Amazing Bamboo
Versatile and essential plant rooted deeply in Japanese culture
One of the most versatile natural materials on Earth, bamboo, or také in Japanese, is an integral part of Japanese culture and aesthetic tradition, and can be found in an amazing multitude of forms and contexts within everyday Japanese life. The image of bamboo can be seen in all manner of Japanese visual designs, and the plant has long been an object of admiration in Japanese poetry and literature.
With a tensile strength comparable to that of steel, and a density like hardwood, bamboo has been a formative building material in Japanese architecture and interior design for centuries. The image of bamboo can be seen in all manner of Japanese visual designs, and the plant has long been an object of admiration in Japanese poetry and literature. It is even edible – bamboo shoots, or takenoko, are a very popular spring delicacy.
Among the commonplace objects made from bamboo in Japan are furniture, kitchen implements, sushi-rolling mats, dinnerware, chopsticks, tea ceremony utensils, writing instruments, paintbrushes, baskets, fencing or kendo swords, umbrellas, handbags, garden pipes, fishing poles, fish traps, flower vases, kites, wind chimes, dolls, rakes, and boxes – just to name a few!
And being perhaps the fastest-growing plant in the world, capable of gaining close to 50 inches in height in a single day, bamboo is also a highly renewable resource. Consequently, the popularity of bamboo has increased tremendously all over the world, where the Japanese example has been implemented in all areas of bamboo’s possible use.
There are more than 600 varieties of bamboo found in Japan among the known 1,200 varieties throughout the world; however, only about 10 or so of these are used in everyday life, with the most common type being madake. All varieties have their own uniquely conspicuous characteristics – the very color of bamboo can range from white to green, from gold to amber, from bluish to glossy black, all depending on the type, as well as whatever processes of drying, dyeing, and treating the stalk may undergo.
The most commonly used types of bamboo also vary in thickness and shape, as well as surface texture and pattern: shumi-také and goma-také, for instance, both have a spotted appearance, with every stalk exhibiting an individual pattern. And the patterned surface of kikkou-chiku has earned it its name, which means “tortoise-shell bamboo.”
Architecture is the realm in which the use of bamboo in Japan is perhaps most appreciated, with the ready availability of bamboo having significantly shaped the design of all manner of buildings, from traditional inns or ryokan, to restaurants, tea houses, and homes. In all cases, the medieval Japanese aesthetic notion of wabi-sabi, which among other things emphasizes the ideal of naturalness, has resulted in a traditional retention of bamboo’s original structure and appearance.
Bamboo has also found prominence in other areas of Japanese visual arts, being a recurring subject in the art of ukiyo-e, or woodblock printing. In the realm of Japanese theatre, bamboo is often featured in compositions of lyrical Noh and Kabuki, and as a literary motif, bamboo has been favored for even longer.
The motif of bamboo grouped with a pine tree and plum blossoms was introduced in medieval times, and symbolizes perseverance in the face of life’s difficulties; the ranking involved in this arrangement – “Sho Chiku Bai”, or pine, bamboo, and plum – has also been traditionally used when ordering sushi courses. Bamboo even has a religious significance in Japan: bamboo forests sometimes surround Shinto shrines as part of a sacred barrier against evil.
Bamboo can be seen and enjoyed all over Kyoto – it is a common sight to see groves in the yards of residential properties. Perhaps the most famous forests in the city are those around the Daitoku-ji Temple complex, and especially the great bamboo grove in Sagano, adjacent to Tenryu-ji Temple in Arashiyama. Bamboo is also grown at the Kyoto Botanical Gardens.