Bamboo (take)
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Bamboo (take, Japan)
Bamboo is maybe the most representative plant of Asia. The bamboo grove with the seven sages of old China 竹林七賢 has enchanted Asian art for hundreds of years. See below.
Daruma skillfully made of a piece of bamboo
Collection of Gabi Greve, Daruma Museum
Take - Bamboo Art Read more.
Bamboo is with us all year round, so TAKE 竹 is not a kigo in itself. But it has many seasonal associations.
First some general remarks on Bamboo by Haiku Poet Geert Verbeke
Bamboo is a revered plant, depicts summer and is the most painted subject in the Orient. Bamboo is associated with the moon, and the moon with a dragon｡
Bamboo represents strength and the virtues of the male, reflecting a senseof perfect balance with upright integrity and tremendous flexibility. Bamboois a long lived and evergreen beautiful plant, world-wide a source of inspiration for many artists. This grass family (Gramineae) is originating from tropical and subtropical regions, most abundant in the monsoon area of East Asia.
Bamboo can reach 30 m high and 30 cm diameter. The center of the bamboo plant is hollow, suggesting humility. The bamboo plant bears no flower or fruit which are considered temporary make-up. Due to its unique structure and qualities, not found elsewhere in the plant kingdom, the bamboo culm is suited for a multitude of applications, with many admirable qualities.
Bamboo is always been used for many wonderful purposes:
Food: bamboo shoots;
Houses: roofs, traps, walls, mats, furniture, trellis, fences, poles,
split bamboo floors;
bridge construction; irrigation systems: with as heart a water wheel constructed almost entirely of various bamboo species. This fast growing, renewable building material offers unparalleled strength and a graceful form, not only for supporting plants but also for creating decorative structures.
Bamboo is a source of countless useful products:
artwork: pencils, frames. Bamboo as a profound influence on local legends, writers, painters and musicians. The bamboo is thought of as the Father of brush painting (Sumi-e), representing simplicity of life and a humble spirit;
Containers and vessels: for the storage or transport of water;
Weapons: kendo bamboo swords;
Knifes: used to cut the umbilical cord at birth and employed during burial ceremonies. In the lifes of the indigenous peoples of Asia bamboo is present from cradle to grave. Bamboo is also employed in many traditional ceremonies and may be used as medicine or charm. anglers; music instruments;
Lucky bamboo sticks: feng shui.
Flutes: Bamboo flutes are considered one of the best Feng Shui cures available.
Geert Verbeke
http://www.geocities.com/ana_vazic/esejeng15.htm
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/happyhaiku/message/1283
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"Three friends of Winter", Pine, Bamboo and Plum
Shoo-chiku-bai (shochikubai) 松竹梅
They are an auspicious assembly used since olden times in Chinese art, later in Japanese art too. The symbolic meaning of the Pine Tree is "Long Life". Pine trees show abundand green even in the fiercest of winter and hardly dry out, so they have been a symbol of long life in China since old times. As symbol of good luck and agelessness this tree has stood in veneration and together with the bamboo, which bends but never breaks and plum tree, one of the first flowers of spring, as become an expression of celebration and joy.
In this example, they are painted on a Daruma Doll, for extra good luck at New Year.
http://www.amie.or.jp/daruma/Nogata.html
Bamboo, Crane and the Turtle are a group for Long Life.
http://www.amie.or.jp/daruma/Tsurukame.html
Bamboo, Sparrow and Snow are a group representing Friendship.
http://www.artelino.com/archive/auctions.asp?evt=133&cay=0&spe=2004
Zen und Bambus, Bambus und Zen
Eine Geschichte aus China
**************** KIGO *************
Spring
http://www.kyoto.zaq.ne.jp/dkakd107/D24.html
Take no aki <> Autumn of the bamboo 竹の秋
The leaves look almost orange as tree leaves to in autumn.
"bamboo splitting festival", takewari matsuri Japan 竹割祭
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Summer
http://ganshuku.cool.ne.jp/51_1take.html
Take no ko <> Bamboo sprouts 筍 , 笋（たけのこ）, たかんな, たかうな（early summer)
They are one of those delicasies of the season, free food in rural areas. On the picture below it says they are in season from beginning of April to beginning of May.
Kotoshi-dake <> Bamboo of this year 今年竹
Waka-dake <> young bamboo 若竹
Take no kawa nugu <> peeling off wrapped leaves of bamboo, skin of bamboo 竹の皮脱ぐ
Take ochiba <> fallen leaves of bamboo (ochiba is a kigo of autumn) 竹落ち葉 , 笹散る, 竹の落葉 (early summer)
During the summer, if you walk in a bamboo grove, the earth is covered with the small slender leaves of bamboo. This is the season when bamboo changes its leaves.
