”The lantern is present everywhere”. That might be a rash statement! Yet the obliquitous lantern is present in a stroll garden within an Imperial Villa or a courtyard garden in a private residence. I feel the lantern offers great symbolism in a Japanese garden. The lantern presents a light source and a vertical image (Yang). The lantern suggests light after dark and illumination of an object worthy of reflection. The lantern guides the way and gives the area’s emptiness something of life (Yang) and substance. It has meaning. The lantern dissociated from plants and living things, from the mosses and grasses and the Azaleas and densely clipped shrubs of Kyoto.

The lantern comes in so many shapes and sizes. No doubt each shape represents a history and legacy steeped into time. And whatever the site requires no doubt a lantern style can be found to fill that space. Some lanterns no more than 30cm in height and others noticed in Kyoto up to 1.6-1.8 metres tall. There must be lantern factories somewhere. Smaller lanterns seen closer to the pathway and larger ones set into the distance. Maybe set onto the ground within a clump of trees to accentuate change.

Lantern constructed usually of stone or marble and containing a hood. A heart for the location of the flame, a stem to elevate it from the ground and a base for attachment. It maybe 3 sided, 4 sided coned hood, pyramid hood, circular or rectangular stem, single leg or treble leg. Suggesting the lantern offers a versatile inclusion to a Japanese styled garden.

But why is it a necessary inclusion? To guide the visitor along a pathway after dusk? To view from a distance to symbolise? To radiate light onto water for reflection or a plant or pebble or stone? Is the lantern a Yang intrusion to add life after dark (and the Yin world of darkness)? Is the lantern a symbol of life or inclusion of human intervention upon a setting?

The lantern offers Yang to reduce the dominance of Yin. The white circle in the black. The fire to shield from the cold. The life to enlighten and vitalise from the dark. The lantern to me holds a symbolic place and has practicalities. Yes I’m a harmonious chi gardener and I’ll believe all that.

The lantern is perfect. It offers Yang in a Yin environment. The lantern postures. It represents timeliness. Night and day, year after year. It transcends time and its physical structure and design perfectly attune to the climate of Japan by offering a hood for the snow and ice and a roof and walls to protect the flame. The lantern can sit beside a pond, in the pond, within a corner of the garden, alongside a pathway. I wouldn’t locate it where the sha (detrimental) energy can extinguish it e.g., exposed on a hill in a gully or swamp where the constant damp will extinguish the flame or if used in a low place lifted above it on a pedestal to become a beacon similar to a light on a seashore guiding ships at sea.

Author Bio: I hope you enjoyed reading my article as much as I enjoyed pondering over and writing it. For more related topics and complete eBook Publications, please visit my website Feng Shui Garden – a Modern and Unique Concept to Feng Shui in the Garden and Harmonious Chi (Qi) Within Our Lives. Drop by and pick up your Free Feng Shui Ebooks Sample today!! Regards, Ross Lamond

Category: Culture
Keywords: garden,kyoto,kyoto lantern,lantern,light,yang,japanese garden,yin and yang,feng shui,garden design