Ron
I had the same idea and poached some plans from Kelvin who graciuosly sent me some in a pdf format. I modified them a bit so as to use the innards of cheap plastic "pagoda" lights. There is a picture of my completed lantern over in the gallery section and I have some I could email off the forum. If you are interested I could also send you the pdf file.

I also noticed you are in NWBC, Im in Terrace BC if you care to drop in and take a look at the real thing

Cheers
Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: Gallery picture link

Wow....Steve....a real live Terracite...lol...I am just a few kms east of New Hazelton.... so yes, I am quite capable of draggin' my tired old peasant carcasse up yer way .... need to visit yer newly appointed fire chief...like a second son.... we also have Ian in Smithers.... a smithereen.... says the hazelnut!

Actually I was too unclear in my request....I want to make the stone lanterns...especially the UKUMI style.... out of cedar..... so I would laminate cedar....sculpt/bandsaw/drill the component parts..... I suppose I can approximate a reasonable facsimile from pictures.

Yes, e-mail me whenever...I would love to see your Japanese lanterns...... do you have any Japanese maples? I am hoping to anoint my rockscape with a few little lovelies...Glen in Winnipeg is giving me some great advice and encouragement!

Cheers...Ron

We don't often see wooden lanterns but here's a picture of two more. Maybe they'll give you some ideas.

Click here

Thanks,Herb, the two portray well a hybrid style of a Japanese-NorthAmerican version.... but I guess what I want is simply a wooden replica of an UKUMI lantern.... and a snow-viewing lantern....also a simple, straight-sided lantern....do you have pics of the whole array of Japanese lanterns on your site?

I guess I am trying to adapt the original granite Japanese versions to our cedar-rich province.....I have a chance of lathe-turning and bandsawing cedar as opposed to granite....lol...

thanks,Ron

Ron,

I wonder if the straight-sided lantern you have in mind in something like a Kakuashimoto lantern? I got that name from the Saito & Wada book 'Magic of trees & Stones', but I've never seen it anywhere else & can't find a reference to it on the Internet!

At any rate, if you take a look at this link there's one like it there, & in particular there's a picture illustrating the proportions and angle of a mold for the roof that might help - it's probably easier to cut the roof from wood than it is to make a mold that shape.

Herb

Click here

Yes,Herb, this more of what I have in mind.... though the straight lantern I saw was cylindrical..... I saw the pic in the Sunset book of Japanese Gardens.... an old issue.

Do you know of any place in BC that sells Japanese rain chains? With the price of copper rising and the design work these tend to be very expensive.... so I am not about to add the exchange rate on top of it by having to buy from the American outlets.

Thanks,Ron

Ron;

If you like working with metal, you can make your own.

Email me and I can forward you a word document that I put together that shows how to make a rain chain out of copper wire.

Michael

Ron,

It sounds like you have the same Sunset book as ours - it has a lantern like that on page 85.

I don't know of any place in B.C. that sells rain chains, but if they're imported directly from Japan I'd suspect that the Japanese exporter would have wanted more Canadian dollars for them than U.S. dollars? I'd keep an eye on eBay - you might find a better buy.

Herb

Yikes,Herb.... eBay frightens this northern loon....lol.... yet I might just be forced to check it out due to my perennial pauperhood....well, my thriftiness..... I have someone up north here who is an eBayista of the deepest water.... will check with her.

Just took the Sunset book back to the library so not sure about the exact page number but 85 sounds right...but you can see how one could make a fairly decent replica out of cedar.

Thanks,Michael....I sent you an e-mail in response to your kind offer.

Ron

Ron,

I just came across this example of what looks like a wooden lantern on the Rubens web site. The lantern appears to be in Japan - in Nara.

Herb, yes, wooden it be..... and definitely some kind of hybrid it would seem..... and actually quite ugly,imo....lol....too gargantuan and too pedestalized in a pretentious sentinel position.... yikes, I sound like a cackling critic...;o)

No, I prefer the smaller stone lnaterns which can felicitously fit on the flat face of a large rock and that are crafted from cedar as opposed of the more traditional stone/granite.

Really appreciate your trawling the cyber-seas for me!

