{"id":36072,"date":"2023-11-02T13:09:11","date_gmt":"2023-11-02T20:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/japanesegarden.org\/?p=36072"},"modified":"2025-12-22T11:05:36","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T19:05:36","slug":"peace-lantern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/japanesegarden.org\/2023\/11\/02\/peace-lantern\/","title":{"rendered":"Casting the Light of Everlasting Peace: The Story of a Stone Lantern"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article is also available as a pdf<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Will Lerner, Marketing and Communications Manager for Portland Japanese Garden & Japan Institute<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We may never know who created the first stone lantern or the precise form that it took, but surely it must have been installed where humankind traversed and in a place in want of illumination. The world in which they were developed is a difficult one to imagine, a time where shadows and dark recesses pervaded. However, a lantern containing a candle or lamp filled with fats and oils was never intended to banish the dark. Instead, the light the ishi-doro<\/em> (stone lantern) cast provided a means through even blinding pitch-black, a way to make the places and people we needed, discoverable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Believed to have been introduced in the sixth century by the Chinese, stone lanterns became a ubiquitous presence throughout ancient Japan. As with so many other tools and instruments, the Japanese rendered its stone lanterns into increasingly intricate art. What may have been condemned to utilitarian and unpleasing aesthetics were made beautiful, because they could be. It is no wonder they remain with us today among shrines and temples and, yes, gardens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Portland Japanese Garden, celebrated as the most beautiful and authentic Japanese garden outside of Japan, has been fortunate to have received donations of many fine stone lanterns, each of which contribute to the rich aesthetic texture of the landscape. Although they are rarely lit, the ishi-doro here still beckon us towards them as though the warmth of the flame still lingers. The magnetism of the lanterns here can sometimes be attributed to unmistakable visual splendor, such as the massive, two-ton Sapporo Pagoda Lantern, a gift from Portland\u2019s sister city of Sapporo. Sometimes a lantern compels us into its space because it takes a surprising shape, such as the Koto-ji Lantern, a gift from the city of Kanazawa, resembling the bridge of a koto<\/em> (harp) with one leg on land in the other in stream. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Portland Japanese Garden’s Peace Lantern in the 1960s. Photo by William \u2018Robbie\u2019 Robinson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One lantern in Portland Japanese Garden invites the guest closer than any other. On the eastern bank of the Strolling Pond Garden\u2019s upper pond, a humble yukimi doro<\/em> (short stone lantern with as many as six legs) stands among evergreen shrubs, ferns, and dappled sunlight. There are no fences surrounding it and no obstacles that prevent one from sharing its space. Only three feet in height and placed on a ledge that slightly reaches out over water, it invites intimacy and regularly receives it. Garden guests who stride the step stone path to its site often will sit down and keep its company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This particular lantern\u2019s firebox is directly underneath a broad sloping roof, a shape that resembles a traditional Japanese hat made from rush (kasa<\/em>). Moss has grown on this cover in forms that resemble continents on a map. On its body and in English, a message of hope is inscribed in capital letters: CASTING THE LIGHT OF EVERLASTING PEACE. This lantern, referred to fondly as the Peace Lantern, first took a voyage across the Pacific Ocean before finding its home in Portland Japanese Garden. This is its story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

YOKOHAMA\u2019S MAYOR CASTS THE LIGHT OF PEACE UPON PORTLAND<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In the first half of the 20th century, Portland was still ascending into the social, artistic, and economic importance it holds today. And yet, it was known in Japan, likely because many in Portland had been quite receptive to the island nation\u2019s people and customs. A fascination and admiration for Japanese culture had blossomed in the city, with Japanese garden-themed parties being held as early as 1892, carnivals and trade shows including Japanese garden displays, and articles appearing in The Oregonian<\/em> on how to build a Japanese garden for oneself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More vitally, at the beginning of the 20th century, Issei<\/em> (first generation immigrants from Japan) began to create a vibrant community in Portland named Nihonmachi<\/em>, or Japantown. Confined to the blocks between