A Summary of The Lantern of Lost Memories
Summary of The Lantern of Lost Memories
The Lantern of Lost Memories
“Anyway, the phrase ‘if only’ meant nothing in life. He was the product of his choices, and that was all there was to it.” ~ Sanaka Hiiragi
About 7 months ago, I read Sanaka Hiiragi’s The Lantern of Lost Memory. A book whose imprint hasn’t faded from my mind since. The book revolves around a room on the boundary of life and the afterlife where incoming visitors (who just died) rewatch bits of their lives in a spinning lantern. They also get a chance to take a picture of a single important moment from their past life. The warden of this room is the quaint Mr. Hirasaka, who has no memories of his past life except a picture that none of his visitors seem to recall: a picture of him in front of a leafy background. We also meet Yama, who delivers the parcel of the visitors’ memories to Mr. Hirasaka. In about 200 pages, Hiiragi gives us three visitors navigating the memories of their past life through this space. We see them carefully sift through their lives as they talk through what was and what could’ve been.
Spoilers ahead
Hatsue: A life well lived
Hirasaka’s first arrival was Mrs. Hatsue, a ninety-two year old woman who quickly inferred that picking a picture for every year of her life was an arduous task. In the process, she discovers a faded picture dating back to nineteen-forty-nine post World War Two Japan. The two of them make their way back to the past to restore the picture with a camera from Mr. Hirasaka’s infinite inventory. While waiting for a recapture of the faded image, Mrs. Hatsue narrates how she became a nursery school teacher in spite of financial uncertainty. She eventually takes the picture and they return to the studio where Mr. Hirasaka develops the photo inside a darkroom. In her final moments, Mrs. Hatsue rewatches ninety-two long years in a flash before heading to the afterlife.
Image: Pushing a broken bus she and some other parents bought as a makeshift classroom.
‘Yes. You see, once you get here, it doesn’t matter how wealthy or important you were in life. All you’re left with are your memories.’
Waniguchi: If only
The second visitor is Mr. Waniguchi, a gang member who ran a small store. Abandoned by his mother, a life garnished with violence; his life and death were messy. In Mr. Hirasaka’s room, it was a while before he conceded to the inevitable – that he was murdered. There wasn’t much to revisit except his encounters with his eccentric/awkward worker – who never apologised – nicknamed the mouse. The mouse had a hand for fixing broken things. All broken things except dead things. One day, Waniguchi found himself interested in what had happened to a boy who came to their store with a torn picture. All this eventually led to him uncovering bullying against the young Vietnamese boy named Tien. Consequently, we see a glimpse of Waniguchi’s “good” side when he tossed the bullies into a river. One good deed. Only one memorable one. But it was good enough to guide Waniguchi to the afterlife.
Image: The mouse, Tien and Mr. Waniguchi after the mouse carefully reconstructed Tien’s torn picture.
‘Anyways, the phrase “if only” meant nothing in life. He was a product of his choices, and that was all there was to it. Still. If only..’
Mitsuru: Passing by
Mitsuru was very young, battered, tired and very hopeful. She found herself in Mr. Hirasaka’s room because of physical abuse she suffered at the hands of her stepfather and biological mother. For Mitsuru, there weren’t many memories to wander through so Mr. Hirasaka took charge of the chore and led her to a park from her memories. There, he taught her how to make a fire with a plastic bag, water and sunlight rays. Her encounter there was brief – she was returning to life soon – but in that time we get a picture of Mr. Hirasaka’s lost memories. Altering a visitor’s destiny is a taboo and Mr. Hirasaka taught Mitsuru how to make a fire to rescue herself. Mitsuru’s fire would alert passersby and eventually free her from her parents. The penalty for Mr. Hirasaka’s erring is a total erasure of his memories. But Yama saved one. Just one picture of him against a leafy background. Mitsuru would eventually grow up and develop a soothing relationship with photography, screaming towards the mountains, and “raising her voice against the madness of the world”.
Image: Mitsuru taking a picture of Mr. Hirasaka in the park
“He’d broken the ultimate taboo: altering someone’s destiny. As a result, all the photos of his own life – all his memories, in other words – had been burned without a trace. And for a guide like Hirasaka, memories were his only real possession.”
“If the man in her dream had taught her one thing above all else, it was hope. The ability to keep bouncing back. To keep raising her voice against the madness of the world.”