清水の竹藪（Bamboo Grove, near Kiyomizu）

About this photo

This is a photo from the album Kyoto Meisho (Famous Sights of Kyoto), published in 1907 (Meiji 40). The title beside the photo is "Kiyomizu no Takeyabu," with the English "Bamboo Grove, near Kiyomizu" added. It means a bamboo grove near Kiyomizudera. The photo was printed sideways in the book, and we have turned it upright. Along a path through tall bamboo growing close together, a rickshaw pulled by a man in a wide hat comes toward us. On both sides of the path runs a low fence made of bamboo.

Kyoto has long been known as a "city of bamboo." Bamboo from China is said to have been grown here in the Heian period, and from the end of the Kamakura period into the Muromachi period it came to be valued as an essential material for tea utensils. Today Kyo-meichiku, bamboo designated as a traditional craft of Kyoto Prefecture, is still made. One kind is zumen kakuchiku, grown square by fitting wooden frames around the young shoots, with patterns on its surface.

Kyo-meichiku is now produced around Nishikyo Ward in Kyoto City, Muko and Nagaokakyo. Where the path in the photo would be today is not known.

Glossary