大分合同新聞の記事 Article in the Oita Godo Shimbun Newspaper

　５月１７日（日）朝刊の大分合同新聞に載った記事。写真をクリックすると、拡大され、読めるようになる。ネット上の大分合同新聞にも記事がアップされているので、どちらでも読める。

　This is the article that appeared in the May 17th (Sunday) morning edition of the Oita Godo Shimbun, a local newpaper that covers news in the Oita prefecture area. You can look at the article more closely by clicking on the picture. There is also a copy of the article, including a color photo, on Oita Godo's webpage. A translation of the article is available below.

Prisoner of Bamboo Crafts
Mr. Jensen, former Coordinator for International Relations
First Foreigner at Beppu’s Training Center

Oita Godo Shimbun (Morning Edition), Sunday, May 17, 2009
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Former Coordinator for International Relations and American native Stephen Jensen (Jonan Higashi-machi, Oita City) has been studying bamboo crafts at the Oita Prefecture Bamboo Craft and Training Support Center since April. This is the first time a foreigner has been admitted to the Center. He said enthusiastically, “I want to make all kinds of baskets. I need to work hard to get to that level.”

Mr. Jensen came to Oita Prefecture in August, 2006, and worked as an international relations coordinator until last summer. He is also a member of Sodokai, a drawing and painting group in Beppu City. Capturing bamboo as a subject for his paintings, he felt drawn to bamboo since his arrival to Japan, he says.

In October last year, students from Malaysia visited Beppu to study bamboo crafts. While working as an interpreter, Mr. Jensen watched bamboo being weaved from close up, which spurred his desire to come in touch with one of Japan’s traditional arts.

In the United States, “bamboo culture” is virtually nonexistent; it occupies little presence beyond its display as artwork in galleries. “I eventually hope to become a bridge—to help introduce Beppu’s bamboo crafts to Americans and deepen their understanding of it.”

Mr. Jensen will work for one year acquiring the basic techniques and production skills. “The most captivating thing about bamboo is its versatility. I see value in both purely aesthetic and utilitarian baskets. For now, I want to experiment with making different types.”

Trainees are currently working on making higo, the step before weaving when bamboo materials are shaped. It’s the foundation for all bamboo crafts, but keeping thickness consistent has been difficult. “Although, I have the hardest time getting used to sitting in seiza. My legs fall right to sleep.”

Shigeru Tamura, director of the Center, expressed his own expectations. “He’s been working diligently. I hope he’ll become a craftsman and carry on Beppu’s tradition.”

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Photo caption: Stephen Jensen, who was admitted to the Center’s Bamboo Crafts Department in April this year. “I want to try making all kinds of baskets,” he says enthusiastically.

OBSラジオ「朝感」取材の報告 Live interview with OBS radio station

　今週の木曜日の朝、OBSラジオの荒金由希子さんがトピッカーで訓練校に取材にやってきた。打ち合わせをしてから、約４分間のインタビューに入った。生放送ということでちょっと緊張していたけど、自分の竹工芸訓練についての思いを存分に語れることが嬉しかった。話し合った詳細な内容はここでは紹介できないんだけど、大分に来たきっかけは何だったのか、どうして竹工芸訓練支援センターに入ろうと思ったのか、入って一番苦労していることは何か、卒業したらどうするか、アメリカには竹工芸はあるのか、というのが大体の流れだった。トピブロ（トピッカーのブログ）にも、私と荒金さんとの写真や、このブログへのリンクも載っているから、是非ご一読を。

　先週の日曜日朝刊の大分合同新聞（１１面）にも私が初の外国人として入校したことが大きく取り上げられた（それについては近々別のポストに書くつもり）。こうやって私の入校がたくさんの人に注目されるのはすごく嬉しくて、この取材ぶり（？）も大変有難い。が、毎日の訓練においては、他の１８人の訓練生もみんな一生懸命がんばっている事をお忘れなく。竹に惹かれて、遠い県外から引っ越してきている方も多数いるから、「外」という意味では一緒だと思う。故郷が国内の地方であれ、別の国であれ、竹という自然素材にぶつかりながら仲良くなり、丁寧な指導を授かりながら一緒に勉強していくという意味ではみんな基本的に同じではないだろうか？うまく言えたか分からないけど、これは私の勝手な考え。

