Tending to Everyday Life — A Visit to the Yoshidas (Part 2)
Hello. This is Tomotake Ichikawa.
Continuing from the previous journal, I would like to share more about Naoki and Noriko Yoshida’s workshop in Oita.
Alongside their bamboo craftwork, Naoki and Noriko also grow a variety of crops in their fields.
Naoki and Noriko also showed me around their fields.
They told me that their bamboo work keeps them so busy
that they cannot always give the fields as much attention as they would like.
Even so, a variety of vegetables and herbs were growing there.
This land was once left uninhabited for some time.
They also have to take measures against wild animals such as wild boars, rabbits, foxes, badgers, and masked palm civets,
which may eat the crops in their fields or the bamboo shoots in their grove.
Wild boars, in particular, use their snouts to dig up the soil,
sometimes uprooting plants and knocking them over entirely.
Naoki then showed me an electric fence.
He told me that many people in the area also use these fences.
The fences are designed to deliver an electric shock when touched.
They are installed around fields and bamboo groves to prevent damage caused by wild animals.
Noriko tends to the fields almost every day, walking around with a sickle in hand. 
Noriko is also busy making baskets every day, so rather than carefully maintaining the fields, she laughed and said, “I’m just rescuing the vegetables from the weeds.” 
Green beans. 
Onions. 
Various herbs. 
This is the above-ground part of a burdock plant. In Japan, burdock root is commonly eaten as a vegetable. Apparently, they keep it at the edge of the field because the plants spread quickly when their seeds fall to the ground. I had never known that burdock could grow so tall above ground, so I was surprised to see it. 
And this burdock plant was apparently almost ready to harvest.
They told me they would bring a shovel later and dig it up.
They also grow a variety of other crops throughout the year, depending on the season, including carrots, Japanese long onions, and potatoes.
Noriko told me that there are still many things she would like to try on this land.
She shared various thoughts with me about the fields and what she hopes to do with this place in the future.
In 2019, a series of powerful typhoons struck the Kyushu region. Apparently, the barn that once stood here collapsed along with the cliff during the storms. Now, on that slope, rows of bamboo supports have been set up to hold bamboo poles upright for drying in the sun after oil removal. 
“I’d like to plant more black bamboo over there.” 
“I’m also trying my hand at growing strawberries.” 
Surrounded by so much nature, even plants that Naoki and Noriko had not planted themselves had taken root before they knew it,
and were blooming like this.
Whenever one of them found something unusual, they would call the other over to take a look together.
I saw this happen several times.
I was struck by the way they casually called out to each other.
Living in this place surrounded by nature, perhaps noticing small changes in their surroundings
and sharing these discoveries with each other is an important part of their daily routine.
Another thing Noriko had become interested in a few years ago,
and had long wanted to try, was beekeeping.
Naoki made the beehive for her.
Naoki and Noriko use a method that relies on natural swarming.
Rather than catching bees and placing them in the hive,
they wait for a swarm of bees looking for a new home to choose the hive and move in on their own.
This is the handmade beehive placed at the far end of the veranda.
One day, when Naoki noticed bees entering the hive,
he was so delighted that he couldn’t help shouting out with joy.
Naoki and Noriko have also gradually made improvements to their home themselves,
with help from people around them.
They served me tea in their dining room.
What caught my eye in the kitchen was a coffee dripper that had clearly been used for many years.
Naoki and Noriko told me that drinking coffee brewed with this dripper every morning is part of their daily routine.
Noriko served me Kuromoji tea, a type of Japanese herbal tea made from the aromatic branches of Kuromoji (Lindera umbellata), a tree native to Japan. It had a pleasant, refreshing aroma characteristic of Kuromoji, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 
While I was enjoying my tea, Noriko showed me something reddish in color, with small grains visible inside. 
Noriko then began grinding the grains with a wooden pestle. 
To my surprise, it was homemade wholegrain mustard made from mustard greens seeds. Noriko said it wasn’t quite ready yet, but when I tasted it, I found it refreshing and absolutely delicious. It was the first time in my life that I had tasted homemade wholegrain mustard. It had a lighter, fresher taste than store-bought mustard, but the distinctive flavor of mustard greens was still clearly present.
I imagine that their bamboo craftwork alone keeps them busy every day.
Even so, compared with my visit about three years ago,
I felt that both Naoki and Noriko had become involved in an even wider range of activities.
Their bamboo craftwork, their fields, and their everyday lives.
All of these seemed to come together naturally, each connected to the others,
shaping the life they have built in this place.
Please watch the video to see Naoki and Noriko Yoshida’s fields.
(* Music will play.)
In the next journal, I will finally take a closer look at how they prepare bamboo for their work
and how they make their baskets.
To be continued.
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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.