The Brooklyn Botanic Garden was gifted a peace lantern from the Portland Japanese Garden’s Japan Institute last week as a symbol of peace and cultural exchange.
The stone lantern, crafted by stonemasons in Japan, is now installed at BBG’s Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden following a dedication ceremony on June 29.
Steve Bloom, CEO of Japan Institute of Portland Japanese Garden, presented the lantern to Adrian Benepe, president and CEO of BBG, marking the first peace lantern gift from the Japan Institute to a U.S. site.
According to Bloom, the gift draws inspiration from a similar lantern presented to Portland by Yokohama mayor Ryōzō Hiranuma in 1955 as a symbol of reconciliation and tranquility following World War II. The original lantern has been located in Portland Japanese Garden since 1966.
The Oregon-based institute has since gifted peace lanterns to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum Square, the International House of Japan in Tokyo, and London’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
“Japan Institute was borne from what we have witnessed at Portland Japanese Garden for nearly 60 years — how the intersection of culture, art, and nature can help provide a better understanding of ourselves and one another,” said Bloom. “As a leading global public garden, Brooklyn Botanic Garden is proof that these kinds of institutions have an important role to play in fostering mutual understanding, community-building, and social change. In recognition of these shared values, we present a gift of a Peace Lantern as a tangible symbol of cultural diplomacy, friendship, and peace.”
The lantern at the BBG is a replica of the original yukimi doro (stone lantern with legs) in snow lantern form, featuring a message of hope inscribed in capital letters: “CASTING THE LIGHT OF EVERLASTING PEACE.”
Now located at the western entrance to the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, the lantern serves as a beacon of harmony, welcoming visitors to one of BBG’s most beloved spaces, according to Benepe.
“We thank the Japan Institute of Portland Japanese Garden for bestowing this beautiful lantern, which represents the friendship and shared mission between our two institutions as well as unity among all the Peace Lantern sites,” said Benepe.
“Generations of New Yorkers and visitors from around the world have come to BBG’s Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden to find tranquility and restoration, and generations more will encounter and be inspired by this new symbol of peace.”
