We discovered this lantern from an old Japanese Shiga garden in our most recent Japanese travels.

This stunning, unique and huge hand-carved, solid stone lantern is the largest scale Kurama lantern we have seen and handled in twenty years.

It was originally assembled from large mountain iron rich red kurama boulders. Red iron Kurama stone was historically sourced exclusively in Japan from one northern Kyoto region. However this unique source had been terminated decades ago and this rare stone and these rare lanterns, especially in this great size, are no longer easily found and available.

This lantern was sourced from a private Shiga area Japanese garden.

It’s unique qualities represent some of the finest old world Japanese craftsmanship found today.

Best In Class.

This rare lantern would make an ideal choice for a quality outdoor installation whose owners would appreciate and want only the finest. It’s a beautiful and unique way to accent your outdoor garden space with this one-of-a-kind, best in class treasure from Japan. It comes from an old Shiga garden comes this authentic and rare monumental scale Japanese Obakedouro “Spirit or Ghost Lantern,” crafted from red kurama granite.

Dimensions: 102 inches (8.5 feet) high and 56 inches wide

Taisho period (1920s).

Many of our customers place LED inside the main section making a romantic and enjoyable decorative accent for entertaining friends and family.

One-of-a-kind .

Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity. All our Asian works of art are accompanied by our lifetime guarantee of authenticity.

We are members of the North American Japanese Garden Association (NAJGA) specializing for ten years now in old and authentic Japanese stone garden ornaments.

Our gallery has been dealing in authentic Japanese, and fine Asian art, garden ornaments, lanterns and water basins for 25 years. Our president personally travels to Japan and Europe each year to meet his network partners who assist him in finding best examples. He personally inspects each antique work of art to ensure its old age, authenticity and quality condition.

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Please view our video of more of our latest lantern discoveries.

Brief History of Japanese lanterns:

Japan’s lantern tradition was imported from India yet has existed in Japanese temples and gardens since the seventh century. They were originally conceived as entrance lighting and guardians and when lit served as an offering to Buddha. Some of the earliest stone lanterns were carved with Buddhist images on the firebox and usually had compartments for an oil lamp or candle. Later on, they became more secular in nature, and their use evolved as functional and decorative elements in traditional Japanese tea gardens. Today’s vintage survivors serve as fashionable aesthetic elements in modern day Japanese and Asian inspired gardens.

There are four main categories of antique Japanese stone lanterns. Tachi-gata are pedestal lanterns such as the famous Kasuga lanterns, ikekome-gata are the so-called buried lanterns, oki-gata are small often portable lanterns, and yukimi-gata are sometimes commonly mis-described as “snow viewing” lanterns but in fact were often installed near water.

Finally “spirit” or ghost lanterns, like the lantern above, was assembled from natural stones and were popular in mountainous areas of Japan and are thought to repel ill spirits via the round firebox portal.

The Kasuga lantern is fashioned after the ancient lanterns found in Shinto shrines of Nara, Japan and some date back to 700 AD. Kasuga lanterns are frequently seen at entrances to Japanese tea gardens and as a focal point to modern day gardens. Oki-gata , small portable lanterns are among the rarest of all because few were created and fewer still survived the ravages of time.