Yame Chochin

Pictures that glow

Yame lanterns were improved with a single continuous spiral of bamboo and thin hand-made Yame paper, so the light glows through pictures of landscapes, plants, flowers and birds. They became famous as cooling lanterns for summer evenings and, since Meiji, as Bon lanterns for the Obon festival of ancestors. Yame makes more lanterns than anywhere in Japan. It is made in Yame, Yanagawa, Chikugo, Kurume and nearby in Fukuoka.

Painted without a sketch

• A bamboo rib is wound in one spiral along the grooves of a mould.
• Washi or silk is pasted on and the overlaps are trimmed.
• When dry, the mould is removed.
• Pictures are painted freehand with a brush, with no underdrawing.
• The light chamber is fitted into lacquered, maki-e rings and legs, and fittings are added.

From simple lanterns to Japan's largest

Yame lanterns began in the early 19th century as simple ba-chochin with plain pictures. In the mid-19th century new designs transformed them, and by the late 19th century lanterns were among the area's leading industrial products. Yame is also home to Yame Fukushima butsudan, and the two crafts share skills in woodwork, lacquer and maki-e.