the fluorescent light leads to psychological unease, driving the father out to visit bars in search of relaxation which in turn creates feelings of frustration in the mother. If you find that you have problems within your family, I recommend that you unplug the fluorescent light and replace it with several lampstands fitted with dimmer switches. I am sure that you will be pleasantly surprised once the room becomes a little less glaring and its flaws less apparent.

I think that we have reached the point where serious thought should be given to the merits and demerits of the ubiquitous fluorescent light.
(July 17, 1997)