People trying to inherit time-honored bamboo ware techniques in southwestern Japan

July 30, 2016

People trying to inherit time-honored bamboo ware techniques in southwestern Japan

The front yard of a community center in a small town in Kyushu, southwestern Japan, becomes a "classroom" for local people who gather every Saturday to learn bamboo ware making techniques from an old man.
The class starts at 9 a.m. with a remark by the 82-year-old "teacher" to his students. About 15 members, mostly in their 60s and 70s, attend the class, opened as part of activities at the Minagi community center in Asakura City, Fukuoka Prefecture, in October 2015. They call their teacher a "master of bamboo ware."
Tomoki Kurachi, the old craftman, weaves strainers, baskets and other items for farm work with fine "higo" strips of bamboo. He writes no plans or sketches, because 60 to 70 patterns are in his head. "His bamboo ware skills are just great, and his works are cool," said one member.
He starts with a job to split a bamboo with a length of 5 meters or more crosswise into four. Then, he thins the split parts into four layers to make higo strips.
He uses about 10 kinds of tools for various processes, among them knives and picks. A specially designed "habayose" width setter is used to make higo strips with a certain width, usually 10 to 15 millimeters.
"I have three habayose devices, all handmade by myself," he said. The oldest of them was made about 60 years ago, when he was young, but it is still usable.
The higo making process is a basic and  important job, but it is very difficult to perform, said another member.
The master uses "madake" bamboos. "I use only fresh madake bamboos, because they are soft and pliable." This makes his tightly knit products strong and smart.
Kurachi started learning bamboo ware making from a man in the neighborhood when he was a schoolboy. He then lived by making bamboo tools on order for local farmers.
At that time, several persons were making bamboo tools in the area, but bamboo items became unpopular in later years following the appearance of convenient, plastic products.
His business was threatened from the 1960s to the 1970s when bamboo groves in the area died successively due to an inevitable reason. It is known that bamboos die when they bloom and bear fruit, every 50 years or so. It takes 15 to 20 years for bamboo groves to revive.
Bamboo groves can be found anywhere in Japan, and bamboo forests have been an important part of Japan’s traditional culture and landscape. Japanese eat "takenoko" bamboo shoots, and their skins are used to wrap foods
Bamboos have a strong fertility, but this means that bamboo forests grow fast, sometimes too fast. As a result, poorly managed or unattended bamboo forests have emerged across the country.
These bamboo groves spread over an estimated 90,000 hectares across Japan, surpassing 60,000 hectares for cultured bamboo forests.
Several reasons can be cited for this phenomenon, among them changes in Japanese people's life pattern.
The bamboo ware techniques hare been inherited and preserved in some areas, where bamboo-made folk handicrafts have caught on well with tourists and other people. Among them are finely fabricated items like flower baskets, lunch box containers and lamp shades.
Kurachi sticks to jobs to make items for actual purposes, notably farm work.
His class was launched out of fear that his skills would vanish soon unless successors are grown. His steady, time-honored bamboo ware art is expected to help local people better understand the traditional life in the region toward the future generation.