Welcome to Japan, Manfred
Hello, this is Tomotake Ichikawa.
Since this spring, I have been sharing a series of journal entries about the Basketry Festival held in Lichtenfels, Germany, in September 2025.
(* If you would like to read “Germany Business Trip 2025” (15 parts) from the beginning, please start here.)
Manfred, one of the organisers of the Basketry Festival
and someone who was exceptionally kind to me during my stay in Germany, recently visited Japan.
The person in the centre of the photograph is Manfred.
This picture was taken during the parade at the festival’s opening celebration.
(* You can read about the opening celebration in this journal entry.)
For many years, I had dreamed of visiting the Basketry Festival in Lichtenfels.
Being able to finally experience it was truly a dream come true.
Even after returning to Japan, I spent many days reflecting on those memories and the lingering impressions they left behind.
After returning home, Manfred and I continued to exchange messages from time to time.
Then one day, I received a message from him saying that he would be coming to Japan.
The news came as a surprise, but it also made me very happy.
As we talked, he told me that the purpose of his visit was to see his daughter,
who is currently studying at a university in Japan.
Since he would first be staying in Tokyo, he mentioned that he would like to stop by our shop in Minami-Senju as well.
Of course, I replied, “You are most welcome.”
He also shared that, as one of the organisers of the Basketry Festival,
he hoped to learn more about basket-making culture in Japan and had plans to visit various places around the country.
At the same time, he said that the most important purpose of his trip was to spend time with his daughter.
He wanted to make the most of that time while he was here.
For the time being, we settled on a date for his visit to our shop, and I looked forward to seeing him again.
Then, a few days before his planned visit, I received another message from him.
Due to a change in their travel plans, Manfred and his daughter Sophie happened to be near our shop and decided to stop by.
It was an unexpected visit, and I was delighted to welcome them both.
As they looked around the shop, they carefully picked up and examined each item, taking their time to enjoy the collection.
As a souvenir to take back to Germany, they chose a green bamboo tray woven by Waku Inoue in Nagano.
While taking a commemorative photograph together, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.
I wondered what Manfred would be doing two days later, on the day he had originally planned to visit our shop.
When I asked him, he told me that he was still planning to come back to our shop on that day.
Of course, I was very happy to hear that.
But since he seemed to have some free time in his schedule,
I began to wonder whether I might be able to introduce him to someone involved in basket-making in Japan.
After discussing the idea with my wife,
I started looking for a place that we could visit together on a day trip and reached out to a few people.
In the end, we decided to travel to Yamanashi together, and before long, the day arrived.
And then the day arrived.
Early in the morning, I met Manfred at the hotel where he was staying, and we set off for Yamanashi together.
Just six months earlier, Manfred had been one of the organisers of the Basketry Festival in Lichtenfels, Germany.
Now he was sitting in the passenger seat of my car as we drove through Japan.
The unexpected connection that had brought us to this moment filled me with a quiet sense of gratitude.
Along the way, we stopped at a few service areas to take breaks.
As we travelled, we talked about what had been happening in our lives, exchanged thoughts about basketry,
and shared memories of last year’s Basketry Festival.
After several hours on the road, we arrived in Yamanashi.
At one of the service areas along the way, I gave Manfred a small gift from Japan.
He smiled warmly and said,
“I have a gift for you as well.”
This was the gift he gave me.
It was a basket woven from peeled white willow, with a glass holder and candle placed inside.
The fine weaving immediately caught my attention,
and it was the kind of basket that invites you to stop and admire it for a while.
According to Manfred, it was made by a student attending the basket-making school in Lichtenfels.
It was a small basket, woven with great care and precision.
Being able to see and hold an example of the fine weaving techniques that continue to be passed down in Lichtenfels
made it a particularly meaningful gift.
(* If you would like to see the German Basket Museum,
where baskets showcasing Lichtenfels’ fine weaving traditions are on display, please visit this journal entry.)
Stopping at service areas along the way is one of the small pleasures of a road trip.
As we stood choosing drinks, Manfred remarked, “Vending machines are very convenient.”
He told me that he had become quite accustomed to them during his stay in Tokyo, and he purchased his drink with ease.
At last, we arrived at our destination.
This is Chikuseido, located in Hokuto City, Yamanashi Prefecture.
The building combines concrete walls and a traditional thatched roof,
two very different materials that blend together surprisingly naturally.
There was a welcoming atmosphere that seemed to gently invite visitors inside.
Chikuseido originally operated for many years in Sakurajosui, Suginami Ward, Tokyo.
About five years ago, they relocated here to Hokuto City.
(* You can read about my visit to Chikuseido during their years in Suginami, Tokyo, here.)
Shigeki Tanaka, the fourth-generation owner of Chikuseido, welcomed us at the entrance.
Before long, Manfred was carefully looking at the bamboo baskets made by Shigeki. 
He also spent time carefully examining the works of Kyokusho Tanaka, the third-generation owner of Chikuseido and Shigeki’s father. 
The woman on the left in the photograph is Akiko, Shigeki’s wife.
