Chochin: Japan’s Paper Lanterns
The chochin — a collapsible paper lantern with a bamboo or wire helical frame — is one of Japan’s most visually ubiquitous traditional objects, appearing at festival entrances, izakaya doorways, shrine approaches, and Buddhist Obon ceremonies. Its form has changed little since the Muromachi period: a spiral of fine bamboo or wire supports an outer covering of thin washi paper, which is then lacquered for weather resistance and painted with text, family crests, or decorative motifs. The lantern collapses flat for storage and transport — an elegant solution to a practical problem that has made it both culturally durable and immediately recognisable.
Types and Uses
Andon: A square or rectangular standing lamp with a paper shade and wooden frame — used as interior lighting before electricity and still found in traditional restaurants, ryokan entrances, and festival installations.
Bonbori: A hexagonal or octagonal lantern on a stand, used for the Hinamatsuri (Doll’s Day) decorations and outdoor shrine approaches during festivals. The characteristic paired bonbori flank shrine entrances and tokonoma alcoves in formal settings.
Toro: Floating lanterns released on rivers and the sea during Obon and other memorial festivals — paper boats with a candle or LED light, carrying the spirits of the ancestors back to the spirit world across the water. The most celebrated toro-nagashi (lantern floating) occurs on the Oi River in Arashiyama, Kyoto, and on Hiroshima’s Motoyasu River near the Peace Memorial Park on August 6.
Gifu chochin: Gifu City is Japan’s principal chochin production centre — the city produces the most refined hand-painted lanterns, particularly the elaborate floral designs produced for Bon season. The Gifu Chochin Festival in August features thousands of lanterns hung in the castle grounds.
Gifu: The Chochin Capital
Gifu City’s chochin tradition dates from the Edo period, when the city’s combination of bamboo craft and washi paper production made it the natural centre for lantern manufacture. The Gifu Chochin Association maintains a small number of craftspeople producing hand-made lanterns using the traditional method: splitting bamboo into thin strips, coiling them into the helical frame structure, pasting washi in panels across the frame, and painting by hand. The process of making a single medium-sized lantern takes several hours of skilled work. The Gifu Museum of History has a chochin craft display; some craft studios accept visitors by appointment.
Lanterns at Festivals
Chochin define the visual atmosphere of Japan’s summer festivals. The Nebuta Festival in Aomori (August 2–7) features enormous papier-mâché floats illuminated from inside — a related tradition using painted paper over wire armatures at monumental scale. The Tanabata Festival in Sendai hangs thousands of decorative paper strips and lanterns along the central shopping arcades. The Awa Odori dance festival in Tokushima is framed by lines of chochin. Even outside festival contexts, the red chochin hanging from izakaya doorways — often with the kanji for sake (酒) painted in black — are one of the defining signs of Japan’s night-time streetscape.