Battle with Bamboo

Yanagisawa-san kindly allowed me to use "as much bamboo as I want" from his little bamboo grove. I thought it could be useful for some of our construction work, and we could use it to create a lattice in the walls for applying mud mixture (using the wattle and daub technique that is common for this kind of old building) .

However, no one had cared for this grove for a long time, and as a result it was difficult to walk about. When I moved in, I was instantly attacked by nasty twigs in face height, slippery dead poles on the ground and inconveniently located dead poles barring the way. While I defended myself valiantly with a bamboo saw and a kind of Japanese axe/knife tool, I was constantly harassed by skirmishing flies and mosquitoes.

In the end both parties were able to claim victory: I succeeded in establishing an landing zone (clearing), and securing a few poles (shown in the picture) before redeploying, while the enemy inflicted heavy scratches on my arms and face and forced me to withdraw (temporarily) to regroup.



To be continued ...