Path of Light Poster

Path of Light: A story explaining the origin of lantern releases in Japanese culture. It follows a ferryman/lantern bearer who guides the souls of deceased children (represented by Jizo statues) to paradise. The journey takes them from the Shinto temple, where the statues are located, to the center of the village, where there is a stone lantern that allows the souls to pass to the other side. Along the way, lanterns light up as they pass, symbolizing the ferryman illuminating the souls' path to paradise. It is in the forests of Okayama that our story takes root, in the memory of a small village that came to be known as Hotarumaru. A village where, as everywhere, people loved, lived, and died following the order of things taught by the Buddha. Among the departing souls were those belonging to children who had died before ever being able to open their eyes for the first time, and these blind souls were said to be absorbed by the darkness for an endless night. Filled with compassion for these lost children, a man, a lantern bearer who had no heir of his own, chose, at the moment of his last breath, to prolong his stay on Earth and become a light for them toward the afterlife. Generation after generation, he guided all the children of Hotarumaru to their destination, sacrificing the rest he rightfully deserved. Until one day, it was decided by the villagers that they would release lanterns every year to guide the deceased themselves. On that night, the Night of the Lanterns, some say the stars dance, and the lantern bearer dances with them. And if everyone still knows the legend of the lantern bearer today, it is because parents tell it to their children, who then tell it to their grandchildren, who will pass it on to their own.