3. Fujita KK E. Ogawa Lantern
This Kasuga lantern was a gift from a tour business was placed in the bamboo patch in 1968, as part of the centennial of Gannenmono.
The Gannenmono were the first organized group of approximately 150 Japanese who emigrated to Hawai’i in 1868. They served as workers on sugar plantations. Some of them became the first to settle in Hawaiʻi, and today we call them gannenmono (lit. “people of the first year”) because of their departure from Japan and arrival in Hawai’i in 1868, the first year (gannen) of the new era of Meiji. Liliʻuokalani Gardens, as well as many other parts of Hawaiʻi, shares and celebrates the Japanese culture brought initially by the Gannenmono.
Kasuga lanterns are stone lanterns, reminiscent of those at the Kasuga Shrine, in Nara, Japan. The Kasuga Grand Shrine is a Shinto shrine located among a grove of trees. The Shinto religion is deeply connected to nature. Lanterns are symbolic of illumination and of guidance. Even though a path may be messy and winding, with lanterns, we are able to find our way. The form of this Kasuga lantern has a cylindrical shaft, with a hexagonal base and platform ornamented with lotus petal designs, supporting a hexagonal hibukuro, or fire-box. Carving on the fire-box frequently represent the sun, a crescent moon, a deer and a cloud. The sun faces east and the crescent moon faces west.