　とにかく、インタビューの機会を与えてくれたOBSラジオ、インタビューの要請に応じた竹工芸訓練支援センターの所長や先生達、こんな騒ぎで私が迷惑を掛けている訓練生たち、の皆さんへ感謝の意を表したい。

On Thursday morning this week, Yukiko Arakane from OBS (Oita Broadcasting System) radio came to the Center to interview me. Around 9:00, I was called to the director's office for a prelimary discussion, followed by a 4-minute interview that was broadcasted live on OBS radio's Chokan (朝感) show around 9:30. (Chokan, by the way, is a play on words; it's a homophone to 朝刊, meaning "morning edition," but the show's name means "morning feelings" or "morning impressions.") It was a relatively short interview so we couldn't fit much in, but the general flow of questions went like this: what brought me to Oita in the first place, why I applied to the school, what I am struggling with most at school now, what I'll do after I graduate, and whether there are any bamboo crafts in the US. They also put up a picture and a blurb from the interview on their blog. Notice in the photo we're holding the mutsume morikago that we trainees are currently working on (I'm holding the model; Arakane-san is holding one I'm half finished). I'll translate the article for you here:

From America...
Topic Car blog, May 21, 2009 (Thursday)

Stephen, from America, was admitted to the Oita Prefecture Bamboo Craft Training and Support Center (Beppu City). Stephen became interested in bamboo crafts when he saw bamboo material being processed. Learning bamboo crafts is fun, but it's painful sitting on the wooden floor, he says. He spoke energetically about how he wants to continue working in bamboo crafts even after completing the one-year program. We all hope he'll help spread bamboo crafts in America. Everyone, please check out Stephen's blog too.

Mutsume Morikago: Part 2

Allow me catch you up on what we've been working on in the last two weeks. After weaving the bottom of the mutsume morikago, we erected the six sides and continued the same weave using four more horizontal higo (called mawashi-higo, 回しヒゴ; meaning "circular higo"), being careful to keep all the holes on each row perfect hexagons. Once the top mawashi-higo was in place we bent all vertical higo located on the outside inward; this secures the top mawashi-higo and finishes the weave. This entire process is done with three relatively thick prong-like pieces (kari-chikara-dake ; 仮力竹; "temporary strength bamboo") inserted in the bottom, used to keep the basket from losing its shape.

From there we moved on to fashioning the parts that would make up the basket's rim. There are three: the outer rim (soto-buchi; 外縁), inner rim (uchi-buchi; 内縁) and a filler piece that fits flushly between the outer and inner rims and hides the end of the higo weaving underneath (masa; 柾) (any one know the technical term for this piece?).

The inner and outer rims we made in the same way as higo, but these were much thicker pieces--2.0 and 2.5 mm--so when it came time to bend them we used what they call a heating jig (himage-jigu, 火曲げ治具). It's basically a tiered, hollow metal tower under whicih a burner is lit. Bamboo apparently bends more easily when it is heated and retains its shape well after it cools, so this seems to be the method of choice for bending thicker bamboo into perfect circles or semi-circles. Our instructor said that back when this contraption wasn't used craftsmen would bend the bamboo around their knee and rub it back and forth to create heat through friction, thus making it more pliable. Still, it would be difficult to bend it into a perfect circle through such a process. I can't imagine how difficult the task was back then. I finished bending all ten of my rims in about 30 minutes.

After molding the rims, the ends of each rim were cut to match the exact circumference of the basket. Next, 7 cm of each end were shaved away so the two ends could overlap each other, forming a closed circle. Both outer and inner rims were adjusted this way, but only the outer rims were glued shut; the outer rim decides the absolute circumference of the basket's rim, while the inner rim is made to expand freely to fit the outer rim. The rims are then clipped temporarily onto the basket so the masa can later be inserted between them.