the city\u2019s northwest streets of Burnside and Broadway because of a toxic combination of racist attitudes and biased laws, they persevered and raised families, established homes, started businesses, and became civic leaders. Yet, however resilient these individuals were, they could not bear a crushing and imposed weight that would rob them of their livelihood and property: Executive Order 9066. This order signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt after the bombing of Pearl Harbor led to the mass incarceration of innocent Japanese and Japanese Americans in concentration camps* during World War II. Nihomachi would never recover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An outdoor market in Japantown. Photo courtesy the Library of Congress.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While the war concluded and the concentration camps released their prisoners, the lingering effects of racism still pervaded, creating a morass in which those of Japanese descent, their allies, and those who retained hatred in their heart lived as neighbors. Portland needed a light, and one came from Japan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1950s, Mayor Ry\u014dz\u014d Hiranuma (1951-59) of Yokohama began making gifts to different locations around the world to \u201ccast the light\u201d of peace. Hiranuma, sometimes referred to the \u201cfather of Japanese sports\u201d because of his leadership of Japan\u2019s Olympic Games delegation, would dot the United States with his city\u2019s gestures. During Hiranuma\u2019s tenure, Yokohama gave meaningful gifts including a granite sculpture of a Japanese pagoda that is aside Washington D.C.\u2019s Tidal Basin, a stone lantern that rests outside the entrance of Honolulu\u2019s City Hall, and a Japanese Friendship Bell that was placed on San Diego\u2019s Shelter Island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another recipient of Yokohama\u2019s outreach would be Portland. While the tragedies of the World War II era interrupted the burgeoning friendship of the United States and Japan and the undercurrent of bigotry hadn\u2019t been vanquished, there remained a strong group of leaders in both Portland and Japan who believed American-Japanese connections were worth resuscitating and were undaunted by an often hostile climate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, Mayor Hiranuma found kindred spirits in Portland who were eager to repair ties and move forward together. Portland Mayor Fred Peterson (1953-57) had visited Seattle and had seen a stone lantern in one of the city\u2019s parks. This motivated Mayor Peterson to reach out to his counterpart in Yokohama in hopes Portland could have one as well. Mayor Hiranuma, familiar with Stumptown because of his visit there for the 1953 Japanese-American Pacific Coast Mayors\u2019 Conference, would respond with a gracious letter in which he agreed to send one to Oregon\u2019s largest city: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow in Japan, the international interchange of culture is earnestly advocated and I feel it is a very good trend as Japan has announced after the war that she would restart to be a cultural nation. From the above viewpoint, it is very significant that Yokohama people [would] send one of\u2026 Japan\u2019s traditional garden decorations to the city of Portland.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1954, the lantern made way for Portland, conveyed on a ship that would be among the first Japanese vessels to arrive in the area since World War II, with the available information suggesting it could have been the Hikawa Maru<\/em>, an ocean liner operated by the Japanese shipping company, Nippon Y\u016bsen Kabushiki Kaisha. There may have been no more fitting vessel to send this message of peace than the Hikawa Maru<\/em>. Before Japan entered World War II, she had ferried passengers and cargo back and forth between Seattle and Japan. Now a floating museum in Yokohama and designated as an \u201cImportant Cultural Property\u201d by Japan\u2019s government, it was also the means of escape for Jewish refugees who fled to Japan from Nazi-occupied Lithuania and sought safe harbor in North America. After a stint as a hospital ship during World War II, it resumed its peaceful voyages on the sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE PEACE LANTERN ARRIVES TO ITS PORTLAND HOME <\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Portland Mayor Fred L. Peterson and Parks Commissioner Stanley W. Earl inspect the Peace Lantern. \u00a91955 The Oregonian. All