Day to plant bamboo : take ueru hi 竹植える日, take utsusu 竹移す, take suijitsu 竹酔日
The 13th of May, according to the Lunar Calendar, was best suited for this activity. Sometimes this day is also called "birthday of the bamboo" take tanjistu 竹誕日. Nowadays this is around June 23.
Shino Bamboo sprouts, suzu no ko 笹の子, 芽笹, 篶（すず）の子, 馬篠,兒（ちご）篠, 焼葉篠, 五枚篠
Shinodake 篠竹 is a special slender type of bamboo, also called Hokodake 鉾竹.
"Bamboo Wife" (chiku fujin) Asia. Bamboo sleeping companion. "Dutch Wife"
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Autumn
Take no haru <> spring of the bamboo (mid-autumn) 竹の春
http://www.chigirie.i-ml.com/tigirie-setumei/takenoharu.htm
ときどきの風のそよぎや竹の春
Look at a wonderful picture here:
http://osaka.yomiuri.co.jp/kigo/2001/010920.htm
Take kiru <> cutting bamboo (if you cut in other season, it does not keep well) 竹切る
Take no mi <> fruit of the bamboo 竹の実
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Winter
stilts, takeuma, takashi (all winter) 竹馬、 高馬、高足、たかし、鷺足(sagiashi)
http://www.koryosha.co.jp/densho/takeuma.html
takeuma （chikuba) literally means : Bamboo Horse
sagiashi literally means : legs of a heron.
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New Year Kigo
http://haradakun.cool.ne.jp/nihonbunka/newyear_special.html
Kazaritake <> Bamboo decoration 飾り竹 , 飾竹
See Kadomatsu, Pine Decorations for more explanation.
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Bamboo types around the world
http://ww3.tiki.ne.jp/~kondou/take/take.htm (Japanese)
http://www.chinabamboocentre.com/BambooList.htm (English)
Buddha's Belly, Bambusa ventricosa
Bambusa ventricosa is a species of bamboo which is native to the Guangdong province in China. The species is cultivated in subtropical regions all over the world because of its bulbous and ornamental clums. It is also used in bonsai.
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Different types of weaving Bamboo, an amazing link
http://ww3.tiki.ne.jp/~kondou/henso/henso.htm
Bamboo Music Instruments from the whole world.
http://www.world-bamboo.com/en/instruments.cfm
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The Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove
.. .. .. Bonsai with this name
http://www.venuscomm.com/Penjingchoices/closeups/p30.html
The Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove were a group of Chinese scholars, poets, artists and musicians of the mid-3rd century AD who banded together to escape from the hypocrisy and danger of the official world to a life of drinking wine, playing music and writing verse in the country.
Look at their musical world here:
http://www.nationwide.net/~amaranth/sages.htm
http://www.silkqin.com/09hist/other/zhulinqixian.htm
.. .. .. Screen painting
http://www.miho.or.jp/booth/html/artimg/00003257_01e.htm
http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/features/cassidy/cassidy1-10-13.asp
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Bamboo Haiku and Photos by Gabi Greve
the sound of iced snow
dripping
in the bamboo grove
Look at my Bamboo Haiku Story. 竹物語
Great Photo Collection of Bamboo Art
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/gabigreve2000/album?.dir=8947
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HAIKU
pen drawing
with Indian ink
bamboo shoots
fleeting shadows
a fountain of leaves
single bamboo
More Bamboo Haiku by Geert Verbeke
http://www.geocities.com/ana_vazic/esejeng15.htm
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the bamboo princess
waiting in the ricefield
for the moon
Ikebana and Haiku by Erika Schwalm
The Bamboo Princess, Kaguya-Hime
http://www.topics-mag.com/edition16/looks-folktale-jp-bamboo.htm
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kansoo ni makete ya waruru take no oto
in dry air
it gives up and splits -
sound of bamboo
Gabi Greve, (C) 2004
The air has gotten so dry, the bamboo over in the grove starts his grueling "Splitting song" of spring. Ponn, ponn, poooonk. An eery sound on such a warm sunny, but very dry day.
Happy Haiku Forum
bamboo grove
sunshine dripping
from wet leaves
Gabi Greve (C) 2004
More Haiku about Bamboo
Daruma Forum Gabi Greve
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.. Young bamboo shoots...
.. merry ladies of Kashimoto,
.. are they still there?
Buson
Well, the ones I saw in my bamboo grove the other day looked like that too, maybe its the velvet gown, the softness of the outer garment of these shoots, that got Buson associating. And the figure of a 20 cm bamboo shoot from a little afar (provided you stretch out on the earth)
looks just like an Oiran! (the great lady of pleasure).
bamboo breaking through -
on the ground
tiny earthquakes
Gabi Greve, 2004
Happy Haiku Forum
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tall bamboo
and nowhere to plant it . . .
this humid night!
