kyoto lies in basin and the difference between cold and warm weather can be intense. This bamboo is nutured within this climate. Lightweight, durable bamboo has been used since ancient times for everyday tools and, since the tea ceremony tradition developed in the Momoyama period, has also blossomed as art.
Kyoto is Japan's leading producer of bamboo and set up in the city of Nagaokakyō is the workshop, Takano Chikko. Since its inception, it has been involved in the production of tea ceremony utensils. This bamboo crafting family is home to many skilled artisans, such as Souriyo Masuda, who goes under the pseudonym "Fukensai". The beginning of production involves the craftsman himself entering the bamboo forest and cutting down bamboo.
”In the bamboo forest, we select the mature bamboo with full grown fibers and cut it down. Perhaps, because we have watched the bamboo grow up, we feel attached to it and we can't easily bring ourselves to discard even fragments of it", laughs Mr. Masuda.
Before he became a bamboo craftsman he was a Japanese Nihonga painter. Although both jobs may seem to have nothing in common at all, he continues:
"For example, there is a whole world to be found in a single tea spoon. With Nihonga and bamboo, the type of art is different but how you use “space” in both is very important I think.”
During our coverage of his workshop, Mr. Masuda produced a copy of "Odawara", Sen no Rikyu's tea ceremony vase. Bamboo consists of beautiful fibers and nodes not found in trees and there is nothing else like it in the world. Also, depending on how you cut it, you can change the way it looks. Over a long period of time, Mr. Masuda has become close to the natural beauty created by bamboo and "shaping" it is a technique of bamboo craft performed by himself and others.
“Bamboo is an easy material to work with, but there are many constrictions when it comes to representation, such as shape and position of nodes. But that is why it is an immense joy, when you overcome these problems and create a piece of work.” His eyes glow impressively as he speaks, whilst staring lovingly at the bamboo.
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- 1. The harvested bamboo is left to dry slowly for more than 4 years prior to processing. There are 30 years worth of bamboo stock in the workshop.
- 2. For more than 200 years bamboo has been smoked on the roof of an old house, creating light brown smoked bamboo, or susutake. This is mainly used to make bamboo teaspoons.
- 3. Products which use old materials of Cultural Properties are also created. Here, a makie artists applies makie to a card case using the old materials of Kinkaku-ji.
- 4. Lotus root, pumpkin, green pepper, bamboo shoot, okra. Humorous chopstick rests in the shapes of the cross-section of 5 kinds of vegetable.
- 5. Bamboo spoons. The large one uses the soot of burnt pine, the medium and small sizes are finished with lacquer mixed with red iron oxide. Each individual item has a different look.