The Show Room, Bamboo Vocational School

The Bamboo vocational arts training center is in Oita, the Southern part of Japan. It was decided to establish the school in that part of Japan and make Oita the bamboo capital of Japan because of the demand for bamboo baskets by visitors to the hotsprings. It started...

Tanabe Chikuunsai iv studio visit part 2

After a morning looking at Tanabe-san's families artwork we had a lovely lunch at a nearby restaurant. During a tour of the teahouse in the back of the restaurant I learned that Osaka was actually the birthplace of Japanese tea ceremony. I also learned that we had...

A studio visit with Tanabe Chikuunsai IV

A studio visit with Tanabe Chikuunsai IV

  This morning found me riding in a taxi with crocheted seat covers, which appealed to the fiber artist in me. After the white gloved driver dropped us off, I found myself at the door of a stately house in Osaka. There was a great variegated bamboo at the front,...

Weaving a basket with Morgami Jin, Part 3

Weaving a basket with Morgami Jin, Part 3

I felt very grateful to be able to spend a day with Morgami Jin and his family, visiting a bamboo factory, splitting bamboo, and having dinner. It was such a great surprise to find I also was going to get to spend a day with him weaving a basket. His work had already...

Morgami Jin and Nagai Seichiku factory

I left Portland August 4th, very excited by the possibility of meeting artists who work with the same material I do, of visiting bamboo groves, and seeing bamboo used in an everyday setting. Although it wasn’t entirely clear in my mind at the time, looking back, what...

Who Do you Want To Meet in Japan?

Who Do you Want To Meet in Japan?

Yesterday I was in the midst of preparing to teach at the National Basketry Conference and hosting my sister and her two adorable kids when I got an email requesting that I let the film crew from "Who Wants To Come To Japan?" know who I wanted to meet and what I...

Chosen for the T.V. Show “Who wants to come to Japan?”

Chosen for the T.V. Show “Who wants to come to Japan?”

Soon I will be taking off on a trip I've been wishing to take since I first found bamboo, in 1999. A while back I contacted a company who produces a television show called "Who wants to come to Japan?". After some exciting email exchanges, a film crew came out to my...