For your special garden

Here’s a beautiful and unique way to accent your indoor or outdoor garden space with this rare and unusual lantern form and treasure from Japan.

This is an older version of the famous Kotoji two-legged stone lantern which sits beside a water pond at Kenroku-en garden in Kanazawa, Japan

From an old Japanese Nagoya garden comes this authentic hand-carved and hard to find Kotoji two-legged lichen patinated stone lantern.

Period: Showa period

Quality: It’s a nice old one.

This scarcer size and style lantern would make an ideal choice for an outdoor installation.

Many of our customers place LED candles inside the main sections making a romantic and enjoyable decorative accent for entertaining friends and family. They are a perfect choice for your patio or outdoor garden space.

This lantern is one-of-a-kind and comes from an old Japanese Kobe area garden. Please enjoy viewing photo of the Kotoji two legged lantern that is presently installed beside a water pond at Kenroku-en garden in Kanazawa, Japan. This rare two legged stone lantern is currently in our Kyoto warehouse awaiting our July container shipment. Call or email us to reserve it as it is one-of-a-kind, (802) 279-7601.

Only one available.

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.

-Spirit, lanterns assembled from natural stones were popular in mountainous areas of Japan and are thought to repel unwelcome spirits via the round firebox or portal.

Lifetime guarantee of authenticity. We are members of NAJGA: North American Japanese Garden Association.

We have been dealing in fine authentic Japanese antiques including screens, garden ornaments, lanterns and water basins for many years. Our president personally travels to Japan each year to meet his network partners who assist him in finding best examples. He personally inspects each antique to ensure its old age, authenticity, and quality condition.