Hi, there.
The other day, it snowed heavily again in Otsu, Shiga prefecture. It was powder snow like a natural pillow. When I blew the snow on the leaves, it fell smoothly. I learned that “Deep snow” is called “深雪- miyuki-,” and I learned that “miyuki” is also the poetic name of snow itself. I associate the character of “深雪” with a quiet and white world covered with deep snow. I will watch my step and look around to enjoy this world.
Repairing Misugaki*
One of our customers who have their garden pruned every year asked us to repair their misugaki*. Bamboos were made of plastic, so we cleaned and reused them. And we used natural green one for keshoudake(bamboo for decoration).
Misugaki* is a bamboo fence made of various kinds of slender bamboo strips. It can be used to partition one part of a garden from another or to screen off an unwanted view.
The day we washed the bamboos was still snowing, and we couldn’t feel our hands. As we cleaned the natural bamboos, they became more beautiful green. Also, the plastic one was reborn beautifully just after removing dirt.
The decoration bamboos will be proceeded to split in half. The direction of the split is carefully determined by looking at the warp of bamboo. Bamboo fibers run vertically, so when a hatchet is inserted and moved down, the bamboo will be split in two easily until it reaches the end.
It’s hard to find an exact spot where a beautiful half-split can be made. Now, the junior artisan is working with the senior to learn how to find it.
We sometimes describe a person’s character as “You are like split bamboo,” meaning that you are straightforward or frank. As it’s said so, bamboo can be split right in half, and it is pleasant to watch how a hatchet goes in bamboo. It needs a bit of power to hammer at first, but once a hatchet goes in bamboo, it will split easily in half. It was a good start for New year to watch such great work.
We successfully created this beautiful misugaki. We reused some materials to repair instead of using all new materials this time. The character “繕(mend)” in the phrase“修繕-syuuzen-” is written with two characters: “善(make something better)” and “糸(thread).” It is said that “修繕” means to repair something to its original beautiful state. We did not literally mend with thread but we recreated the original misugaki in every detail with fine techniques.
“Repairing” is not that easy. Especially, when you repair something back to its original state, it requires the same skills and materials as when it was first made. I think we can enhance our skills by creating an ideal garden and using the same quality skills in any gardening site. We also need to put more effort into “repairing” a garden to prevent those beautiful skills from disappearing.