No78

Dear Customers & Friends
Hello from Japan. This is Kimono Flea Market ICHIROYA's News Letter No.78.Today our daughter Shoko had an entrance exam of University. Today was the last day of the common primary examination, and I hope she is doing well. I think any results will be good for her life, if she had done best as she could do.
Today I am going to write about 'take'(bamboo). Maybe as you already know, bamboo is one of the very poplar motif of kimono design. If you search 'bamboo' at our site, you can find more than several items always. Form older times bamboo has been familiar to Japanese lives, and thought to be sacred and auspicious. Bamboo rapidly grow, and only within three months length reach 10 meters(40in) high, and in three years it become thick adult bamboo. It is strong to typhoon and strong wind compared to ordinary tree, and rapidly grow than trees. In Japanese design, bamboo is often seen with pine tree and ume blossom. These three set is called 'Shou-chiku-bai'(pine tree, bamboo and ume blossom), and one of the most popular motif in Japanese crafts. Sometimes bamboo are dyed with sparrow ( suzume ), which is called 'take-suzume'. Suzume is most ordinary birds in Japan ( I used to try to catch them with simple instruments, but never caught them!) Tiger('tora') is also often dyed with bamboo, and which called 'take-tora'. Here in Japan, tiger had not lived in nature, and this motif is from China. I like 'yuki-mochi-zasa' motif, which is bamboo with snow. 'Sasa(or 'zasa') means the small or short kinds of bamboo. 'Yuki' means snow, and 'mochi' means 'have', so you may have seen yuki-mochi-zasa motif in Japanese handcrafts.
Bamboo is very familiar to our ordinary life, and more familiar in olden times. When I was a child, I often played with bamboo or in sasa bush. For example, we played 'take-uma'(stilt), which was made of bamboo. http://www-ku.magma.ne.jp/~ark/frame-1.htmlI liked to make and let 'take-tonbo'( bamboo dragonfly) fly, which flew very highly. http://www.pref.ishikawa.jp/kosodate/kodomodj/kodomo-files/b-files/b-13/b-13.htmlI learned from mother how to make small boats from sasa leaves, which is called 'sasa bune' ( bamboo leaf boat). There was small clean streams near the neighbourhood when I was a child.http://www.tsubamesanjo-jc.or.jp/kodomo/sasafunenagashi.htmI also made kite and plane with bamboo and papers. 'Take-higo'(bamboo thin rod) can be bended easily with heat, and it is very light, so it is very good material for flying toy. As you imagine, unfortunately today's children don't play like this way ( prefer TV game and others).I did not know but Yuka was very good at take uma(walking on stilts) for her class teacher in her elementary schools made all his students practice take uma until everyone of his class could do.http://www.tnc.ne.jp/oasobi/oasobi02/42takeuma/11.html
Japanese have been used bamboo to make many items. ( Link page is the famous bamboo items shop 'Taketora' in Shokoku district.) hedge, http://www.taketora.co.jp/kaki/sodekaki.htmbench, http://www.taketora.co.jp/koshikake/koshikake.htmbag, http://www.taketora.co.jp/bag/bag.htmFlower basket, http://www.taketora.co.jp/hanakago/hanakago.htm One of the most gorgeous items made of bamboo is 'rantai-shikki', which is woven with thin bamboo rod and covered with urushi. Here is the sample of rantai-shikki. http://www.netlaputa.ne.jp/~suzumedo/item/59.html
Now I noticed that there are too many stories about bamboo and our lives. And I would like to introduce one more topic, which you must already know if you are a quilt lovers. Bamboo is green, and it will be brown after it is cut. But if dyer boil up bamboo, what color dyestuff do you imagine to get from it? Answer is 'graceful white'. Yoshiko Jinzenji is a famous Quilter in the world, who is Japanese, and have her workshop in Bali. She dyes their fabrics with 'take-zome'(bamboo-dyed) technique, which she originally invented, and makes graceful quilt. When I was a event manager of department store, we had small exhibition of her quilts, and had a chance to talk to her. She is a small old women with silver long hair, and full of incredible energy, as if she was a hsien! I was deeply moved to hear how she came across take-zome. Do you think it is very mysterious and moving that we can get deep white color dyer from vivid green bamboo?Here is her official pages. You must be able to enjoy here.
http://www.google.co.jp/search?q=cache:tWPcfl85POUJ:www.yoshikoquilt.com/+Jinzenji+yoshiko&hl=jahttp://www.yoshikoquilt.com/jp/quest.html
http://japanreview.net/interview_jinzenji.htm
Thank you very much for reading to the end! Today we will list some cotton, kasuri, ranru, kappa, kimono and bolts. We will list them five orfour hours later as usual time. We are very happy to check them later.
Ichiro & Yuka WadaKimono Flea Market "ICHIROYA"http://www.ichiroya.com
e-mail: info@ichiroya.comaddress: Asia-shoji Bldg.301 1841-1 Nishi 1 chome Wakamatsu cho Tondabayashi city Osaka 584-0025 JAPANTEL&FAX ****( international number ) - 81-721-23-5446