Blinds, bamboo blind (sudare)

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Blind, blinds (sudare)

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: All Summer
***** Category: Humanity

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Explanation

To open the windows and sit behind a bamboo blind in the breeze is one of the "cool" experiences in Japan in Summer before the advent of air conditioning.

There are a few kigo with this blind.

bamboo blind, take sudare 竹簾 たけすだれ
wooden blind, ita sudare 板簾
reed blind, yoshi sudare 葭簾
..... these reed or rush blinds were often made by hand during winter in the farm houses around lake Biwa.

new (bamboo) blind, aosudare 青簾 (あおすだれ)
..... made from fresh bamboo or reeds
old blind, furu sudare 古簾
..... toward the end of the summer season
elegant blinds for the living room, ozashiki sudare 御座敷すだれ


Click HERE for some photos !


blinds decorated with pictures, e sudare 絵簾
blind from the old Io area in Shikoku, Io sudare 伊予簾
..... they are usually very colorful.
Click HERE for some photos !



sudare uri 簾売（すだれうり）vendor of bamboo blinds
- - - - - see the haiku by Issa below

. Doing Business in Edo .


Making Bamboo Curtains
Katsushika Hokusai 北斎


. Join the Ukiyo-E friends on facebook ! .




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yohsizu 葭簀 (よしず ) reed screen
yoshizu jaya 葭簀茶屋（よしずぢゃや）tea house enclosed with reed screens
yoshizubari 葭簀張（よしずばり）
. . . CLICK here for Photos !


yoshido 葭戸 (よしど) reed screen door
..... sudo 簀戸（すど）
yoshi shooji 葭障子（よししょうじ）reed sliding doors



yoshi byoobu 葭屏風（よしびょうぶ）reed folding screen


葭簀あむ槌にもなれし小てふ哉
yoshizu amu tsuchi ni mo nareshi ko-chookana

a small butterfly
learns even about wooden weights
and weaving reed screens
Tr. Chris Drake

This hokku was written on 2/22 (April 2) in 1804, when Issa was in the city of Edo. Issa seems to be visiting or watching someone who is making a translucent reed screen or blind that will placed outside a doorway or room, either to provide shade for a south- or west-facing room or to gain privacy. The blinds are usually placed so they lean against the side of the house, and they can be easily moved. They are made by horizontally weaving together many tall vertical reeds with several strong threads or strings, a process that leaves cracks between the reeds through which air and some light can pass. Today the process is mechanized, but in Issa's time the threads would hang down from a wooden weaving frame (see the second link below), and a wooden weight at the end of each thread kept the threads taut around the reeds until the weaving was completed. These wooden weights used during weaving are called tsuchinoko (槌子) or "mallet children / small mallets" in many rural dialects even today, although in some areas "mallet children" refers to the thread itself. Wooden mallets, however, are not used to weave reed blinds, although they are used to pound and soften plaited straw objects, so Issa may here be calling the thread weights by their short form, tsuchi (槌), mallet or hammer. More research needs to be done before a firm interpretation of this hokku can be made.

In the hokku the butterfly has "gotten used to" or "become quite familiar" with the dangling weights on the weaving frame, so it seems to be interested in them. Is it attracted by their swaying motion? Could it have learned how to light on the weights for a while even while the threads are moving up and down as the operators weave reeds together? Does it sleep on the weights now? In any case, Issa seems impressed by the small butterfly's curiosity about so many things, even about dangling thread weights.

This shows what a reed blind looks like from inside a room. The horizontal threads that hold the reeds together are visible:



This shows children weaving a small reed screen using the traditional method. At the ends of the threads are wooden weights which also act as spools called "mallet children" in many traditional areas of Japan. The screen is now on its side and will stand vertically when finished.



Chris Drake

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moji shooji 綟障子 (もじしょうじ)
sliding doors with hemp cloth cover
moji byoobu 綟屏風（もじびょうぶ） folding screen with hemp cloth

hemp cloth is also used for summer robes and for mosquito netting.


