In mid-January I put up a quick post and video about my experiences of cutting bamboo in the town of Naoiri to be used in my baskets. I'll go into a little more detail about that project in this post. (Scroll to the bottom to see the video.)
御沓さんという方は私の友達、飯田さんを経て知り合った方で、ずっと前から私が参加してきた稲刈りとか芋掘りの農業体験事業を企画・運営している方だ。行くたびに仲が親しくなっている感じがするが、今回は御沓さんの実家の裏山にある竹を伐りに行った。御沓さんの実家では野菜とか牛などいろいろな農産物を作っている。その中のひとつである椎茸の栽培面積を御沓さんは来年から伸ばしたいと考えているんだけど、杉の木の間に盛んに生えていて、邪魔になっているのが竹なのだ。御沓さんが「使ってくれんか」と言ってくれたのか、私の方から「使いたいんですけど」とお願いしたのか、よく覚えていないけど、邪魔になっているものが無駄なく使われることになるという出発点から、すごく気持ちのいい協力関係ができた。
Caitlyn and I went with our friends, the Iida family, to visit Mr. Mikutsu on his farm in Naoiri, located in southern Oita prefecture. We've visited Naoiri before to harvest rice or dig up sweet potatoes as part of the local agricultural events planned by Mr. Mikutsu, but this time we went to cut down the bamboo growing in Mr. Mikutsu's own backyard. On the Mikutsu farm they raise beef cattle and grow vegetables and the like. Immediately behind their house is a mountain slope covered by tall cedar trees, under which they maintain their shiitake mushroom stands. Mr. Mikutsu hopes to expand the area of these stands next year, but growing tall and green in the large spaces between the cedar is bamboo. Mikutsu-san said I could use the bamboo if I like, since he would cut it down and pile it up to rot anyway, so we all decided to get together to cut it down and prepare it for temporary storage. It's a mutual cooperation like this that I imagine was so much more common in the olden days of Japan when farming was a major way of life. (Bamboo being seen by farmers or foresters as a nuisance in Japan, by the way, seems to be the general trend as bamboo is used less and less for the production of daily goods or other commercial products. As far as I know, in Oita prefecture at least there are several town revitalization projects that focus on trying to find ways to make use of the bamboo groves that are either not maintained or cut down and thrown away.)
ところが、ただ単にそこら辺に生えている竹を使おうと思っても、実際ある竹の用途はその種類や成長状況、材料にするための下ごしらえなど、いろいろな要素の影響で決まってくるから、必ずしも御沓さんの竹を私が作っている籠に使えるとは限らないというのが最初は心配だっだ。まず、第一に知らないといけないことは、これは何の竹？結論から言えば、マダケかハチク、両方とも籠の材料となるヒゴに出来る種類だった。それをどうして確認できたかというと、節のところを見ればすぐ判る。伐採して籠に使う対象になっているのが左側の竹で、右にあるのはそのまた近くに生えていたモウソウチク。節の断面をよく観察すると、モウソウチクは竹皮部（ちくひぶ）という部分が一番出っ張っていて、そこからまた低くなって真っ直ぐになる。それに対してマダケとハチクは下側の竹皮部とその上にある節峰（せっぽう）が両方出っ張っていて、二重になっている。これはマダケなのか、ハチクなのか、そう簡単に見分けが付かないらしいんだけど、一応私達が伐った竹がモウソウチクではないことがわかって、一安心した。
I've used the word "bamboo" here so far without specifying type. There are over 600 varieties of bamboo in Japan, only a handful of which can be used to make baskets. At school we use only one variety, madake, otherwise known as giant timber bamboo, or, scientifically, Phyllostachys bambusoides, but hachiku (Phyllostachys nigra var. henonis) another timber bamboo almost exactly identical in appearance to madake is also usable. On the Mikutsu mountain I also found mosochiku, or Phyllostachys edulis, which is full of fiber and useful for some crafts, but is much coarser and less pliant than madake or hachiku. In Japan they're called the "big useful three (三大有用竹)," not only because they're the largest varieties, but also because they are naturally common and used so often in so many things. Luckily, the "nusiance" in this case was either hachiku or madake. You can tell the difference between these and moso by looking at the node. Moso (on the right) has one ring that sticks out, while madake or hachiku (on the left) has two rings. Supposedly it's practically impossible to pick out madake from hachiku just by looking at the two, so for now I'm satisfied with the observation that it's either one of them, both of which I can use.
