This project was all about having to make choices: spend the next twenty years hunting for extant artifacts, iconographic evidence and better translations of better descriptions or have lanterns for camp this season; take up basket weaving or have lanterns for camp this season; build something authentic guaranteed to burn down the Imperial palace or have safe, useable lanterns for camp this season.
Saionji no Hana is a lady of the Japanese Imperial court. Normally she would not be caught outdoors after dark, even if on a pilgrimage to some shrine. However, The Exalted One, His Imperial Majesty, Son of the Sun, is best served by her presence in the Kingdom of the West. She must have a place to shelter when she ventures out to one of these outlandish tournaments held by her hosts. Lanterns are but one of the small comforts a rustic pavilion ought to have.
Kanebako Masami, a director of the Nihon no Akari (History of Japanese Lighting Museum), writes:
“Chochin lanterns were made of rolled takehigo (thin strips of bamboo) in a spiral, with Japanese paper pasted on them and a lit candle inside. Originally people covered bamboo baskets with paper and called them chochin.”
Masami goes on to describe the development in the late 16th century of a chochin design peculiar to Japan in which the lantern could be collapsed and folded away when not in use. While this does not provide a precise date for the kaga or basket chochin, it would evidently pre-date 16th century paper-and-bamboo chochin.
In my quest for camp furnishings I originally turned to the ubiquitous Cost Plus paper globes with battery powered LEDs. I didn’t like them much when I bought them, I liked them even less when the lights inside didn’t work and I had to purchase additional LED “tea lights” and toss those inside. After their first evening in the dew, I had to re-glue the bottoms on every single one. Their only real virtue is that they are fire-safe and they make the visual statement “Japanese encampment” to even the most casual observer. The fragility of these modern lanterns only serves to illustrate why the hunt for documentary evidence has been so challenging.
Masami’s article in Daruma magazine is an excellent English-language overview of the history of how the Japanese lit their homes – from early stone and clay pots burning pine, to lamp stands fueled by rapeseed oil, to candlesticks and various paper shaded lanterns and onward. However, fire (by itself or precipitated by earthquake) routinely burned down Imperial palaces and peasant hovels alike and I hoped to find something that could be adapted safely for SCA use. The chochin, being an “enclosed flame” lamp, seemed worth pursuing. The few English language sites and sources I found kept repeating the statement that the chochin was originally no more than a basket with a candle inside. Trying to find iconographic evidence or extant examples proved difficult, given the fragile materials likely to be involved.
