Tōrō 灯籠 Evolution

Tōrō  灯籠 is "lantern". 

Apparently it's any kind of lantern, but I first learned the term to describe the standing stone lanterns that line paths in Nara, and have since heard it mostly to describe similar large stone lanterns at shrines and temples. You don't usually see them in people's yards, at least not big ones, but gosh darn it I wanted one in ours. 

Unfortunately they're expensive, like at least $100 for a small decorative landscaping one--three to $500 or more one over a foot tall.  Between that and the fact that my wife thought our yard just fine without it there was no way I was gonna get one. Or wasn't there? 

Here's how it began, evolved, and is today. 

As with most projects the lightbulb began flickering in my head long before I did anything about it. I spent many long moments looking on at ones I'd come across, all the while imagining construction method and design. Then one day last year it just happened. A day later I was stripping the form off my first attempt at making the lantern section of a standing Japanese stone lantern. 

The cost was minimal. I didn't even use half a bag of Portland cement, which is only about $4. The scrap wood and screws for the form I had in abundance. In time I tried making a base for it only for it to break, then the lantern itself broke after I accidentally left the candle burn in it all night, picked it up (it wasn't attached to the base) felt the heat and dropped it. So rebuild that, redesign then reattach to base, find a stone for the "roof" of it and call it good effort that resulted in a Frankenstein Tōrō. It sits in the backyard now and looks like this. 

For the record my wife doesn't think we need so many wood creatures in our yard either. But that's another story so back to the stone lantern. I learned a few things while making, repairing, rebuilding, redesigning, and remaking that one, so just had to try again.

This time I had a clearer image in mind before starting and built the form accordingly. I used two 1000 ml (1/4 gallon) milk containers attached end to end to keep it hollow in the middle, which makes it lighter and used less cement. The milk cartons are in the center of an old piece of Yuki the guinea pig princess's home that I used for reinforcement. She has no more use for it in guinea pig heaven.

Next up was fill with cement and wait...

I cut shapes out of foam floor square tiles and attached to the inside of the form for designs on the base

Next I built the form for the lantern section on the top of the base itself, which proved easier and stronger than attaching it afterwards. First was the bottom section. The X shaped metal pieces there is for reinforcement--it's part of an old kerosene stove that I cut and attached to the base with a stainless steel screw 

I also used parts of the stove for reinforcement inside the lantern itself. In the prototype I used wood but this time opted to go with styrofoam for the hole in the middle and sides. It was far easier to cut than wood to get the shapes I wanted for the openings and far, far easier to remove after the concrete dried.

After that I attached the lantern form to its lower section that I built around the base, filled with cement then back to waiting...

I went with a rectangular opening for the front and crescent moon for one of the side holes, but wanted to try a different design for the hole in the other side. I asked my wife what would be a good shape to try. 

"オタマジャクシ" she replied.

Really? A tadpole? Like a pollywog in a bog? Sure! Why not?

She swears she didn't say that but I know she did because we were talking about me taking the girl child to catch newts (and pollywogs, frogs, etc.) and she did so say it! I went directly downstairs, searched out a good pollywog shape, printed it out and traced it to foam, cut it and the rest is history. Only I meant to have its tail pointing up but put it in upside down. Oh well. There's your otamajyakushi honey. I like it! 

And finally, the roof! As noted I used a large stone for the top of the Frankenstein lantern prototype, but I wanted to try to make a roof for this one. I figured it easy enough--just build a frame same width as the bottom section and cut four baby hip rafters then fill in the holes with pieces of plywood, turn it upside down and fill with cement. It ended up looking like this:

The rafters there are pieces of a sofa I remodeled into a bed. I'll finish the entry about that project one of these days. Like said all the wood used is scrap. The only cost in all of this is cement and it I did it all with one $4 bag. So basically it's a $4 stone lantern.

The screw sticking up inside the form is so I can attach a round top to it. I ended up going with an old hard rubber baseball. I might change that to solid concrete or cover the baseball with a thin layer of concrete in the future.

And so we now have our very own Tōrō--this one for the quasi-zen stone garden in the front of the house. Silly wife thinks we don't need one there either, but I sense she secretly likes it.  ;)