When I am in the ‘Village of Tiger Bamboo’ (a place on the outskirts of Susaki City, Kochi Prefecture, where the rare Tosa Torafu bamboo grows), I am constantly struck by bamboo’s vitality, its suppleness combined with unbreakable resilience, and its cyclical nature – regenerating time and again after being cut down.
For thousands of years, Japanese people have reaped the benefits of bamboo, utilizing it in all aspects of food, clothing and shelter to lead a sustainable life in harmony with the bamboo and nature. In Japan, we express gratitude to nature and cherish our possessions; when something is damaged, we repair it and use it until the very end. While sustainability and carbon neutrality are now widely discussed around the world, the answer may well lie within daily life in Japan, of which bamboo has long been an integral part.
The vitality of bamboo, recognized in Japan since ancient times
Princess Kaguya, who appears in ‘The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter’ – said to be Japan’s oldest story – was born from a radiant bamboo stalk. She grew into a beautiful young woman in just three months; this mirrors exactly the period it takes for a bamboo shoot to emerge from the ground and grow to the same height as its parent plant. This anonymous tale is believed to have originated among the common people of the time, serving as evidence that people in Japan have long been conscious of the speed of bamboo’s growth.
There is an old Japanese proverb: ‘The bamboo shoot surpasses its parent’ (Takenoko no Oyamasari). This phrase refers to a child growing up to be superior and more robust than their parents. Its origin lies in the sight of a bamboo shoot swiftly overtaking the height of its parent plant and growing with great vigour. Reaching heights of over 20 metres within a short space of time, bamboo has long been associated with children’s healthy growth and family prosperity.
Furthermore, its dignified form, stretching straight towards the sky, and the way it retains its lush green foliage even amid the harsh cold of winter, have also served as symbols of the spiritual virtues cherished in Japan, such as sincerity and perseverance. For this reason, bamboo has been cherished since ancient times alongside the pine and plum as part of the ‘pine, bamboo and plum (Shō Chiku Bai)’ trio, and is frequently used in ceremonies and celebratory occasions. During the New Year celebrations, a kadomatsu (a decorative arrangement with three bamboo stalks cut at an angle at its centre) is placed at the entrance to homes. When constructing a house or building, a breaking-ground ceremony (Jichin-sai) is held to purify the site and pray for safety; during this ceremony, bamboo is erected at the four corners of the plot and sacred straw ropes are strung between them.
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Resonating with the spirit of mottainai: one of the world’s fastest-regenerating natural resources
The primary reason for the widespread use of bamboo in all aspects of daily life in Japan is its sustainability: even after being cut down, new shoots sprout one after another the following year. Unlike ordinary trees, which require a process of afforestation and forest cultivation spanning several decades, bamboo is capable of growing more than one metre a day. If you visit a bamboo grove in spring, you will find that the scenery changes almost daily.
Alongside this regenerative power, an essential aspect of Japan’s bamboo culture is the spiritual concept of ‘mottainai’. This philosophy goes beyond simply avoiding waste; it involves making the most of the value of this precious material right to the very end, and it is deeply reflected in the way we handle the bamboo we work with.
For example, bamboo baskets and trays woven by skilled craftsmen develop a deep, amber lustre the more they are used. The fact that their beauty and the affection we feel for them deepen the longer they are used is one of the charms of bamboo as a natural material; however, precisely because it is a natural material, it can sometimes break. Yet, even if part of it is damaged, we would never simply throw it away.
I cherish and use many bamboo items in my daily life that were passed down to me by my parents. Whenever I see how they have developed a lustrous sheen with the passage of time and transformed into a settled texture that moulds comfortably to the hand, my thoughts turn to the time and family warmth that dwell within the bamboo. The wisdom of gratefully accepting bamboo – a rapidly growing gift of nature – and, while occasionally making repairs, treating it as a lifelong companion to be passed on to the next generation, is the very essence of the Japanese spirit of ‘mottainai’.
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The aesthetics of ‘strength’ and ‘flexibility’: multifunctionality that has sustained Japanese clothing, food and shelter
Data shows that hardness of bamboo is approximately 20% higher than that of oak, which is considered particularly hard among timbers. While being so robust, when split into thin strips, it transforms into flexible slats that can be used for weaving. It is precisely this combination of the contrasting qualities of gō (strength) and jū (flexibility) that has made bamboo so highly valued in every aspect of Japanese daily life. While whole bamboo poles and split bamboo were used as structural materials to support the roofs and earthen walls of old-style houses, thin, flat bamboo strips were woven into baskets and sieves – indispensable for daily life and work. But that is not all: bamboo roots were used for crafts, tableware and walking sticks, leaves are used to make healthy and flavoursome tea, bamboo shoots are a food source, and the antibacterial skins of the shoots have been processed into natural packaging materials for food and into zori sandals.
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The history of coexistence between people and bamboo nurtured in satoyama
There is a historical anecdote that illustrates just how much bamboo is valued in Japan as the foundation of daily life. It is said that when people migrated to new lands, they would always take bamboo rhizomes with them to transplant there and use them as a means of subsistence. There were very practical reasons for this. As well as using bamboo in all the ways mentioned above, the extensive network of rhizomes performed a disaster-prevention role, acting as a protective barrier to safeguard homes from landslides and earthquakes. In short, many of the bamboo groves found throughout Japan are not merely natural features; they represent the very history of coexistence between people and nature, created by our ancestors to safeguard their way of life and pass it on to future generations.
