はじまりは、
炭焼きから
23歳のとき、炭焼き職人を目指して、現在の工房がある高知市鏡地区（旧鏡村）に炭窯を構えました。この場所は、かつて祖父が炭を焼き、祖母と共に米作りをしていた土地です。僕も子どもの頃、時々農作業を手伝いに来ていました。祖父は僕が10代の頃に亡くなったため、残念ながら炭焼きの技を見る機会はありませんでしたが、炭窯を構える際には地域の長老が作り方を教えてくれ、20人ほどの仲間たちも手伝ってくれました。煙突や炭の出し入れ口に使う石は、祖父の窯から譲り受けたものです。この炭窯は今も現役で、商品の材料となる竹を燻すのに活躍しています。
It All Started with Charcoal Making
At the age of 23, I set up a charcoal kiln in the Kagami District (formerly Kagami Village), Kochi City, where my current workshop is located, with the aim of becoming a charcoal maker. This is where my grandfather used to make charcoal and grow rice together with my grandmother. I used to come here as a child to help with the farm work. Unfortunately, my grandfather died when I was in my teens, so I never had the chance to see the art of charcoal making, but when setting up the charcoal kiln, the local elders taught me how to build it and about 20 friends helped. The stones used for the chimney and charcoal inlet and outlet were inherited from my grandfather’s kiln. This charcoal kiln is still in use today and is used to smoke the bamboo used to make the products.
炭焼きに興味を持ったきっかけは、22歳の時に参加した炭窯作りと炭焼きのワークショップです。土や石を使って窯ができていく様子や、木が炭へと変化する工程は、これまで体験したことのない不思議な感覚でした。誘ってくれたのは、旧鏡村に住んで役場の広報誌を作っていたアメリカ人の友人。その頃僕は、彼に頼まれ、地域のお祭りやイベント、住民の暮らしなどを取材し、広報誌に掲載する作業を手伝っていました。一緒に取材をしながら、彼はいつもアメリカ人ならではの視点で、地域の営みの素晴らしさを熱心に語ってくれました。そんな田舎の魅力を教えてくれた彼のおかげで、身近にある大切なものに気づき、現在の暮らしへとつながる道筋が開かれたと感じています。
I first became interested in charcoal making at the age of 22, when I took part in a workshop on charcoal kiln building and charcoal making. Watching the kiln being built with earth and stones and the process of transforming wood into charcoal was a strange yet unique sensation I had never experienced before. I was invited to the workshop by a Kagami Village resident, an American friend, who worked on the village’s local news magazine. At the time, he asked me to help him cover local festivals, events and the lives of local residents for the magazine. While we were doing the interviews together, he always spoke enthusiastically about the beauty of local life in the country from his unique American perspective. He taught me about the charm of the countryside, which helped me to realise the importance of what is close at hand and opened the path to my current lifestyle.
作り手としての歩み
竹で商品を作り始めたのは、炭焼きの火の番をしている間、余った竹を削って箸やスプーンを作ったのが最初です。これを、炭を卸していた高知県内のギャラリーにお礼として差し上げたところ、大変気に入っていただき、展示会を開くことに。さらに、そのギャラリーの紹介で東京のショップからも注文が入り「本格的に竹で作品を作ってみよう」と、作家の道を進む決意をしました。「他の木でも作ってみたら？」と言われたこともありましたが、形が直線的で表面の滑らかな竹が、自分らしいデザインを表現できるなと思って。しかも、一番身近で無限に手に入る素材です。こうして気が付けば、ずっと竹とともに歩んで来ました。
Steps taken as a craftsman
The first products I made from bamboo were chopsticks and spoons, which I shaved from surplus bamboo while tending the charcoal fire. When I gave these as a thank-you gift to a gallery in Kochi Prefecture that I supplied with charcoal, the gallery liked them so much that they decided to hold an exhibition with them. The gallery introduced me to a shop in Tokyo, which also placed an order, and I decided to pursue my career as a craftsman, saying, ‘I’m going to give it my all and make the best bamboo crafts that I can’. I was even asked “Why don’t you try making your crafts with other types of wood?”, but I thought that bamboo, with its linear shape and smooth surface, would allow me to express my own unique designs. Not only this, but it is the most accessible and infinitely available material. I have been living with bamboo for as long as I can remember.
これからのこと
ここ数年で商品を扱ってくださるお店が増え、一人では注文を抱えきれなくなったこともあり、2022年からスタッフを迎え、法人としての活動をスタートさせました。以前は一人で黙々と作業することを重視していましたが、今は仲間と力を合わせることで広がる可能性や、異業種の方々とコラボレーションして生まれる新しいアイデアを楽しんでいます。これからも今の活動を軸に挑戦を続け、さらに多くの人に竹の魅力を届けていきたいです。
TAKETO`s Future
In the past few years, the number of shops selling our products has increased and I have been unable to handle the orders alone, so in 2022 we welcomed new staff and started our activities as a corporation. In the past, I used to focus on working quietly by myself, but now I enjoy the possibilities that have opened up when working together with others and the new ideas that arise when collaborating with people from all walks of life. I would like to continue taking on the challenges that bamboo craftsmanship brings, and to show many others the charm and beauty of bamboo.
Profile
下本 一歩（しももと かずほ）
1978年、高知県生まれ。愛称は「一歩＝いっぽ」
23歳の時に祖父母ゆかりの地・高知市鏡吉原に炭窯を構え、炭焼き職人になる。
炭焼きをしながら製作していた竹のアイテムが評判となり、３１歳で竹細工作家の道へ。
自ら切り出した竹を燻して材料にし、暮らしの道具を作っている。
Kazuho Shimomoto
Kazuho Shimomoto was born in 1978 in Kochi Prefecture. Nicknamed ‘Ippo-kun’ by those around him,
at the age of 23, he set up a charcoal kiln in Kagami Yoshiwara, Kochi, a place associated with his grandparents, and became a charcoal maker.
The bamboo items he made while making charcoal became popular, and at the age of 31 he became a bamboo craftsman.
He cuts the bamboo himself, smokes it, and uses it as a material to make tools for daily life.