The Harvest Before the World Stood Still
Your support buying my Bell Shakuhachi allowed me to fund a trip to Japan this past winter to harvest Madaké bamboo. It was a whirlwind of a tour that unfolded over Christmas and my own birthday on New Year’s Eve. I returned in mid January 2020, and in hindsight, the timing was nothing short of miraculous. Little did I know, I had slipped through a closing door just before the COVID pandemic shut down the world. It would take over a year before the shipping channels cleared enough for my harvest to finally reach me.
While there, I lost body weight I couldn’t spare and there were moments of such profound exhaustion that I had to fight just to stay upright. But the experience was raw and unforgettable. I found myself scaling steep hills and navigating anti-erosion walls. I crossed paths with a venomous centipede and came close to a confrontation with wild boars.
But for every moment of hardship, there was a greater reward. For every minor injury, there was the profound beauty of the bamboo groves and the deep satisfaction that always comes from harvesting bamboo.
My focus was on the bamboo, not the lens, so the few photos I managed to take were captured in hurried moments on my phone. They’re small glimpses into an incredible adventure. Enjoy, J
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