I cannot believe....
Apr. 2nd, 2009 08:41 pm....I just wrote up documentation for something that's not terribly documentable. Does it help if one throws the word "plausible" around? A lot?
Excerpt: "Kanebako Masami, a director of the Nihon no Akari (History of Japanese Lighting) Museum, writes:
“Chochin lanterns were made of rolled takehigo (thin strips of bamboo) in a spiral, with Japanese paper pasted on them and a lit candle inside. Originally people covered bamboo baskets with paper and called them chochin.”
Masami goes on to describe the development in the late 16th century of a chochin design peculiar to Japan in which the lantern could be collapsed and folded away when not in use. While this does not provide a precise date for the kaga or basket chochin, it would evidently pre-date 16th century paper-and-bamboo chochin."
That's it, people. I've got the word of Kanebako Masami and a photo of an undescribed, undated kaga chochin from an idiosyncratically translated article on a moribund pop-culture-and-design site called PingMag. I've got fiberglass "paper" on the thing!
Then again, I suppose it beats burning down the Imperial Palace with one of these things:

Excerpt: "Kanebako Masami, a director of the Nihon no Akari (History of Japanese Lighting) Museum, writes:
“Chochin lanterns were made of rolled takehigo (thin strips of bamboo) in a spiral, with Japanese paper pasted on them and a lit candle inside. Originally people covered bamboo baskets with paper and called them chochin.”
Masami goes on to describe the development in the late 16th century of a chochin design peculiar to Japan in which the lantern could be collapsed and folded away when not in use. While this does not provide a precise date for the kaga or basket chochin, it would evidently pre-date 16th century paper-and-bamboo chochin."
That's it, people. I've got the word of Kanebako Masami and a photo of an undescribed, undated kaga chochin from an idiosyncratically translated article on a moribund pop-culture-and-design site called PingMag. I've got fiberglass "paper" on the thing!
Then again, I suppose it beats burning down the Imperial Palace with one of these things:

no subject
Date: 2009-04-03 04:57 am (UTC)Sounds a lot like what you've created, to me.... :)
no subject
Date: 2009-04-03 05:27 am (UTC)I have a secondary source (Masami) whose source(s) I do not know. Does he have one in his museum? Does he have other primary sources?
I have a photo from an article whose author didn't bother to include her last name.
For me and my nefarious purposes, this constitutes being waaaaaaaay out on a limb. The only redemption is that I admit it repeatedly in my write-up.
It'll probably end up on Wodeford Hall, possibly with edits based on any comments I get at the event this weekend.