Toro - Granite - Original Japanese granite lantern "Toro" in five parts. - Japan - Late Meiji - Taisho - Early Showa period

Impressive hand-carved original Japanese granite lantern "Toro" in five parts. Hand-carved because it is clearly visible that the edges are soft and irregular (And not sharp, which would mean machine-made) . The middle 3 parts are hexagonal in shape. The base column is round. The lantern consist on 5 individual parts, that are described as follows: The bottom-most piece, touching the ground, represents chi, the earth. The next section represents sui, or water. The reverse side of this part has a lotus design. Ka or fire, is represented by the section encasing the lantern's light or flame. This part has been decorated and carved with Buddhist esoteric siddham scripts. This is based on Indian Sanskrit from the Gupta period (first millennium) . Fū (air) and kū (void or spirit) are represented by the last two sections, top-most and pointing towards the sky. To place this Toro it has to be put in the ground approx. 35 cm. Please see the difference in color in the column. This shows how far it was buried into the ground. The transport and shipping to any delivery address is relativity easy: We will use a Euro-pallet (see last picture) to pack all 5 parts. Transport will be safe without damaging the lantern. Also putting it on location is easy to realize with two persons. The last 7 pictures show you the exact sequence how to put up this granite toro lantern. When shipped we will add a certificate of authenticity