rights reserved. Used with permission.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Peace Lantern\u2019s first point of entry would be in Seattle, where it was held for inspection by customs officials. The delay this caused in its departure for Oregon forced Portland to hold a \u201cfigurative\u201d presentation of the lantern in November of 1954. Joining Mayor Peterson in this ceremony was His Excellency, Japan\u2019s Ambassador to the United States, Sadao Iguchi (1954-56). Ambassador Iguchi would share a letter from Mayor Hiranuma, who shared that he hoped \u201cthat the stone lantern will serve in the future as a cornerstone on which everlasting friendship and amity between the United States of America and Japan will be firmly built up.\u201d Mayor Peterson shared a similar sentiment, voicing his hope that the lantern would symbolize that the U.S. and Japan \u201ccan continue in peace, happiness, and mutual progress.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Peace Lantern finally arrived to Portland in 1955, its first home would be in the International Rose Test Garden in Washington Park. A photograph taken at its unveiling shows Mayor Peterson smiling as he pats its firebox. Joining him is longtime Commissioner Stanley W. Earl (1953-70), who appears to be reading the inscription. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commissioner Earl was a good person to help receive the lantern for Portland. Shortly after his death in 1970, a letter to The Oregonian<\/em> noted Earl had passionately advocated for Japanese-Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Undeterred by an unruly group of workers who were contributing to the anti-Japanese agitation, he was reported to have climbed atop a pile of lumber on top of a dock at the Portland waterfront and bellowed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am ashamed of you! What kind of Americans are you who would turn against your fellow workers because they came from a people whose present leaders launched an attack on our nation? All of us came from nations for whose politics and leaders we have no responsibility\u2026The least you can do as good union men and as good Americans is to stand by them when they need us. I appeal to all of our Japanese-American brothers to stay on the job, and I appeal to you to help them through these difficult days.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, however desiring for reconciliation the Japanese-American community and their allies in civic leadership may have been, bigotry continued to run rampant and its targets would include the Peace Lantern in its Rose Garden home. Today one can still see the scars and deformities forced upon the lantern by vandals for whom the light of peace could not reach. Its hoju<\/em> (finial top) has been lopped off and its roof is now dog-eared from repeated toppling. Long cracks along its firebox resemble a grimace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Peace Lantern after an ice storm in the 1970s. Photo by William ‘Robbie’ Robinson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Finally, in 1966, one year before Portland Japanese Garden opened to the public, the lantern was moved to a bank of the upper pond in its Strolling Pond Garden, where it has remained to this day. The Strolling Pond Garden, reflecting a landscape style that was popularized during Japan\u2019s Edo period (1603-1868), is a fitting location for the Peace Lantern, itself stylized in the yukimi doro form believed to have become popularized during the same era. Typically placed near water, they illuminated land so boats wouldn\u2019t run ashore. The yukimi doro is also often referred to as a snow-viewing lantern\u2014when snow adorns its roof, it creates a pleasant reflection in water. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would be more than satisfying to report that the Peace Lantern had finally found safe harbor \u2013 that the tragedies that inspired Yokohama\u2019s gift had been vanquished and that as Portland Japanese Garden prepared to open its gates, the light of peace had finally been cast on its host city. Sadly, this was not so. Nearly twenty years after the end of World War II, animosity still had too many within its throes and they unleashed their burdens on the Garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A COMMUNITY TRANSFORMED<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

It can be a struggle to imagine that Portland Japanese Garden, a serene public space that has welcomed nearly half a million visitors per year from every U.S. state and more than 90 nations, was ever a site of turmoil, but it was. As it was built during the 1960s, picketers would gather outside the Garden, waving signs with racist pejoratives. Stones would be hurled at its Japanese employees. Graffiti was sprayed and structures were damaged. Portland Japanese Garden\u2019s first Garden Director, Kinya Hira (1964-69), would be ripped from his on-site trailer and stabbed in a premeditated assault. