''The lantern is present in all places''. That could be a rash assertion! But the obliquitous lantern is present in a stroll backyard inside an Imperial Villa or a courtyard backyard in a private residence. I feel the lantern presents nice symbolism in a Japanese garden. The lantern presents a light source and a vertical picture (Yang). The lantern suggests light after darkish and illumination of an object worthy of reflection. The lantern guides the way in which and provides the realm's emptiness one thing of life (Yang) and substance. It has meaning. The lantern dissociated from crops and residing issues, from the mosses and grasses and the Azaleas and densely clipped shrubs of Kyoto.



The lantern comes in so many shapes and sizes. Little question each shape represents a historical past and legacy steeped into time. And regardless of the site requires no doubt a lantern model could be found to fill that space. Some lanterns not more than 30cm in peak and others seen in Kyoto as much as 1.6-1.8 metres tall. There should be lantern factories somewhere. Smaller lanterns seen closer to the pathway and bigger ones set into the distance. Maybe set onto the ground inside a clump of timber to intensify change.



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



However why is it a needed inclusion? To information the customer along a pathway after nightfall? 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 so as to add life after darkish (and the Yin world of darkness)? Is the lantern an emblem of life or inclusion of human intervention upon a setting?



The lantern presents Yang to reduce the dominance of Yin. The white circle in the black. The fire to protect from the cold. The life to enlighten and vitalise from the dark. The lantern to me holds a symbolic place and has practicalities. Sure I am a harmonious chi gardener and I am going to imagine all that.



The lantern is perfect . It presents Yang in a Yin environment. The lantern postures. It represents timeliness. Night and day, year after year. It transcends time and its physical construction and design completely attune to the climate of Japan by offering a hood for the snow and ice and a roof and walls to guard the flame. The lantern can sit beside a pond, in the pond, inside a corner of the backyard, alongside a pathway. I would not locate it where the sha (detrimental) energy can extinguish it e.g., uncovered 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 just like a light on a seashore guiding ships at sea.

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