Curious About…Japanese Hygge.
The Danes don’t own the market on warm coziness, but they do have a great word for it - hygge. However, winter in Japan comes with its own glow - usually from the beautiful warm lights that Japanese inns, restaurants and homes fill themselves with. It may not have the same twinkling candlelit quality that you find in Scandinavia, but Japanese hygge has its own charm. Time to investigate the andon (行灯), the bonbori (雪洞), the chōchin (提灯), and the tōrō (灯篭), all traditional forms of Japanese lighting and transmitters of that unique version of Japanese hospitality.
The andon is a lamp consisting of paper stretched over a frame of bamboo, wood or metal, often decorated with calligraphy or images. The paper protects the flame from the wind. Burning oil in a stone or ceramic holder with a wick of cotton, provides the light. Rapeseed oil was popular in the past. Candles were also used, but their higher price made them less popular. A lower-priced alternative was sardine oil. The andon became popular in the Edo period - early on, it was handheld; it can also be placed on a stand or hung on a wall.
The bonbori is a kind of Japanese paper lamp, often used in the open. It normally has an hexagonal profile and is used during festivals. It can either hang from a wire or stand on a pole. Famous is the Bonbori Festival held annually at Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū in Kamakura, Kanagawa. Artists paint on the about 400 bonbori erected for the occasion on the shrine’s grounds.
The chōchin has a frame of split bamboo wound in a spiral. Paper or silk protect the flame from wind. The spiral structure permits it to be collapsed into the basket at the bottom. The chōchin hangs from a hook at the top. In present-day Japan, plastic chōchin with electric bulbs are produced as novelties, souvenirs, and for matsuri and events. The earliest record of a chōchin dates to 1085, and one appears in a 1536 illustration.The akachōchin, or red lantern, marks an inn, or izakaya.
Originally used in the broad sense to mean any lantern, the word tōrō came to mean a lamp of stone, bronze, iron, wood, or another heavy material. These illuminate the grounds of Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, Japanese gardens, and other places that include tradition in their decor. The earlier oil and candles have given way to the electric bulb.
What Of It? Coupled with omoiyari - the sense of empathic, predictive hospitality that is unique to Japan, the warm light of inns, ryokans, restaurants and Japanese homes is really quite beautiful. I ate shabu-shabu last night in a regular Tokyo restaurant and the soothing light, warm tones and simple furniture combined to create an embracing sense of hygge that was unique in its Japanese-ness. Add in of course the fact that many of these forms of illumination have been around for centuries, and you see why these cultural traditions, like many others in Japan, have endured over time.
I Am Curious about how disparate cultures communicate the same desire for familial warmth, hospitality and security, how these traditions are passed through time and how something as simple as a way to transmit a welcoming light can vary from place to place.
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