Kyoto’s bamboo forests

With an excellent climate for growing the highest quality bamboo combined with a huge respect for artisan skills Takesada Sotan has produced many famous bamboos known as  the ‘Kyoto bamboos’.  These include ‘white bamboo’, ‘drawing bamboo’, ‘sesame bamboo’ and ‘tortoiseshell bamboo’.

“A dedicated team of Kyoto artisans, continuously engaging in a lifelong dialogue

with bamboo”

Skilled bamboo artisans

With its unique flexibility, strength and delicacy, glossiness and smoothness, bamboo transforms into various fabulous products. Takesada Shoten partners with designers to advance bamboo’s possibilities, honing each idea through precise refinement and testing.

On the ceiling is a thin ‘flat-split’ bamboo; beautifully balanced with a flat yet slightly curved surface. Takesada Shoten manufactures flat-split bamboo from exactly 2mm to 60mm, splitting the round bamboo and carefully shaving the side to uniform widths. In the far left corner is a panel in the impeccable ‘hammer-split’ design – a popular wall decor in Kyoto homes that we know that it will look excellent in Singapore spaces adding a refined luxurious texture.

Hospitality

Artisan bamboo is undoubtedly popular for restaurant interior design, whether for Japanese restaurants or cocktail bars, this is a romantic material that creates elegant textures.

Hammer split

An absolutely beautiful bamboo panel, known as Hishigi it is made using a specific tool. The cracks provide the charm and thus it is a popular decoration in Kyoto homes. Below you can see it being made.

Half Split

More curvaceous than the flat split panel the half split is more three dimensional.  Here you can see dyed green bamboo (natural green bamboo fades), black bamboo with fading, and white bamboo. In this case the white bamboo is more refined with the sides shaved off.  So many options.

Parallel Split

Bamboo in cross-section is revealed, a fascinating repetition. The outer-sides are retained whilst the front and back are shaved off, and depending upon the width and position of the bamboo nodes the look changes.  When thick and robust the result is more three-dimensional whilst thin and delicate bamboo is planar.