Interestingly, a simple lantern has powers during the night to say something, meaning it illuminates the dark, and guides people to their destinations when there is no light, the lanterns fire has the power to evoke memories, its glow coming from the center of the lantern imparting pleasing designs the decorative iron or bronze patterns creating a silhouette against the intense light. This is what a lantern can convey: the morning’s glow; glass, metal, stone, plastic, or paper can give off something beyond our world. Think about warriors sitting beside a fire discussing tactics for the next battle, a large green fire in the middle of a city protected by a glass cylinder. This fire shows the town’s powerful symbolism; the shape of the lantern itself can suggest a strange structure, and with imagination, other details can be added; many possibilities can present all kinds of fantasy worlds. The fluttering flames and sound convey a dream against the dark of the night. The lanterns seem alive; if one listens, it has the power to speak.
In a place that is somewhere else, a mythical world, lanterns can speak through an actual voice that is heard or through telepathy. The flames in these lanterns glow with fire that is red, green, blue, or lavender; other colors are possible, but they also shine with spheres, resemble suns, or tangible things that glow, often fluctuating in shape. Some of this light energy was contained in crystal, and others, transparent material resembling glass. Lanterns are high above the ground, some appear to be whimsical flower-like designs, and others are strange shapes resembling nothing in nature. Some lanterns are biological in appearance and operate as if they are living organisms. Some special ones are not made of material as if they were constructed of light, looking like a gelatinous apparition but resembling a jellyfish that can move from place to place, often disappearing and appearing anywhere. Large lanterns extend light into the sky vertically, but the light doesn’t fall off in strength as the beam gets farther from the source; the light instead only extends at a certain distance as if it had become a pillar or a glass cylinder. The mythical people had crafted lamps in many possible ways; only the craftsmen’s skills and imagination were the limits, and unlimited technologies were one of their tools. A craftsman imagines a lantern, but if such a tool doesn’t exist, they will invent one.
It can be said that modern and traditional lanterns can stimulate the imagination. Think about the flames that pulsate, stare into the center of the lantern, then suddenly, you are transported into another world. Lanterns are also a powerful source of energy in the mythical world. In the North, there are forests; they are not natural; the trees appear white as if they were made of alabaster or white crystal, and the branches and leaves form into configurations that resemble spheres with a red glowing center that lights up the land distance away. Human hands never crafted this forest. The trees in the forest grow like any typical forest but grow from small pieces of crystal. During the day, the trees are white and, within the branches, form into a sphere, skies, with sunsets, twilight, sunrise, and night had been observed by people. It’s a forest some people stay away from. Some individuals have been seen venturing in as if they had come to know this strange forest.
Lanterns had come to represent various peoples in the mythical world. The people who lived along the shores had lanterns filled with energy in a transparent chamber. Its fires would burn without humans needing to tend them; the flames would die in the early morning. The lamps came on again when night came again. Far inland, lights become highways to places guiding people to cities and villages.
The lamps along the highway grow or shrink in size; they were crafted so long ago that no one knows if humans made them. Once technical knowledge was lost in later centuries, lanterns could grow like trees. The inland people and the people of the seashore have their cultural symbols. The people work along the shore; the lanterns and beacons guide mariners across the waters; beacons lead pilots across the oceans and floating sky city dwellers to land. Lanterns also represent the fire of free thought, courage, and the beauty of the shoreline. The islanders believe that lanterns push back the darkness of the uninformed and hate; it represents the power of light to bring learning and understanding to people, the power of renewal and reinvention, to be in harmony with nature, accepting what can’t be changed. These lanterns, to the mythical people, are constitutions of the spirit of an individual.
Robert J. Matsunaga
