Clan Yama Kaminari used to use those old-school Coleman propane lanterns to keep the communal clan pavilion well lit at night, but there was always a problem with them going through a propane canister every day or two and nobody really wanting to deal with them every night at sundown. Last year, Sir Morgen switched us over to some battery-powered LED lanterns, which we put inside those white paper "Chinese Ball" lanterns for effect. That worked OK except those lanterns use a wire tension bar to keep them expanded, and dealing with them every evening at sundown led to them getting mostly wrecked. I was asked to come up with better lantern solution, and this is what I did:
The lanterns are big enough that you can get a sizable lamp in there, actually. For ease of papering, I made sure the opening in each side is big enough to house a piece of hosho paper straight off the 9"x12" sumi-e pad. Each sheet is rice-glued to a wooden frame, and the frames held in place with brass escutcheon pins so that the panels are easy to remove/replace/repaper.
I will note at this point that Tap Plastics no longer seems to sell the Synskin product. I had used that to repaper one of my shoji, and had hoped to use it again for this project, but so much for hope. My woodworking teacher recommends "eshoji.com" for all your mail order shoji supply needs, and I recommend them as well. They carry the Warlon Taftop product which is a polyester-reinforced paper product, and their service is great. I would have bought their rigid plastic panels, but they only sell that in big sheets with a minimum order of four sheets.
Anyway, so the bodies of the lanterns are cedar from the Lowes. Some locations sell cedar 2-by-4, which is very useful if you have the tools to modify it. I cut all the pieces out of that on the table saw, and ran it all through the planer to get the 1" square members, 1.5" square legs, and 1-by-4 top cross-pieces. You can actually see from the knots in the second picture that both pieces are from the same piece of wood. A little bit of work with the dado set on the table saw added tenons to the members, and tenons and joinery to the cross pieces. The mortises on the legs and top members were drilled out on the drill press and squared up with a chisel. You don't need to buy an expensive mortiser for that step if you just buy a square mortiser chisel, make a handle out of a piece of dowel, and hammer the holes square by hand. After that, it's all glued together for safety, even though the joinery is pretty tight.
The hanging hardware is all modern and pretty heavy-duty, again for safety since all this will be hanging over peoples' heads. A "connector nut" passes through the cross-pieces, and an eye bolt is screwed into either end of that. Lock nuts will hopefully keep it from coming apart in the wind.
Here's a shot from underneath, so you can see that the bottom is completely open. This should allow the area right under the lanterns to be as bright as possible, or you could place the lanterns on a surface over almost any light.
Eventually, I might cut and install the kumiko (crossbars) to protect the paper panels, but I decided that was a stretch goal and getting the lanterns made by Pennsic was my "minimum viable product". Now I can take them to the local War Practice event next weekend!
This one is som'at smaller, only 12 inches tall, and made from cypress. For the illumination, "Nebo Tools" now makes a large pop-up lantern that contains an array of leds that provide about 30 lumens of flickering ornage light.
While lathes called 轆轤鉋 rokurokana appear in the 和名抄 Wamyōshō (Heian period dictionary), 蝋燭 rōsoku (candles) do not appear in『講談社古語辞典』Consequently, they are likely post-period in Japan and may well have been introduced from Europe. Todai 燈台 (lamp stands) are what we consistently see in illustrations of premodern Japan. These are somewhat simpler than the Chinese version some of which had adjustable height.
Row 1 column 2
Tōdai are oil lamps with long wicks passing through a ceramic bowl of (possibly sesame) oil. The lamp area was frequently shielded by an inverted paper cone which acted as a diffuser much like frosted bulbs on electric lamps.
Here is a very short video clip of an early prototype of a battery powered simulation.
Tōdai are oil lamps with long wicks passing through a ceramic bowl of (possibly sesame) oil.
My research indicates that rapeseed oil is a more likely fuel. The rape plant (unfortunate name, but that's the name) is fast growing, but the oil of its seeds is too high in erucic acid and is toxic to humans. Why burn a good edible oil like sesame?
Canola oil (Canadian oil low acid) is a modified rapeseed oil, and can be used as an inexpensive modern equivalent.
One source claims they have documentation of "warosoku" (Japanese style candles) from the 14th century. Buddhist monks made them with wax from a plant based source, "mokuro". I wonder if any of those show up in your later period dictionaries?
Concerning candles in Japan. They appear to have been introduced for some sort of votive use by Buddhist priests sometime around 722 CE. However, they rarely appear in picture scrolls prior to the Edo Period. Instead, oil lamps predominate. While Japanese candles appear to have been made from beeswax, they are somewhat different from their European counterparts. The top of the candle tends to be rather broader than the base. Operationally, Japanese candles need to have their wicks trimmed rather frequently during use.
Oil lamps predominate in Japanese picture scrolls. Oil lamps burned either sesame oil or something like rapeseed oil. As I recall, according to the Lotus Sutra, clarified oil was used in oil lamps used for religious purposes in India.
Oil lamps have a number of advantages over candles including the fact that light output from an oil lamp is a function of the width of the wick. Wick width is more easily enlarged for an oil lamp than for a candle. Oil lamps also typically produce a color spectrum better optimized for the human eye.
Your Humble Servant
Solveig Throndardottir
Amateur Scholar