. folding screen and kigo 　



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Worldwide use


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Things found on the way




. Nanjing Tamasudare たますだれ (玉簾／珠簾) 　
performance with small sudare
Nankin Tamasudare 南京玉すだれ street performance toy

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Edo Sudare 江戸簾 Slatted Blinds

■ Traditional Technologies and Techniques
1- When making Edo Sudare (slatted blinds from Edo) from bamboo, the staves are split into slats along the grain using a chopper. After cutting the bamboo into big pieces, its sheath is stripped. A small knife is then used to section the slats into small pieces and shave them down.
2- When making Edo Sudare (slatted blinds) from reeds, Japanese clover, bulrushes, cudweed or Iyo Bamboo, thought is given to the product to be produced. Work is then carried out in matching up the materials based on their thickness, whether they come from the tip, the center or the base of the plants being used.
3- The weaving of materials into blinds is conducted after any individual material traits have been corrected. In order that balance is maintained between the left and right of a blind, materials from the tip and root of the plants (materials of different thicknesses) are alternated and woven in. The methods of weaving used include a single strand weave, a double strand weave, a parallel weave, a tortoiseshell weave and pattern weaves, etc.
編み方は、1本編み、2本編み、もじり編み、組み編み、蛇腹（じゃばら）編み、亀甲編み、こまがえし, 模様編み



■ Traditionally Used Raw Materials
Bamboo, reeds, Japanese clover, bulrushes, cottonweed, Iyo Bamboo
タケ、ヨシ、ハギ、ガマ、ゴギョウ、イヨダケ

■ History and Characteristics
The history of “sudare” (slatted blinds) is very long, there even being a reference in Japan’s oldest collection of poetry called the “Man'yōshū”万葉集 (literally the "Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves"). This is a collection of prose compiled sometime after the year 759.

One literary reference to "sudare" in the "Man'yōshū" was penned by the Princess Nukata as she pined for the Emperor Ōmi 近江天皇 (the Emperor Tenji):
"Kimi matsu to, wa ga koioreba, wa ga yado no sudare ugokashi aki no kaze fuku"
君待つと、吾が恋ひをれば、わが屋戸の簾動かし秋の風吹く
("While I wait in longing for you my lord, there comes the autumn wind that stirs the bamboo blinds").

In a well-known episode in Japanese history, Sei Shonagon, a court lady in the service of the Empress Teishi (in around the year 1000), wrote in her pillow book (her private diary) about reacting to a poem originally written by the Tang poet Bai Juyi.
香炉峰の雪は簾を撥げて看る
This poem was in the Chinese "lushi" style (a composition of eight lines of seven characters each) and it referred to "raising the 'sudare' to see the snowy peak of Xiang Lu Feng mountain." When asked about this poem by the Empress Teishi, Sei Shonagon immediately raised the "sudare" in the imperial palace so that the empress could view the snow-covered garden outside.

High-quality "sudare" bordered with cloth is known as "misu" 御簾. Since the Heian Period (approx. 794 -1185), it has been used as both a room divider and sun screen in palaces, aristocratic mansions, as well as in shrines and temples.

Edo Sudare also made regular appearances in ukiyo-e 浮世絵 (woodblock prints) such as "Coolness in Hyakka-en 百科園涼み," "A Beauty behind a Sudare 簾ごし美人図" and "Fuzoku Sandan Girls 風俗三段娘," these being the works of Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806), one of the most famous artists of the golden age of woodblock prints.

What is distinctive about Edo Sudare is that materials such as bamboo, Japanese clover, cottonweed, bulrushes and reeds, can be experienced in their natural state. The most popular material for making "sudare" is bamboo, with lustrous, mature and hardened staves being harvested between the autumn and spring equinox. Unlike timber, the processing of bamboo does not involve the use of a cutting blade. Rather, because bamboo is thinned down along the grain, and undergoes a whittling process, it is rather difficult to have all the bamboo material a particular width or length.

