The Remembering Lantern – Nitobe Memorial Gardens, Vancouver, British Columbia

This lantern may commemorate Nitobe’s Christian faith. It is named after its inventor, tea master Oribe Furuta (1544-1615). Japanese Christians could attach figures of the virgin Mary onto the flat front shaft of the lantern, buried underground, and so were able to worship secretly. In the Nitobe Memorial Garden, the image of the virgin on this lantern is kept half-exposed.