Robert Wilson, October 2006
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Back to the Worldkigo Index
http://worldkigodatabase.blogspot.com/
posted by Gabi Greve @ 2/05/2005
11 Comments:
Gabi, I have been here ... oh! about 10 times in the past two days & no doubt, will return many more. Thank You. I would like to share one of my haiku with you:
almost spring
under the passing breeze
flowers of snow
hototogisu ootakeyabu o moru tsukiyo
little cuckoo -
moonlight filters through
the vast bamboo grove
Read a discussion about this haiku by Matsuo Basho.
GABI
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QUOTE from
http://www.textilearts.com/bamboo/motoshi.html
ABE Kiraku Motoshi
(b. 1942)
Abe's career as a bamboo artist began auspiciously. Right out of high school, he studied with Shono Shounsai, Japan's first Living National Treasure in bamboo arts.
"My apprenticeship to master Shounsai was a very difficult two years," Abe recalls. "He was so great an artist that I felt I was inferior. It took me well over 10 years to get over those feelings. I realized, after all, I can only be myself. Nothing more, nothing less. My master said to me before passing away in 1974, `It takes a lot of patience to craft bamboo, so you need a wife with lots of patience.' He said this as he introduced me to the woman who was to become my wife. I owe him a great debt."
In 1967, Abe inherited his father's bamboo basket business. Less than a decade later, he was admitted to the Japan Traditional Craft Arts Exhibition and became a full member by 1980. He has won numerous prizes and served as a judge for important regional shows. His work is part of the permanent collections of the Beppu City Museum, the city where he was born, and has been exhibited at the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art and San Francisco Asian Art Museum.
Bamboo is one of the last forms of artistic material that must be worked only by hand, the same was it was centuries ago.
Says artist Fujinuma Noboru:
"Unlike the ceramist, for whom the fires of the kiln play an
important role in the outcome, the bamboo artist bears full responsibility for every step of the creative process. Without splitting the bamboo and working through each of the various steps oneself, one cannot get the 'feel' of each individual bamboo culm and thus know for what kind of piece it will be best suited.
And there are no shortcuts in bamboo, there is no way to mechanize the process."
Cicerone
Reading more about bamboo
Bamboo is an exacting medium for the artist. A true artist of bamboo
"bears full responsibility for every step of the creative process"
according to Fujinuma Noboru.
"Without splitting the bamboo and working through each of the various steps oneself," he explains, "one cannot get the 'feel" of each individual bamboo culm and know for what kind of piece it will be best suited. And there are no shortcuts in bamboo; there is no way to mechanize the process."
Although Japanese bamboo artists may be on their own in creating a
basket or sculpture, they are not working in a void. Most artists become masters of bamboo only after years or decades of demanding
apprenticeship. In a traditional arrangement a senior artist would take on a number of live-in students who would assist with works produced in quantity while learning the master's techniques through observation.
Students might live in or near the master's household for ten years or
more, working ten to twelve hours a day, six days a week, with little or
no pay and almost no space to call their own. The students would not be allowed to touch bamboo at all for the first year or two, instead
spending their days cleaning house, running errands, and serving tea.
Even after the students were llowed to handle bamboo they would rarely receive direct instruction from the master, and impertinent questions were considered a mark of laziness. Instead, the students would learn primarily through quiet observation of the procedures and techniques of the master.
Because of Japan's well-established and lengthy apprenticeship system it is possible to trace the transmission of bamboo artistry through generations of master-student encounters. Bamboo art over these years has been marked by innovation and richness.
From its beginnings as a skill-driven artisanal occupation of breathtaking technical prowess to an art form of rare amplitude and expression, bamboo work has been reenvisioned and transformed by generations of dedicated artists, each producing exciting new work drawn from the lessons of artists who have come before.
Cicerone
QUOTE from
http://textilearts.com/bamboo/shokosai.html
HAYAKAWA Shokosai V
(b. 1932)
According to Japanese custom, only one son of each generation is permitted to inherit the family tradition. Forty-eight years ago, Hayakawa Shokosai V was chosen by his father to learn the craft. The artist is the fifth-generation descendant of Shokosai I, who was the first bamboo artist to sign his work.
In 2003, Shokosai V was named a Living National Treasure in bamboo arts. Two years later, he received the Order of the Rising Sun from the Japanese government. His work is housed at Tokyo's National Museum of Modern Art, the Agency of Cultural Affairs, San Francisco Asian Art Museum, Denver Art Museum, and Ise Shrine, the state guesthouse in Kyoto where visiting dignitaries reside.
Of his work with bamboo, Hayakawa says, "Let me tell you the truth. I was not at first fond of this art. I did not consider myself skilled enough. But I could not stand the idea of terminating the artist line of our family. After five or six years of hard training, I made my first bamboo basket. The excitement of creating it was unforgettable."
