Bamboo products in Oita prefecture
Most of bamboos growing in Oita are “Madake”. These high quality bamboos are widely used as materials for from living wares to flower vases.
This region is one of the most famous production area of bamboo products in Japan. In addition to high quality bamboo, increasing of visitors to Beppu hot spring after Meiji period and establishment of the Beppu Technical Apprentice School (Chikuran-ka) contributed to spread of Beppu bamboo products. Many bamboo artisan studied at the Beppu Technical Apprentice School and learned about techniques of making bamboo products. Today’s manufacturing techniques was built in this time.
Also, many farmers surrounding this area produced bamboo products such as rice containers as a side job at that period. Those products became popular souvenir for visitors to Beppu hot spring. Still now, these techniques are a basement of bamboo crafts skills.