Furthermore, depending on application, the back of bamboo may be shaved down in a triangular shape or shaped into a barrel. There are also particular cuts of bamboo for specific purposes.
竹の裏を三角に削ったり、かまぼこ形にしたり, 反らないように柾割にする

Thus, even while on first glance it might appear that splitting bamboo is a simple exercise, the handling of it requires many years of experience that are based on understanding bamboo’s qualities and appreciating complex techniques.

Tokyo Slatted Blinds Industry Association
- source : www.sangyo-rodo.metro.tokyo.jp


- quote -
NUKATA - • SONGS OF THE SHAMANESS •
"Princess Nukata, one of the finest poets in the first part of the Man'yoshu, lived in the turbulent time of the establishment of the Imperial Clan as the rulers of Japan. She, like Sappho, is half legendary, but is considered to have been a divine messenger, an oracle or shamaness, and a public poet. Her greatness lies in her ability to combine in universal terms the expression of personal passion and powerful collective emotion -- and in the extraordinary beauty of her sonorous poetry, which would seem to show a long period of conscious aesthetic development from the pre-literate poetry gathered in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki."
. . . - source : earlywomenmasters.ne -


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HAIKU


hito wa nusumedo mono wa nusumazu sudare maku

I may have stolen men,
but I have never stolen a thing
winding up the rattan blind
(Tr. Susumu Takiguchi)

Read more here about
Suzuki Masajo

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. Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 in Edo .

Issa has 9 haiku about the blinds

行春の町やかさ売すだれ売
yuku haru no machi ya kasa uri sudare uri

spring ends in the town--
umbrella-hat, bamboo blind
vendors


青すだれ白衣の美人通ふ見ゆ
ao sudare byakue no bijin kayou miyu

green bamboo blinds--
a pretty woman in white
through the cracks


草そよそよ簾のそよりそより哉
kusa soyo-soyo sudare no soyori soyori kana

soft-blowing grasses
and soft, soft
green bamboo blind


身一ッや死ば簾の青いうち
mi hitotsu ya shinaba sudare no aoi uchi

one life--
for my deathbed, please
green bamboo blinds


- More haiku by Issa
Tr. David Lanoue


byakue no bijin, maybe this is
. Byakue Kannon in white robes .


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Related words

More kigo for all summer

***** light seating mat, goza 茣蓙


They feel rather cool to sit on. Nowadays they are also used as small cushions for cars.
mat with flower pattern, hana goza 花茣蓙
Click HERE for some photos !

rattan mat, too mushiro 籐筵
bamboo mat, takamushiro 簟
..... they are a bit hard but rather cool to sit on.


negoza 寝茣蓙 (ねござ) goza mat to sleep on
..... nemushiro 寝筵（ねむしろ


gamamushiro 蒲筵 (がまむしろ) mat from gama
..... gamagoza 蒲茣蓙（がまござ）
made from gama cattail; reed mace; bulrush

. gama and igusa 藺 rushes .

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. natsu yakata 夏館 (なつやかた) home in summer
.... natsu yashiki 夏邸（なつやしき）
natsu no yado 夏の宿（なつのやど） lodging in summer
living at home in summer, many more KIGO


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***** sitting room in summer, parlor in summer
natsu zashiki 夏座敷



Zashiki 座敷, a room covered with tatami straw mats and a decoration alcove (tokonoma　床の間), used to entertain visitors, a kind of reception room.
Ths SUMMER sitting room is the same room as used in winter when entertaining visitors during the day. But with the summer decoration of bamboo blinds and light seating mats, the summer preparations would make you feel cool in summer. The doors could be kept open to let the fresh air from the garden into the room.
This is of course talking about the Edo period, without air conditioning or electric fans to bring some refreshment.
A wind chime hung in the eves would also enhance the feeling of coolness.