In addition to regularly providing us with seasonal wildflowers and mountain plants for our shop, she also teaches flower arranging classes and creates floral gifts under the name Hana Chikuseido.
Showing photographs that he had taken at the Basketry Festival in Germany, Manfred happily shared stories with Shigeki and Akiko about his time there and the memories he had made.
The book Manfred is looking through documents the history of Chikuseido and the journey of the shop over the years. 
On a shelf nearby, there was something woven from bamboo that looked almost like a pair of legs. 
In fact, these were the legs of a large bamboo elephant that once stood outside Chikuseido’s former shop in Suginami, Tokyo.
During the transition from the second to the third generation of the family business, as demand for traditional bamboo baskets and strainers gradually changed, Chikuseido began taking on many projects involving large-scale bamboo sculptures and monuments.
Among them was this elephant, woven entirely from bamboo and displayed outside the shop.
Manfred spent a long time carefully looking through the many records and photographs that tell the story of Chikuseido. 
Manfred was delighted to discover a Godzilla woven from bamboo.
When Manfred mentioned that he was also interested in bamboo processing techniques,
Shigeki immediately brought out a piece of bamboo and demonstrated how it is split.
He watched with great interest as the bamboo was split,
paying close attention to everything—from the sound of the blade cutting into the bamboo,
to the structure of its nodes, and even the rhythm of the splitting process itself.
While Manfred is one of the organisers of the Basketry Festival in Lichtenfels, Germany,
his professional background is actually in biology.
When we stepped out onto Chikuseido’s terrace overlooking the surrounding mountains,
he immediately took an interest in the plants around him and began photographing the trees,
including the Japanese maples.
As he looked out over the landscape of Yamanashi, he remarked,
“The system is the same, but the pieces are different.”
It was a comment that stayed with me.
Over tea and sweets, we were able to spend some time talking together at a relaxed pace.
Thank you, Shigeki and Akiko, for your warm hospitality.
After saying goodbye to everyone at Chikuseido, it was time to head off for lunch.
It had become a little later than we expected for lunch, and finding a place to eat proved more difficult than we had anticipated. Eventually, we came across a udon restaurant called Chikura. At the entrance hung an impressive shimenawa decoration. Its scale and craftsmanship immediately caught our attention, and both Manfred and I found ourselves stopping to take photographs of it. 
Here, we enjoyed a set meal of kamaage udon and bamboo shoot rice together. Kamaage udon is not the easiest dish to eat with chopsticks, especially if you are not accustomed to using them. Even so, Manfred said, “I would like to use chopsticks,” and continued throughout the meal without switching to any other utensils. By the end, he was handling them remarkably well. 
He also took an interest in the potted plants around the restaurant, stopping to look at them one by one as if trying to identify each species. 
There was one more place that I wanted to show Manfred during our trip: a Japanese hot spring. As we talked, he told me that the neighbouring town of Bad Staffelstein, next to Lichtenfels, is also known for its hot springs. According to him, the water there has a high salt content, allowing people to float effortlessly. Some visitors from overseas feel uncertain about Japan’s custom of bathing naked in hot springs. But when I suggested that we visit one together, Manfred readily replied, “Of course, let’s do that.” And so we spent some time enjoying a hot spring in Yamanashi. 
As I was driving, I could not join him, but after our visit to the hot spring, I suggested that Manfred try a Japanese beer. After taking his first sip, he smiled and said, “Fresh!” Seeing that expression on his face made me smile as well. 
A commemorative photograph in front of the hot spring. 
This photograph was taken about eight months earlier, in September 2025, at the Basketry Festival in Lichtenfels, Germany.
At that time, I was the one being welcomed and guided around in Germany. Never would I have imagined that, a few months later, I would be the one showing Manfred around Japan. The connections we make through life can be truly remarkable.
After leaving the hot spring, we drove back along the expressway and I dropped Manfred off at his hotel in Tokyo. And with that, our one-day trip through Yamanashi came to a close.
Afterward, Manfred continued his travels in Japan,
visiting the Kansai region with his daughter and making the most of his time here.
I was very happy that he had the opportunity to experience the wide variety of bamboo and basketry traditions found across Japan,
and that he enjoyed them so much.
Before I finish, there is one memory from that day that has stayed with me.
It happened while we were sitting together in the outdoor bath.
I was absentmindedly looking up at the sky,
watching several swallows flying back and forth above the hot spring, simply thinking how beautiful the scene was.
Then Manfred said,
“Those swallows are divided into three groups.”
He explained that he could tell from the way they were flying, where they were returning,
and the positions they occupied in the sky.
It reminded me that even when we are looking at the very same scene, we may each be seeing a different world.
I have also put together a short video of the day, lasting about one and a half minutes.
If the video above does not display properly, please watch it here.
My sincere thanks to Shigeki and Akiko of Chikuseido, who warmly welcomed us despite my rather sudden request.
And to Manfred, who joined me for this day trip through Yamanashi.
Thank you once again from the bottom of my heart.
I look forward to seeing you again someday.
Tomotake Ichikawa