Japan, a 1920s Taisho period heavy cast bronze lantern with a lovely green patina comes fully wired with light sockets installed inside. Previously installed in a New England home. This is a handsome and hard to find style a notably beautiful and functional example.

Dimensions: 14″ high with handle and 10″ diameter.

Provenance: New England home.

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

Lifetime guarantee of authenticity: All of our Asian works of art come with our Lifetime Authenticity Guarantee.

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

History of Japanese lanterns:

In Japan a tōrō (lantern) is a traditional lantern made of stone, wood or metal. Like many other elements of Japanese traditional architecture, it originated in China. In Japan, tōrō were originally used only in Buddhist temples, where they lined and illuminated paths and lighted lanterns were then considered an offering to Buddha. In its complete, original form the lantern represents five elements of Buddhist cosmology: Bottom touching the ground, represents chi, the earth, the next section represents sui or water, ka or fire, is represented by the section encasing the lantern’s light or flame, while fū (air) and kū (void or spirit) are represented by the last two sections, top-most and pointing towards the sky. These last two sections express the idea that after death our physical bodies will go back to their original, elemental form.