Choosing Bamboo, Making Baskets — A Visit to the Yoshidas (Part 1)
2026/10/08

Hello. This is Tomotake Ichikawa.

October has arrived, and autumn is deepening day by day.
We are beginning to have more pleasant days.
I hope you have all been keeping well.

From mid-October, we will once again be holding our special exhibition, “The One Table.”

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“The One Table” Special Exhibition

Yoshida Takemono | Two Makers, Two Tones
— White & Carbonized Bamboo Baskets —

2026

October 16 (Fri), 17 (Sat)*, 18 (Sun)

October 23 (Fri), 24 (Sat), 25 (Sun)

October 30 (Fri), 31 (Sat), November 1 (Sun)

* On Saturday, October 17,
Naoki Yoshida will be at the shop and will give a demonstration of how he makes his coffee drippers.

* On the dates listed above, everyone is welcome to visit between 11:00 AM and 4:00 PM.

* Visits are also available by appointment on October 19 (Mon), 22 (Thu), 26 (Mon), and 29 (Thu).
Please make a reservation through the page below.

Visit Reservation Page

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This time, I would like to introduce Naoki and Noriko Yoshida of “Yoshida Takemono,”
a husband-and-wife team who make bamboo baskets in Oita Prefecture.

White Bamboo and Carbonized Bamboo.
Using these two types of bamboo, each with its own distinctive character despite being the same material,
the couple work together to make a variety of baskets.

To coincide with this special exhibition,
I would like to share in this journal the story of my visit earlier this year to the Yoshidas’ workshop in Oita.

Both Naoki and Noriko graduated from the Bamboo Craft Training Center in Beppu, Oita.
After graduating, they each spent about five years training at workshops in the prefecture before becoming independent,
and have continued making things from bamboo together ever since.

Our relationship with the Yoshidas began eight years ago, in 2018.
It all started when Naoki visited our shop after being introduced to us by a gallery.

Naoki is originally from Sayama, Saitama Prefecture.
In his twenties, he lived in several different places, including Saitama and Nagano.
He also spent some time travelling overseas as a backpacker,
experiencing a variety of places and cultures along the way.

Having also lived overseas ourselves, we found that there were many things we could relate to,
and I still remember how naturally the conversation flowed from the very first time we met.

Since then, we have continued to introduce baskets made by Naoki and Noriko as part of our regular selection at 1basketry.

And now, for the first time, we will be holding a special exhibition featuring the work of the two of them.
Ahead of the exhibition, I visited Naoki and Noriko once again
and spoke with them about their everyday work of making baskets.

The first place they showed me was the bamboo storage area,
where they keep the bamboo used for making their baskets.

When we think of bamboo, it may seem as though it grows abundantly throughout Japan and is readily available as a material.
However, much of the bamboo commonly seen in Japan is a species known as “Moso bamboo.”

Moso bamboo was also once used as a material for baskets,
but today, the bamboo most commonly used for bamboo craft is a species called “Madake.”

When it comes to bamboo craft, however, simply having bamboo growing nearby is not enough.
The species and the condition of each individual bamboo stem are also important.

Even among Madake bamboo, for example, each stem differs in thickness,
the spacing between its nodes, and the way it has grown.
For this reason, makers carefully assess and select the bamboo best suited to what they intend to make.

Bamboo is hollow inside,
but at each node, the hollow interior is divided by a solid partition.

In this photograph, you can see that a hole has been made through each of these partitions at the nodes.
The bamboo is approximately 1.6 m (about 5.2 ft) long.

According to Naoki, the bamboo supplier that prepares this bamboo removes the oil by boiling the bamboo in a vat about 2 m (about 6.6 ft) long.

The holes are made through the nodes to prevent the bamboo from floating to the surface while it is being boiled.

Bamboo suppliers like this prepare the bamboo until it is suitable for basket making.
However, Naoki told me that the number of suppliers handling high-quality bamboo is gradually declining,
making it more difficult than before to obtain suitable materials.

Naoki and Noriko use two types of prepared bamboo for their work: “White Bamboo” and “Carbonized Bamboo.”

Although they are known by different names, both are the same species of bamboo, “Madake.”
Depending on how the Madake is processed, its color and character change, resulting in these different names.

Fresh green Madake harvested from the bamboo grove first goes through a process known as “oil removal.”
It is then dried in the sun, gradually taking on the ivory color of White Bamboo seen here.

There are two methods of oil removal: a “dry method,” in which the bamboo is heated directly over a flame,
and a “wet method,” in which it is boiled in a vat.

The bamboo supplier that Naoki and Noriko work with uses the wet method,
boiling the bamboo in a long vat to remove the oil.

Naoki also removes the oil from bamboo himself using the same method,
and uses the resulting White Bamboo as a material for making baskets.

This is “Carbonized Bamboo,” which has a deeper brown tone than White Bamboo.

Carbonized Bamboo is made by taking White Bamboo that has already undergone oil removal and sun drying,
then placing it in a high-pressure vessel and applying heat and pressure.

Naoki and Noriko mainly use three materials in their work: White Bamboo, Carbonized Bamboo, and rattan.

I also asked Naoki a little about what first led him to begin using Carbonized Bamboo.

Even before entering the Bamboo Craft Training Center in Beppu, Oita,
Naoki had already been teaching himself bamboo craft.

This is bamboo that Naoki carbonized himself back when he was still teaching himself bamboo craft.

Even at that time, he experimented with various methods, including smoking the bamboo,
to find ways of making it less prone to splitting.
Later, after entering the Bamboo Craft Training Center,
he learned about carbonization as a method used in bamboo craft.

Carbonization tightens the bamboo, making it less prone to splitting,
and is also said to offer some protection against insects.
But what attracted Naoki most to Carbonized Bamboo was its color.

Some Beppu bamboo crafts are made with colored or dyed bamboo,
but Naoki was drawn to the tones that emerge naturally through carbonization.
He was particularly attracted to its subdued color,
with a slightly aged appearance that seems to evoke something that has been used and lived with for many years.

Rather than something brand new, Naoki was drawn to a character that suggested something well used and aged over time.
Wanting to bring those tones into their own baskets,
Naoki and Noriko began making products with Carbonized Bamboo.

The process of turning White Bamboo into Carbonized Bamboo is carried out by a factory in Beppu.
The bamboo is placed in a high-pressure vessel for about 15 minutes,
but leaving it in for too long can make the bamboo brittle.
The process therefore changes the color while taking care not to compromise the natural properties of the bamboo.

Using Carbonized Bamboo prepared in this way, Naoki and Noriko have made a variety of products over the years.

A handled basket made from Carbonized Bamboo.

The coffee dripper that we have carried at our shop for many years is also made primarily from Carbonized Bamboo.

When I asked Naoki again about this coffee dripper, he explained:

“The process of carbonizing bamboo reminds me a little of roasting coffee.
This product also brings together those similarities—the color, and the way both are finished by applying heat.”

During this special exhibition, Naoki Yoshida will be at our shop on Saturday, October 17,
where he will demonstrate how he makes this coffee dripper.

A limited number of finished coffee drippers will also be available.
We hope you will take this opportunity to see them in person.

This video shows Naoki giving me a tour of the bamboo storage area.
Please take a look.

【* Music will play.】

To be continued.