The hyotan, one of two popular names in Japan for dried gourds, is a familiar image for Japanese of a particular age, especially the double bottle gourd. Most commonly used as a portable container for sake, in earlier days one could frequently see the small double bottle gourd suspended from a man's obi. For Zen Buddhists, the simple, brush-drawn form of the double gourd is a symbol of what is known and not known about the realities of this world. While one can look inside the top chamber, one cannot see into the lower second chamber although one knows it is there. In the 16th century, when Japanese tea masters turned to the domestic utensils of rural Japan for objects that satisfied their tastes for the wabi aesthetics of tea, large hyotan were employed as flower containers, small ones as containers for tea, incense, and for small sweets, and broad, low hyotan were used for containers for tea ceremony charcoal. In rural Japan extremely large hyotan can still be found, occasionally, as charcoal containers near the hearth. Although they are quickly disappearing from such conventional domestic use, for the modern Japanese, hyotan remain symbols of good fortune, wealth and abundance, and the double-hyotan, borrowed from China, represents double abundance and happiness.

The initial creator of these delicately designed gourd lamps, Matsumoto, Masayo, and her Balinese husband, Inyoman Saka, now combine very different cultural traditions in their new, collaborative design and production of gourd lamps. Having begun in her native Kumanoto, where she first learned to cultivate gourds with help from her family and neighbors, Masayo was first introduced to the use of gourds for lamps in Okinawa. She has enjoyed several solo exhibitions in Japan and has been awarded notable prizes by regional craft associations and organizations for her innovative use of gourds as lamps. Serendipity took her to Bali, where she continued to work and where she met a painter who was to become her husband, Inyoman Saka. Masayo says that the designs on her gourds reflect influences from many places she has traveled in the world. The predominance of undulating arabesques and floral patterns reflect familiar designs associated with many forms of decorative arts in Bali. The large, universal population of gourd lovers throughout Asia have welcomed Matsumoto Masayo and Inyoman Saka's contributions to the long history of gourd art.

Because of the symbolism associated with the hyotan, they are very appropriate as gifts that convey good wishes for happiness and abundance, and in a group of varying sizes and designs these lamps can be very exciting.

William Thrasher

Back to Hyotan Lamps