The big red lantern is the icon of this gate and it has two Chinese characters on it which mean "Thunder Gate". The size of the lantern is 12.8 ft (3.9 m) in height, 10.8(3.3 m) in diameter and weighs 1543 lb(700 kg). Although it is really huge, it's a traditional Japanese style lantern. The red cover is made of Japanese paper "Washi" and the shape of the lantern structure is made of bamboo. Since they are not really long-lasting materials, the lantern is remade every 10 years.
Not so many people would pay attention to the small metal base on the lantern, but there is a black name plate on it as shown in the upper right hand side photo.
The letters say "Matsushita Denki" in Japanese which is actually the old name for "Panasonic", because the founder of Panasonic, Konosuke Matsushita donated the original lantern in 1960s. Apparently he had a health problem back then and asked the chief monk of Sensoji-Temple to pray for his recovery. After a while he really recovered, then donated the big lantern to show his gratitude.
By the way, there is a statue under the gate building on both sides of the lantern. They are covered in wire nets so that it is difficult to see the figures in the upper left hand side photo taken during daytime, but they stand out illuminated at night as you can see in the lower photo.
On the right side of the lantern is a statue of "God of Wind". He carries a sack on his back and it contains wind. On the other side of the lantern is a statue of "God of Thunder". He carries connected small drums on his back which makes thunderclaps.
Actually the formal name of the gate is "Fu-jin Rai-jin Mon (The Wind-God Thunder-God Gate)" because of the two statues, though it usually goes by the name of "Kaminari Mon (The Thunder Gate)". It is not clear when people started to call it so, but somehow "Wind" was dropped from the name. Perhaps the "God of Wind" maybe jealous of his buddy for remaining in the commonly known name.
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