さて、朝１０時ぐらいの時に本番の作業に入った。
御沓さんと飯田さんのご家族、皆の力を借りながら、竹を倒したり、倒された竹の枝を鋸で落としたりしていった。鋸のない人は枝のない竹を適当な場所に積んでくれた。飯田さんの２歳の息子さん、けいすけにまで竹の片っ端を持って手伝ってもらった。この作業で１時間半ぐらい経ってしまった。次は、ひどく年取った硬そうな竹とか、キズの多い竹を除いて、長さを切り揃えて、５，６本ずつ結束した。さあ、ここまで来たんだけど、次はどうしよう。本来だったら油抜きなどの処理をして天日干しするけど、油抜きをするための釜もないし、青いまま天日干ししたら竹の表面が変色してしまう。センターの課長からいただいたアドバイスは、直射日光の当らない、湿気のなるべく少ないところに保管するように言われた。そうすれば、カビや虫による害が発生しにくい。ちょうど牛小屋の軒下がこれにぴったりの環境だったので、一束にまとめられた竹を御沓さんが一人で、僕と飯田さんが二人で山から下ろしていった。その一日の中でこれこそが一番疲れた作業だった。とにかく重い。伐りたての青い竹は水分をたくさん含んでいるので、白い竹よりもずっと重い。何とか山から下ろせた竹は幅や年齢がばらばらの状態で軒下に収めてようやくその日の仕事が完了した。皆はほっとした気持ちで集合写真を撮ってから、おいしい料理と温泉のために近くの旅館へと向かった。
So we all got together, and got to work. Mikutsu-san cut down the canes with a chainsaw (not my choice of tools, but farmers sure do know efficiency!) as the rest of us (even grandma and grandpa!) busily cut off the branches with hand saws and piled the culms together. After about an hour and a half of doing this we were finished clearing the area. I then chose the best looking bamboo, mostly by clearing out those that looked too old, worn, or damaged, and then we cut them all to about the same length, bound them in bundles of 4 or 5, and carried them off the mountain.
Knowing basically what kind of bamboo it is, the next question on my mind was how to prepare it for my baskets. The madake bamboo we use at school is never fresh--it's always cured through boiling and then dried in the sun for around a week. Uncured bamboo supposedly gets a little stiffer than cured bamboo even after it's dried, according to one of the veteran instructors at school. As long as I don't use Mikutsu's bamboo for extremely thin strips it shouldn't have any affect on my baskets. He also recommended storing the bamboo in a dry location where it wouldn't see direct sunlight. We found a perfect place in the rafters of the cow barn, where they'll be stored at least until school ends and I have time to work on my own baskets.
After a long, tiring morning of cutting and carrying, we all took a group photo and then made our way to the local ryokan, where we had a delicious meal of kiln-cooked rice (kama-meshi; 釜飯) and fried chicken, and then a soothing dip in a hot spring bath.
年齢と直径がばらばらの竹。２０本はあったんだろう。一人で使いきれるか、ちょっと不安。My friend Akira and I piling up the bamboo before storing it. Only later when I split the bamboo will I find out how old, and therefore workable, each one is.
（左上から時計周りに）飯田亮、僕、御沓さん、ケイトリン、御沓さんのご両親、飯田友美、飯田佳祐。(Clockwise from top-left) Akira Iida, me, Mr. Mikutsu, Caitlyn, Mr. Mikutsu's parents, Tomomi Iida, and little Keisuke.
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