山も庭もうごき入るゝや夏座敷
山も庭も動き入るるや夏座敷
yama mo niwa mo ugokihairuru natsu zashiki

summer sitting room -
the mountains and the garden
seem to move in too
Tr. Gabi Greve





Written on the fourth day of the fourth lunar month
in 1689 元禄2年4月4日
On his travel "Oku no Hosomichi" in Kurobane, as a "greeting poem" to his host Shuuo 秋鴉. This might have been the visit when Basho gave him this "haiku name" 俳号挑雪.
The younger brother of Shuuo has the haiku name 翠桃.


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紫陽草や薮を小庭の別座敷
ajisai ya yabu o koniwa no betsu zashiki

hydrangea and a wild
thicket, providing a little garden
for this cottage
Tr. Makoto Ueda


Hydrangea!
in grove, being little garden,
the detached room

Basho was invited to a farewell linked verse party for him before he returned to his hometown of 伊賀上野(Iga Ueno) before he left for his last journey. His host and disciple 子珊(Shisan) held this party at the detached room of his house, where a thicket with hydrangea was used as a rustic garden for the hut.

Basho offered this verse above mentioned as 発句(hokku), an opening and greeting poem, for his host when asked about the style of 軽み(karumi), lightness.
source : Tr. Hidenori Hiruta, Akita


Basho age 51, written in the fifth lunar month
元禄七年　
At a good-bye party at the home of his disciple
Shisan 子珊 （? - 元禄12年1月10日）
Basho gave his disciples a short lecture about how to write hokku and to use karumi, lightness, in their poems.
This hokku has the cut marker YA at the end of line 1.




source :　itoyo basho

these hydrangeas -
a thicket for a small garden
of this detached sitting room
Tr. Gabi Greve



. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .


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此風の不足いふ也夏さしき
kono kaze no fusoku iu nari natsu zashiki

this wind
isn't enough, they say...
summer room

Issa and more haiku about the sitting room
Tr. David Lanoue


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山霧の通り抜たり大座敷
yamagiri no toorinuketari oozashiki

mountain fog
passes right through
the large room


Tr. and comment by Chris Drake

The hokku is from the 8th month (September) of 1816, and the headnote says Issa is at a mountain temple. He's probably stayed overnight, and early in the morning the sliding side doors of the room are opened, leaving the room partially continuous with the mountain outside. Thick fog comes pouring through the big room, obscuring many of the room's features and turning it into a zone somewhere between human culture and natural mountainside.
The border between inside and outside becomes obscure, and Issa's image may be of virtually unobstructed flow. The rapidly moving fog seems almost unaffected by the temple and flows on as if the physical temple wasn't there. For Issa, too, perhaps for a while it wasn't.


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***** rattan chair, too isu 籐椅子

..... too ne-isu 籐寝椅子（とうねいす) rattan chair to sleep on
Another item to bring some coolness to the living room.




籐椅子にあれば草木花鳥来
tooisu ni areba soomoku kachoo rai

I sit on a rattan chair
grasses, trees, flowers and birds
all come to me

Takahama Kyoshi

"ka cho-fuei (kachoo fuuei 花鳥諷詠)" Kyoshi and shasei in haiku


More Haiku about CHAIRs


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***** take shoogi 竹牀几 たけしょうぎ folding chair from bamboo
..... 竹床几（たけしょうぎ）


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***** Persimmon hanging to dry like blinds (kakisudare) 柿簾, 柿すだれ
kigo for autumn
kaki sudare





***** Wind Chimes (fuurin)
Windbells, wind bells, wind-bells


***** 　aki sudare 秋簾 (あきすだれ) blinds in autumn 　
yoshido shimau 葭戸蔵う (よしどしまう)put away the reed doors
and more


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. HUMANITY and Summer Kigo



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