The masa is fashioned like a higo, but made to be thick so it fills the groove between the two rims. The masa's skin is placed on the outside to match the rims, and it's split down the middle to help make it fit smoothly along the entire circumference. The picture above shows the outer and inner rims clipped temporarily, and the picture below shows the masa fit snuggly between them, this time secured by wire twisted tightly around all three. Notice the two bumps; this is the bamboo's joint. They become staggered because of the difference their circumferences.

OBSラジオ番組「朝感」が訓練校に来ま～す！

　緊急なお知らせがある。明日（２１日、木曜日）、OBSラジオの「朝感」という番組のアナウンサーが訓練校に取材に来ることになった。具体的な時間帯は分からないが、インタビューは生放送で、９時半ごろから始まり、５分間で終わるという。訓練校に入ったきっかけとか、入ってどう感じているか、などいろいろ訊かれるそうだ。興味ある方はぜひお聴きください。

Basket #1: Mutsume Morikago

On Thursday this week we started work on our first basket: mutsume morikago. Mutsume, as I explained in the last post, is a hexagonal weave (me refers to the holes between the higo, so, literally, "six hole"), and morikago means a "basket [on/in which you] pile [things]," or more simply, a tray. The bottom is hexagonal in shape, almost 20 centimeters across, and each side tapers together at the top to form a circular rim.

　第一の課題作がとうとう出題された！六つ目盛籠です。先週から練習してきた六つ目編みを活かした籠で、今週の木曜日からその作業をヒゴ取りからスタートさせた。今度はこれまでの練習の時よりも遥かに多いヒゴを取るために、長さ約６メートルの２本の竹を５０と９０ｃｍの長さ（節がそれぞれ一つ、二つ付いた状態）に鋸で切り、割り剥ぎの工程に入った。

We started preparing the materials for this basket by cutting 6-meter-long culms (proper term for the "trunk" of the bamboo) of dried madake bamboo into 900 and 500 mm-long segments, and proceeded with processing these into higo to be used to weave the bottom and sides. I haven't yet properly described the process of making higo, and I've been trying, unsuccessfully, to find a good pictorial explanation online somewhere, but it's basically a long process of cutting bamboo vertically into strips and thinning those strips over a series of steps to bring them to a precise and consistent width and thickness. This was my first time processing over 200 strips at a time--great practice for improving my abilities, but also probably a realistic taste of the extreme repetitiveness that bamboo basket makers experience to make as ornate baskets as they do. All day Friday I worked on the same usuhagi step, in which I tried to thin higo 1.2-1.5 millimeters thick to a goal thickness of 0.6 millimeters. It's a frustrating process--any strip with a part less than 0.55 millimeters (the final thickness for weaving) thin is worthless. Measuring my strips with electronic calipers, my higo after usuhagi wavered between .5-something and .7-something millimeters; many I had to throw out because they were too thin in places, and many I had to thin again between they were over 0.8 millimeters, too thick to take to the next step. The picture below is my workspace; it shows a pile of segments in the arawari stage, where the bamboo is split radially (what they sometimes call "chrysanthemum splitting"), before the hagi stage when the strips are thinned by removing their inner side, opposite the skin.

　今度はものすごい数のヒゴだから、例えば今まで２０分ぐらいしか掛からなかった荒割り（半円に割った竹を６ミリなどの幅の棒に割る作業）の工程が２、３時間掛かった。金曜日の訓練時間もすべて薄剥ぎ（竹割り包丁で約１．４ミリの厚さに剥いだヒゴを更に薄く、０．６ミリの厚さに剥ぐ作業）の工程に使っちゃった。私の性格で言えばもともと繰り返しの多い作業には別に飽きはしないが、しかもこれは自分の腕を上達させるためにも必要な時間だったけど、２００本ものヒゴを加工することがこんなに体力、手間が掛かるのは経験上知らなかった。そして何よりも、慣れない正座や胡坐で一日中座って作業するのだから、脚がしびれたり、膝も痛くなったりして、こ～れは大変と思った。剥ぎの段階で失敗が多いから、ヒゴはわざと必要以上に作っているんだけど、もっと緻密な編みの籠となると、もっともっと作らなければいけなくなる。やはり、いろんな人から聞いた通り、竹細工の職人になるまでの道程は長いな～と、竹そのものに思い知らされている感じだった。