Tiger Bamboo’s “New Yorker”bag

"Master, what is this all about?"

When I visited the home of Chikusei Watanabe, a bamboo craftsman who has been a friend of mine since my grandfather's generation, I happened to notice an object hanging on the wall." This is actually a handbag." The bamboo strips, layered and regularly curved, were shining candy-colored, as if they had been made over a long period of time. I still vividly remember how impressed I was when what I had seen only as a modern bamboo wall decoration transformed into a single handbag when he held it in his hand.

Turning point in the history of this bamboo bag

To begin with, Japanese bamboo crafts were sent to the distant world such as America and Europe as Japanese exports 60 years ago after the war. Even we TAKETORA has a history of manufacturing tiger bamboo and black bamboo for fishing rods, mainly to Europe and other countries. In fact, this bamboo bag was one of such Japanese bamboo crafts that were shipped all the way across the Pacific Ocean to the United States.

Many years later, as Mr. Watanabe's friend was walking down the streets of Manhattan, his eyes were glued to a dashing New Yorker. It was a big city overflowing with people in glamorous attire. In the midst of the crowd, there was a distinctly gleam that shone brightly. In his hand was this bag, once manufactured in Japan and sent overseas.

Mr. Watanabe's friend fell in love with this bag at first sight and asked for it to be exchanged for the bamboo bag he was carrying at the time. By a strange fate, the bamboo bag came back to Japan after a long, long time. However, this time he came back to Japan and exchanged this bag with Dr. Watanabe's bag. He was now attracted to the beautiful bamboo bag created by Mr. Watanabe. Thus, this bamboo bag from his return to the U.S. is now displayed in Mr. Watanabe's workshop.

Want to Renewal it with Tiger Bamboo.

There was one lucky break. There was just a bamboo craftsman who felt the same way and was trying to renewal this bag. First of all, I was able to get a bamboo bag of similar size and material in this way. The beauty and freshness of white bamboo is nice. However, there was something different, if only slightly, from the bamboo bags we had brought all the way back home from the United States. So we decided to have them made from tiger bamboo, which we have been familiar with for a long time. Tiger Bamboo is nature of the tiger pattern on the bamboo can be seen and Japan's only Bamboo.

The size was also changed to a compact one that women can easily carry after consulting with craftsmen and employees. The craftsman's skill in creating a product with such a wide range of tastes is to be expected. It took some time to make the bag, due to the differences in materials and details unique to tiger bamboo, but finally the bag was completed. It was almost exactly as I had imagined, and when I held it in my hands for the first time, it gave me goose bumps.

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• Mr.Shouchikudo Kosuge, a bamboo craftman

  In the process of making the "New Yorker" tiger bamboo bag, I met a bamboo craftsman, Mr.Shouchikudo Kosuge, as if I was led to him. I felt a sense of destiny when I learned that the roots of the bamboo bags that were once exported overseas actually lie with this man. He is also known as a "visionary artist" and has made a great contribution to the Japanese bamboo industry, and his exceptional works are in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Skilled Craftsmanship

The basis of the "New Yorker" tiger bamboo bag is the tiger bamboo frame. Tiger bamboo has different patterns, bends and thicknesses, and the position of each knot is different. Experienced bamboo craftsmen hand-finish each piece to ensure that everything looks its most beautiful.

Japan's only Tiger Bamboo Dyeing

The inner bag and the strings connecting the bamboo frame are dyed with tiger bamboo dye using tiger bamboo leaves. The gentle tones of the bamboo dye peek out from the gaps in the bamboo frame, and the yellow-dyed cord, called "Tiger Bamboo Gold," gives the bag a soft atmosphere. The fabrics are selected to be dyed with a good touch, but it is not possible to dye many fabrics at once, so it is difficult to collect the bamboo leaves each time.

Difficulty of dyeing with natural materials

In the case of herb dyeing, the dyed result is completely different when the leaves are freshly collected and after a little time has passed. Bamboo leaves retain their freshness much better than ordinary materials, perhaps because of their antibacterial properties, and it is said that they can be used for several days, which is a great help, but even so, the color of the fabric dyed on the first day will be quite different from the fabric dyed on the last day.

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• Many prototypes were made.

  The inner bag was originally made of mesh fabric, but because it is a tiger bamboo bag, we decided to focus more on the tiger bamboo, so we introduced a dyeing process using tiger bamboo leaves. It took a lot of time and effort through trial and error, but we are very pleased with the result, which is a unique shade of tiger bamboo gold that peeks out from the tiger bamboo frame.

Japan's only bamboo manufacturing operation for tiger bamboo

Carrying bamboo from the mountains

The work of felling and carrying the long, heavy bamboos all day long is very hard work, as we weave through the steep, narrow mountain paths with the sound of engines and caterpillars. The work in the mountains is a traditional technique of the "Toratake no Sato", which has been passed down through the generations.

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• Selecting and sorting bamboo

  From January to March, the bamboo is sorted in the "Toratake no Sato". Bamboos are sorted one by one according to thickness, quality, and use, and then tied back together and transported to their respective storage areas. Bamboo is only cut down when it is in season to maintain its quality, so a year's worth of material is brought out of the mountains at this time of year.

Oil Removal and Correction

When the oil is removed with a gas burner, a beautiful pattern unique to tiger bamboo emerges. At the same time, the heat of the hot bamboo is used to straighten out any bends in the bamboo. For large diameter and long bamboo with special large correcting wood is used.

Traditional Bamboo Craftsmanship

Bamboo grows very fast and is the only natural resource that can be used sustainably. And it is not limited to traditional bamboo crafts such as flower baskets and bamboo colanders, but also has unlimited potential for use in bamboo fiber for clothing, housing, furniture, electrical appliances, agriculture, and livestock production. The dawning of a new era of bamboo together with the bamboo culture that has continued for a long time, and what we TAKETORA can offer to bring smiles to everyone's faces through bamboo will continue to expand in the future.