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kinya Hira, Portland Japanese Garden Director (1964-69) as seen in the Flat Garden during its construction. Photo by William “Robbie” Robinson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Still, there were enough people, Japanese, American, and beyond, who refused to be deterred. These early leaders carried on and in 1967, Portland Japanese Garden opened. There exists no earthly ledger that can tally the hearts of a people and no calendar date to declare as the day the tides finally turned. All we know is that conditions have improved, perceptions of Japan have warmed, that Portland Japanese Garden played a part and that it will continue the work its first stewards initiated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The change in attitude is likely a result, in part, from Portland Japanese Garden exploring and exporting the awesome power of cultural diplomacy. The organization\u2019s programming is presented in a manner that requires no translation or previous knowledge of Japan, an intentional effort to make a culture that can seem impossibly foreign to a Western audience more accessible. All of this diplomacy, be it in the form of festival celebrations, art exhibitions, or cultural demonstrations, all have taken their lead from the land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The view of the Strolling Pond Garden from the perspective of the Peace Lantern. Photo by Sheepscot Creative.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJapanese and American cities started to develop sister-city friendships primarily after World War II and in so many American cities it resulted in a garden,\u201d shares Sadafumi Uchiyama, Garden Director from 2008 to 2021, Chief Curator from 2021 to 2023 and now Curator Emeritus since his retirement. \u201cWhy gardens? They might have constructed buildings or erected monuments, but instead the relationship was often celebrated with the establishment of a garden. I think it\u2019s because gardens lack strict definition and don\u2019t prescribe use. This led people like Portland\u2019s civic leaders to build gardens intuitively \u2013 a garden belongs to no one but everyone. All are welcome in nature.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Portland Japanese Garden grew in visitation, in membership, in its number of staff and volunteers, and in its stature as a global thought leader, the Peace Lantern has remained a stabilizing presence as history unfolded around it. This could be where its story concludes, but it does not. The Peace Lantern\u2019s travels concluded more than 50 years ago, but its significance has not waned. Rather, it has inspired the generations that followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GIFTING LANTERNS ACROSS THE WORLD <\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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The Yokohama Peace Lantern. Photo by Portland Japanese Garden.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After several decades and visits from millions of guests, the Peace Lantern would bond Portland and Yokohama once again. In 2017, Yokohama was preparing for Japan\u2019s Annual National Urban Greenery Fair, a large national festival that recognizes the importance of nature. As Yokohama readied itself for this high-profile event, Portland Japanese Garden\u2019s Chief Curator, Sadafumi Uchiyama, was approached by his sensei, landscape architecture expert Professor Isoya Shinji, one of the people tasked with preparing the city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cProfessor Shinji did not want just flowers in a garden for the Urban Greenery Fair,\u201d Uchiyama said. \u201cHe was looking for a symbol; something tangible. He believed that a landscape has everything to do with human culture and the acknowledgement of history. Over dinner one night I mentioned, \u2018We have our stone lantern from Yokohama,\u2019 and that was it. That is how it started.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shinji and Uchiyama agreed a replica of the Peace Lantern would be a fitting element for the occasion. After receiving approval from Mayor Fumiko Hayashi (2009-21), Yokohama sent stone masons Tetsuro Tanabe and Hideo Araki to Portland Japanese Garden to get precise measurements of the Peace Lantern. The two experts would then make an identical replica back in Japan. While they worked, city leaders determined this new Peace Lantern\u2019s future home. \u201cThey chose to place it in a small but old Japanese garden called Higa-en in Yokohama, right next to the baseball stadium,\u201d Uchiyama recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On March 25th, the Peace Lantern was revealed to the delight of Yokohama residents. This endeavor would showcase how cultural diplomacy is reciprocal\u2014that those who dare to embark upon it can wind up not only fostering friendship, but also help fortify their own<\/em> traditions and customs. Aki Nakanishi, Director of Japan Institute and the Arlene Schnitzer Curator of Culture, Art, and Education of Portland Japanese Garden has noted that the crafting of new stone lanterns in Japan has slowed measurably compared to the centuries of past millennia. By retaining the talents of stone masons for an impactful gift, the Garden has helped support a traditional artform. \u201cAn American organization is raising funds to help assist and steward design integral to Japanese culture,\u201d Nakanishi shared. \u201cWe\u2019re helping nurture this homegrown craftsmanship so the rest of the world can continue to enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n