BEHIND THE BAMBOO CURTAIN

Bamboo grows all around the world, in more than 1,000 varieties, from Russia’s Sakhalin island to southern Argentina. Fast-growing and tough, it has been used for millennia by people everywhere, both as a building material and for a wide range of tools and implements, but probably nobody has developed as many uses for it—and as deep an affection for it—as the Japanese have. And nowhere is the devotion to Japanese bamboo stronger than in Kyoto.

The city of Kyoto was the home of the emperor for over 1,000 years, from the late 8th century to the mid-19th, and a visitor to the city’s innumerable historical sites still sees plenty of bamboo. In Zen gardens it drips water into stone basins. It forms the ribs of the paper umbrellas and fans carried through the streets by kimono-clad women. At tea ceremonies it’s used for whisks and scoops. It’s woven