Gifu lanterns

The name Gifu chochin is anchored in Gifu City. The Nagara River runs south from Dainichigatake in Gujo through Mino, Seki, and Gifu toward Ise Bay, and bamboo along the river is thick, flexible, and low in nodes. For lantern makers, that bamboo can become fine ribs, while Mino washi from upstream becomes the thin light-catching paper.

The lantern's rounded body depends on very fine bamboo ribs and thin paper such as Mino washi. A craftsperson winds the ribs in a spiral on a mold, applies paste evenly, and brushes paper onto the frame. The amount of paste and the pressure of the brush affect appearance and strength, so the surface begins as a measured balance of material and hand.

After one section is covered, extra paper is cut away at narrow intervals so the seams do not stand out. The fire bag dries, the mold is removed, and fold lines are pressed in with a spatula. Those folds let the round lantern close while keeping bamboo ribs, paper surface, and curved volume aligned.

On a plain fire bag, painters draw the same motif without underdrawing, running live lines over a curved surface broken by ribs. Size, position, hue, and pigment density have to match across one hundred, two hundred, or five hundred lanterns. Stencil coloring works differently: each color is cut with an Ise stencil, the washi receives dosa sizing, and layered pigment can build a single image through one hundred separate steps; raised white gofun gives chrysanthemum petals depth.

Gifu chochin have lit night festivals and continue to appear at Bon and festival occasions. During Obon, bon lanterns guide the deceased and ancestors as they return to the present world. As remembrance practices and homes change, the shapes and ways of displaying bon lanterns also shift, keeping the light near family life in changing rooms.

The maker community includes Gifu Chochin Cooperative member firms such as Ozeki, Asano Shoten, Hiraide Shoten, and Hayashi Isaburo Shoten. At Nagara River Tegoto Machiya CASA, visitors can paint prepared lanterns or make small Gifu chochin from the bamboo-rib stage. Maker Akira Yamashita also works with layered washi and silk imagery for interior lighting, carrying the fire bag into present-day rooms.