A Household Lamp Shade for Air Defense (by Anmitsu-hime)

　
　

　(folded)




A dimout was issued from the beginning of the war in December 1941 to the end of the war in 1945, every day　from the sunset until the sunrise.
The purpose of the dimout was to avoid attacks from the enemy planes, extinguishing or sheltering all light.

There were two kinds of the electric bulb for the dimout, for home-use and shop-use.
The home-use bulb was painted without the vase, so it can illuminate just downwards.
The bulb for shop-use was painted only on the half side of the bulb.

When the air alert warning sounded, at our houses, we covered the lamp shade with black cloth for not shining through.

　This household lamp shade, made of cardboard,
　can be folded in three stages. Usually we use this
　folded and in the case of sheltering lights we unfold
　it by removing hooks.



This lamp shade belongs to the proprietor of the Suikouen ryokan, a Japanese-style hotel which is located in the Sumata-kyo spa in Shizuoka Prefecture.