Japan, a fine easily portable hand carved granite stone tea lantern with square roof measures 24 inches high and 13 inches wide, Showa period 1940s-1950s.

Carved from solid granite by Japanese specialized artisans over 50 years ago. This is a handsome example, a little gem in this simple convenient and portable size.

The striking and well proportioned hand-carved sculpture as an oribe
style lantern fashioned in four parts from granite as roof kasa and light chamber/base Hibukuro/kiso all with patina. Furuta Oribe (1544 – July 6, 1615), influenced this design- a style of stone lantern for the roji tea garden, known as Oribe-dōrō.

Provenance: Old Kyoto Prefecture garden- this is an authentic Japanese carved lantern.

Hand made perfect portable garden size.

Many of our customers place oil candles inside the main section making a romantic and enjoyable decorative accent for entertaining friends and family. It’s a perfect choice for your indoor or outdoor garden space.

We have been dealing in authentic Japanese antique garden ornaments, lanterns and water basins for fifteen years. Our president 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. After accumulating a group, they are imported to Vermont and Maine in large containers. This method keeps shipping costs low and enables us to offer them to you at reasonable prices. We carefully pack and ship to clients all-over the USA and at reasonable shipping costs.

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. 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.

Furuta Oribe (1544 – July 6, 1615), whose birth name was Furuta Shigenari (古田 重然), was a daimyō and celebrated master of the Japanese tea ceremony. His teacher in the tea ceremony was Sen no Rikyū. He became the foremost tea master in the land after Rikyū’s death, and taught this art to the shōgun Tokugawa Hidetada. Among his other particularly famous tea ceremony students were Kobori Enshū and Honami Kōetsu.

The kind of tea ceremony that he established is known as Oribe-ryū and the style of ceramics that are attributed to his artistic influence are known as Oribe ware. He also designed a style of stone lantern for the roji tea garden, known as Oribe-dōrō.

We have been dealing in authentic Japanese and Chinese Fine art, antiquities, garden ornaments, lanterns and water basins for 25 years. The president personally travels to Japan and China 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. After accumulating a group, they are imported to Vermont and Maine in large containers. This method keeps shipping costs low and enables us to offer them to you at reasonable prices. We carefully pack and ship to clients all-over the USA and at reasonable shipping costs.