Ron

Ron.

Yes, it must be one of the ugliest lanterns I've ever seen. (I thought that would be your reaction!).

Herb

Hey Ron,

I can visualize this photo i have seen...somewhere, of a lantern similar to the one in the link below, constructed entirely from cedar. I thought i had the photo on file, but i can seem to locate it, it might have been in a book. Anyhow, if you look at the style of lantern, it would be relatively simple to build a wooden one based on its design.

Whatever you choose, im sure we would all love to see the results when you finish.

-christian

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1009582}}

That red wooden lantern may not be a lantern at all - it looks more like a small shrine.. ?

Jack

Ron - you mentioned yukimi?.. and straight sides (lightbox?)

..anyway here's a graphic I knocked up, with a couple of leg variations..

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1009584}}

Very good,Jack.... your simple little graphic really does aid me in my quest... these two graphic designs serve well as launch points for me to alter and stylize a suitable hybrid that will fit well in my MOCKerama facsimile domain...lol.... thanks.... I might even be able to make a multistoried yukimi compex that towers telescopically upward.... actually have a pic of a real specimen from Japan.... perhaps three stories...a triadic effect...would be best.

Yes,Christian, I will try to pictorialize my efforts once I have a 'finished' product!

Yes, Herb, some efforts...even the vaunted Japanese ones...can just be plum ugly!

Thanks,guys...Ron

lol - Sounds like a plan, Ron - if you do a google search on 'garden pagoda' (your telescoping tower :) -- you will get plenty of images.. though 3 storeys sounds simple yet elegant.. I think Herb may have even made a few with cement/hypertufa..

Jack

Thanks,Jack, I will try to google-ward my cross-cultural search for appropriate but tasteful hybrids...lol.... glad I live far in the NW hinterland hopefully safely 'condomized' geographically from the dreaded 'purist architectural police'....the 'PAP'astapo..... who seek and destroy 'mongrelizers' such as I..... lol

Ron

I think those first wooden ones with the flared solid bases that Herb posted photos of are like ones found outside certain types of Japanese restaurants.

I agree with Jack that the Nara one everyone is calling ugly is probably not a lantern but a miniature shrine. Some temples have miniature shrines; some shrines have miniature temples.

Lee

A few years ago I took this photo of a lantern at the Portland, Oregon Japanese Garden. It was situated in a very prominent place just off on the left after you entered the garden proper.

Greg

Here is a link that might be useful:

Ron,

You mentioned having seen a lantern with, I think, a cylindrical pillar.

I just noticed one a bit like that at this link - scroll down the pictures till you get to the lantern marked Koya Rondo -

Click here

Her, thanks! I downloaded lots of pics for my idea reference file.... yes, the cylinder stone lantern was exactly what I was referring too earlier.

They even list a polyresin rainchain! Yikes, a very unexpected retreat into an impure polymeristic pale...lol.... what about the missing absent tinkle of copper cups being played by wind and gently cascading fluvial fall?

Thanks again for being a diligent delivery man to this northern nook...lol

Ron

Hello Ron,
I just got back from Nara 2 weeks ago and was tempted to buy and bring home a wooden Japanese lantern shaped somewhat like a yukimi lantern (not the red one pictured which is probably partly a protective cover over a well!)It was made from Sugi which is a type of cypress? It ws rather expensive and my finances didn't stretch that far....anyway the contact for the maker is the Nara Prefecture Craft cnetre....I need to dig around to see if I can find the actual address for you if it still is of interest?

I instead bought a different lantern made out of a different wood.

Thanks,David....so the Japanese are making lanterns out of wood! Cypress would be a fine weather-resistant wood.... I will try to follow your leads to the Nara Prefecture Craft center.....yes, I bet one has to watch one's budget in Japan!!!!!

Ron

Guys,

I was searching the net for images of Japanese lanterns so I could try to make one out of woods when I stumbled across you chains of e-mails. IÂm glad to know that IÂm not the first to attempt this anyway. Just wanted to thank you fine folks for some good advise and reference site that you have recommended.

Ron, how did you project turn out? Any advise that you learned along the way?

Rich