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Japanese Stone Lanterns - Information

The Sacred Lights of the Japanese Garden Stone lanterns, Ishidōrō (石灯籠) in Japanese, are without a doubt the most characteristic part of the traditional Japanese garden. The phenomenon originated from China more than a thousand years ago, from there it spread to Korea and eventually was integrated into Japanese culture as well. All Japanese holy sites, such as Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, use stone lanterns as sacred light sources. During the 16th century, stone lanterns became very popular among Japanese tea masters and they were used to light the path through the tea garden leading towards the tea house. Ever since then, one or multiple stone lanterns are featured in almost every traditional Japanese garden.

A Japanese stone lantern is made up of multiple independent parts that need to be carefully stacked on top of each other to create a perfectly balanced lantern. The different parts are from top to bottom:

• Hōju/Hōshu (宝珠) - The jewel at the top of the lantern
• Ukebana (請花) - The foundation of the jewel
• Kasa (笠) - The umbrella which protects the fire box from harsh weather conditions
• Hibukuro (火袋) - The fire box
• Chūdai (中台) - The platform of the fire box
• Sao (竿) - The post
• Kiso (基礎) - The foundation
• Kidan (基壇) - The base platform

The Most Authentic Japanese Stone Lanterns For Sale Our Japanese garden center is unique outside of Japan and we would be happy to invite you for a visit! We have a wide range of original Japanese ornaments, rocks, decorations, plants and trees in our collection. Yokoso Japanese Gardens is the perfect place to find the ideal authentic Japanese stone lantern for your Japanese garden. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or if you want to make an appointment.