This unassuming-looking piece of iron, called a teshoku, was a luxury item in 1600s Japan.

At the time, wealthy households and temples lit their interiors at night with candles. The candles were themselves a luxury item, being painstakingly made by crushing up the fruit seeds of a wax tree, and were typically placed around a house in fixed or tabletop candleholders. But some unknown craftsman added a novel UX improvement to the candleholders: The long, horizontally-stretching leg you see, which allowed the user to pick up the light source and carry it around.

By the 1800s, cheaper paraffin candles became a thing, and the teshoku trickled down to common people.

Now the teshoku has received yet another UX upgrade. Dai Furuwatari is a modern-day Japanese product designer turned ironworker. He designed this Pendulum Candleholder:

It has two innovations. The first is that the long leg can also be used as a hanging hook.

The second is that the device integrates a pivot, for varied carrying positions:

The candle mount is also removable, for cleaning.

The candleholders are made-to-order by Furuwatari’s iron products company, To-Tetsu. They retail for $158.