Japanese Lantern

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The Japanese Lantern is located adjacent to the Tidal Basin in SW Washington, DC, near Kutz Bridge and the site where the first cherry trees were planted by First Lady Helen Taft and Viscountess Iwa Chinda (wife of the Japanese Ambassador) in 1912. The governor of Tokyo gifted the 10’-tall stone lantern to the United States, and the dedication ceremony was held on March 30, 1954, to celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary of Commodore Matthew Perry arriving in Japan and opening trade. It is one of a pair of lanterns dating to 1651 (the other remains in Tokyo’s Ueno Park) that were built to commemorate the death of Tokugawa Iemitsu (1604-1651), the third shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty.This pedestal lantern is representative of the traditional stone lanterns found in Japanese shrines and temples. The five parts represent the elements found in Buddhist thought.