Bamboo groves account for just 0.6% of Japan’s total forest area, and they are never found in remote mountainous areas completely devoid of human habitation. Given the unique ecology of Mōsō bamboo which flowers and bears fruit only once every 60 years or so, and Madake and Hachiku bamboo which do so only once every 120 years or so, and the fact that it reproduces solely via rhizomes rather than seeds, it is clear that many of Japan’s bamboo groves have been systematically transplanted and nurtured in close proximity to human settlements for practical use. The Tosa Torafu (‘Tiger striped’) bamboo, which we continue to protect, was found only in small numbers growing wild in the natural environment during the Edo period, when it was designated as a tax to be paid to the feudal lord. However, it has attained its current beautiful form thanks to successive generations of bamboo craftsmen who cleared the mountains and forests, transplanted the bamboo, and have continued to manage it. In this way, the landscape of Japan’s bamboo groves is not a natural formation, but rather a cultural landscape that has been maintained through the long-standing relationship between people and bamboo.
In recent years, however, due to changes in lifestyle – such as the widespread use of plastic products and a shift towards imported materials – neglected bamboo groves, which are no longer tended, have come to be discussed as a serious environmental issue. Bamboo is a plant that can only maintain a beautiful and healthy ecosystem when people regularly harvest shoots and thin out old bamboo to allow sunlight to penetrate. The fact that neglected bamboo groves stand out so conspicuously is, in itself, a reflection of the fact that bamboo is a plant of the satoyama (undeveloped woodland near a populated area) – a landscape where it has coexisted closely with people.
Restoring the mutually supportive, cyclical relationship that Japanese people once had with bamboo groves as a source of livelihood is the key to solving the challenges we face today and passing on the beautiful satoyama landscape to future generations.
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From tradition to cutting-edge technology: the evolving next-generation carbon-neutral material
Today, bamboo – a material that has long been utilized in Japan – is also blossoming as a cutting-edge sustainable technology.
As technology advances, bamboo is evolving beyond the realm of handicrafts to become an industrial material. Using the latest technology, environmentally friendly composite materials, in which bamboo fibres are blended into resin at high concentrations, have been developed and are beginning to be adopted in a variety of products, including automotive interior components.
A major strength of this next-generation material lies in its ability to significantly reduce the use of petroleum-based plastics while utilizing existing production lines and moulding equipment as they are. This represents a fusion of Japanese aesthetic sensibilities and innovative technology designed with resource circulation in mind. Japan’s wisdom regarding bamboo, rooted in a history spanning thousands of years, is bringing new possibilities to global manufacturing as a next-generation alternative to plastic.
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Learning from the nodes and rhizomes: How the ecology of bamboo points the way to a sustainable society
Bamboo is being re-evaluated globally as a renewable, circular resource with a short regeneration cycle. This is because not only does it possesses a high capacity for CO₂ absorption and a rapid regeneration rate, but the unique structure and ecology of the bamboo plant are also becoming concrete means of solving modern environmental and technical challenges.
One of the most distinctive features of bamboo structure is its ‘nodes’ and ‘hollow core’. Although the interior of the stem is hollow, the presence of sturdy nodes at regular intervals gives bamboo a structure that is lightweight yet flexible, making it resistant to breaking even in strong winds and heavy snow. These characteristics of lightness and resilience are attracting interest for use in modern building materials and a wide range of products.
The use of bamboo, with its durability and elasticity, in aquaculture racks is attracting attention as an initiative to reduce the risk of marine pollution caused by microplastics and to realize a sustainable fisheries industry.
Furthermore, another factor contributing to bamboo’s strength is its network of rhizomes, which spread like a web beneath the ground. In Japan, people have long been taught to ‘flee to a bamboo grove in the event of an earthquake’. This is because the rhizomes, which crisscross the soil in every direction, firmly hold the soil in place and stabilize the ground like natural reinforced concrete, thereby serving a disaster-prevention function by helping to prevent landslides and similar disasters.
The way in which each individual bamboo plant intertwines its roots deeply underground, supporting the whole from an invisible vantage point, can also be viewed as a metaphor for the relationship between people and nature in Japan. Since ancient times, Japanese people have superimposed their unique view of nature and their way of being as human beings onto this ecological behaviour of bamboo. Rather than existing in isolation, individuals are connected unseen, supporting their communities and the foundations of their lives. The way of life of bamboo, which spreads a vast network underground, embodies the very way of life that Japanese have cherished: living in harmony with their surroundings.
About the author
Born in 1963, Yamagishi Yoshihiro is the fourth-generation head of a long-established manufacturer specialising in bamboo materials, founded in Meiji 27 (1894). He continues to preserve the rare Tosa Torafu bamboo, which grows wild only in a limited area of Kochi Prefecture and is the only species of its kind in Japan. Transcending the boundaries of traditional craftsmanship, he is travelling the world, including Mexico, Spain and Taiwan, in his self-built ‘Toratake EV’ (electric vehicle) and wearing ‘Toratakearmour’, promoting the new potential and appeal of local resources. He has been appointed a World Bamboo Ambassador by the World Bamboo Organisation (WBO), one of only two such ambassadors in Japan. His motto is ‘NO BAMBOO NO LIFE’.