"I realized that the work is really a reflection of inner self. If you try to over-manipulate bamboo to make a shape, the shape becomes unnatural or even breaks by force. I began to realize that just as we have feelings, so does bamboo. I constantly talk and listen to it now."
QUOTE from
http://www.textilearts.com/bamboo/higashi.html
HIGASHI Takesonosai
(1915-2003)
"A writer uses words to create magic," Higashi once said. "I use bamboo."
Born in Kyoto and apprenticing to Kaneko Chikkosai in 1931, the artist's speciality is basket making with an architectural flavor. His work incorporates susudake, or smoked bamboo from the rafters of farm houses over 150 years old, non-plaited techniques, and other inventions of his own.
Prolifically honored, with entrance into Nitten 28 times and full membership in the Japan Craft Arts Association in 1994, Higashi won the Prince Takamatsu Commemorative Prize in 1995 and had numerous solo exhibitions throughout Japan. In 2002, Lloyd Cotsen and Robert Coffland published a book on his life and artistic career.
When asked, at the age of 83, about his continuing commitment to bamboo, he noted that his vision of what he wanted to say in his art had grown stronger as he grew older.
"A great work is a combination of artistic beauty and technical excellence, but a masterpiece adds another quality that is a reflection of you as a person," he said. "My goal as an artist is to leave such pieces when I leave this world."
Recent excavations indicate that utilitarian woven bamboo baskets date back in Japan to 10,000-300 B.C.E. Bamboo flower baskets of Japanese and foreign origin from the 6th and 7th centuries and used for Buddhist altars survive in substantial quantities.
In China, the earliest baskets made specifically for cut flowers were produced during the 12th-14th centuries.
Examples of these came to Japan during the Muromachi period (1333-1573), and thus began a long tradition of using woven bamboo to hold flowers. These were typically placed in the tokonoma (alcove) paired with a painting or calligraphy as a temporary tribute to a particular event season.
Traditionally, baskets such as these were used for composing decorative arrangements reflective of the changing of the seasons and the simple elegance of nature in the Japanese home.
Both traditional and modern Japanese bamboo baskets are made by artists who have been trained in the intricate techniques of splitting, stripping, polishing, weaving, and knotting.
The typical training period to become an independent artist lasts for about ten years, giving rise to the "Ten years to split bamboo," suggesting the extreme importance of mastering the fundamental techniques before even making a single basket.
Basket making is one of Japan's traditional craft-art forms in which pupils still learn by becoming apprentices. Form, texture and overall balance are all carefully considered by the bamboo craftsman in order to enhance the natural intrinsic beauty of bamboo.
Cicerone
QUOTE from
http://www.textilearts.com/bamboo/syoryu.html
HONDA Syoryu
(b. 1951)
Honda began his career studying bamboo basket making for flower arranging but the limitations of this centuries-old genre constrained his creativity. An innovator, he crafts dramatic, undulating sculpture that demonstrates his fascination with line, volume, and space. Seamless lengths of braided bamboo, dyed in warm shades of tobacco, gold, and bronze, resemble leather or metal. The artist is a master at tight ajiro plaiting, a technique he has adapted from generations of Japanese bamboo box makers.
For years his artistic career came to a halt because of the lack of interest in bamboo artists among Japanese collectors. To earn a living, he worked long hours, seven days a week, filling wholesale orders for simple bamboo flower baskets. Recently, after many rejections from Japan's bamboo establishment, Honda has begun to achieve recognition in his home country and in the West.
A finalist for the Cotsen Bamboo Prize in 2000, 2002, and 2004, Honda's work is now part of the permanent collections of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City, San Francisco Asian Art Museum, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Mint Museum, and the Ruth and Sherman Lee Institute for Japanese Art.
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Es gibt einen Ausspruch des Meisters [Bashô]:
„Über die Kiefer lerne von der Kiefer,
über den Bambus lerne vom Bambus!“
Das besagt: „Befreie dich von deiner subjektiven Willkür!“ ...
Lernen bedeutet hier, dass man ganz in eine Sache hineinschlüpft und mit ihr eins wird ... Wie sehr es einem Dichter beispielsweise auch gelingen mag, eine Sache in ihrer konkreten Gestalt genau zu beschreiben: wenn diese poetische Empfindung nicht der inneren Natur dieser Sache selbst entstammt, dann bilden die Sache und der Dichter eine Dualität und keine Einheit, und die poetische Empfindung erlangt keine Lauterkeit.
Sie ist nichts anderes als ein Kunstgriff, der der Willkür entspringt.
Dohô Hattori
morning spectacle -
bright-colored bamboos attract
a playful child
dry bamboos click
under my weary footsteps -
long and winding road
Ao-Suzume, Manila
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