Witch’s Broom, Japanese style: making a bamboo broom

Witch’s brooms, aka besom brooms, are not only for Halloween. They are damned practical tool for sweeping a front yard, or tidying up forest floor after forestry activity. In Japan, we use witch’s brooms made of bamboo. These days those sold in Japanese hardware warehouses are made in China. They are modestly priced, but according to my mum, “They’re worn out very quickly! There is a problem of cost performance here.” Er, well, I don’t want to enter issues of trade disputes. But one thing is for sure. In Niiharu Citizen Forest 新治市民の森, we Lovers of Niiharu Citizen Forest 新治市民の森愛護会 are taking care of the bamboo forests year-round in order to tackle really vigorous growth of the forest that can affect the other vegetation. So, especially from fall to winter, thinning bamboos is regular activity. One thinned bamboo produces a loooooong trunk, and piles of boughs and twigs. City of Yokohama asks us to bring it all to a depo yard where later garbage collectors hired by the City come to pick them up. Some becomes chips for mulching in the parks of the city. But many are just burned. WASTE! Instead of importing brooms from China, we can make it here with continuous and abundant supply of the materials!

It looks nice these brooms …
 My mum hate them, though, because

This is how they turned out within a month.

Lovers in action for Niiharu’s bamboo forest.

A provisional depo next to a bamboo forest in Niiharu

This is the boughs and leaves
 attached to the above bamboos.
 They are quicker to dry,
 so the volume becomes at least ½ within a week.

Niiharu’s depo for thinned vegetation.

So, I promised my mum I would make a broom from bamboos harvested in Niiharu. I did a bit of internet search and found this site telling us how to make a bamboo broom. One weekend afternoon, from a depo yard I packed a modest amount of bamboo twigs and a bamboo trunk that would be a nice broom handle for my project. Then my seniors of Niiharu Lovers said, “Naomi, are you going to make a bamboo broom?” Yes. “Er, I think you’d have a problem.” ? “Yes, you know? Bamboo trunks are waxy. It’s difficult to tie the twigs to it.” “Unless you fasten those twigs very tightly, the broom will fall apart when we sweep the ground.” “I myself made a broom from these bamboos before. It was extremely hard to secure the shoots with a wire. In the end I used a vice borrowed from the Niiharu woodworks atelier.” Whoops. One of my seniors then showed me his work now extensively used for forestry activity. It is a beautiful broom … with a help of vice. “So, I don’t recommend you to do it home.” Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm …

This is indeed a beautiful work.
 He said he used one whole bamboo tree,
 and a vice, to make this broom.

To make it, first,
 he processed the boughs and twigs to remove leaves;
 sprayed them water and covered them by a plastic tarp for 3 days.
 Then, he plucked leaves by hand.
 Imagine doing it for one bamboo tree.
 It’s an effort.

The point is how to attach the boughs around a trunk.
 Could you see it is secured in a two-story way?
 He said near the end of the handle,
 he pegged a nail to pull the wire.

After fastening twigs,
 he inserted several more twigs in small gaps
 to make the bundle tighter.

“Instead, just make a broom without a handle. It’s a useful tool, and professional landscapers utilize them to clean up smaller spaces.” “I think that would be enough for home usage. You don’t have to struggle with tying the twigs to the trunk.” I see. So, I changed my strategy to make a bamboo broom without a handle. Below is how I did:

My tools.
 My garden scissors and a ball of hemp twine.

The amount of bamboo twigs I used this time.

I first prepared the twigs small and long.
 Small ones are mainly from trimming the long stems.

After trimming, a long stem looks like this.

A trimmed twig.
 This one goes to the pile of smaller twigs.

I first made a bundle of smaller twigs,
 and tied its end with a hemp twine in double.

Next,
 I spread the longer stems on the double hemp twine,

and put the bundle of shorter stems in the middle.

A tacked bundle of bamboo twigs.

Then, I fastened the lower part of the bundle
 with the double hemp twine, and

Trimmed the bottom and the top to make a tidy shape.
 I also added one more fastening with the hemp twine.

Done!
 I covered the bottom of the broom with yellow duct tape
 and attached a hemp string for hanging the broom.

The commercial version.
 599 yen + tax, made in China.

This way, it was not so difficult to make a broom. I hope my mum is satisfied with my work for sweeping her front yard ... 

If you find a problem in the Niiharu Citizen Forest, please make a contact with

Office for the Park Greeneries in the North北部公園緑地事務所

Yokohama Municipal Government Creative Environment Policy Bureau横浜市環境創造局

Phone: 045-311-2016

FAX: 045-316-8420

Niiharu Administrative Office / Satoyama Exchange Center新治管理事務所・里山交流センター

Phone: 045-931-4947

Fax: 045-937-0898

Email: info@niiharu.jp

http://www.niiharu.jp/

Ink Painting: a bit of walk along Hadano Forestry Road in winter 秦野林道

One January weekend, we’ve been Hadano Forestry Road 秦野林道 from Yadoriki Water Source Forest やどりき水源林 for a little survey. Immediately after Super Typhoon Trami last October, the road was covered by debris, and we could figure out lots of broken trees on both sides of the way (; my post on October 19, 2018). It seems to me the Prefecture is doing a clean-up now. One of my senior forest instructors told me the Office is harvesting the logs from there. Some afforested areas are currently under works of forestry with new graveled roads for heavy machineries. Are they using harvesters? “No. Tanzawa is too steep to use such vehicles. I think they use chainsaws, and bring out the logs by a forwarder,” she said. Will it be some help for the prefectural budget to manage healthy Tanzawa-Oyama Quasi-National Park 丹沢大山国定公園? Considering the current market condition, I’m not optimistic for the yen-amount they collect from the work … But surely the afforested trees must be harvested, or thinned, from time to time to keep the forest healthy. If some money can be raised from the activity, it should be better than nothing …

After the super typhoon last October

And after the clean-up, this January

Men at work

A new road

Weekends of winter forests in Tanzawa Mountains 丹沢 are for deer hunters. We’ve met members of Kanagawa Hunting Club 神奈川県猟友会 who are cooperating with the Prefecture to control deer population in the National Parks. They said the catch of the morning was 2-layer angle stags, and then continued their hunt late afternoon. We’ve found a trace of deer on a trunk of Japanese Larch (Larix Kaempferi (Lamb.) Carrière) from which an animal rubbed resin on its body for anti-ticks. Droppings of deer were found several places as well. Still, my senior instructor told me the situation was far better than, say, 10 years ago. “You see, we could even find bodies of deer along a road busy with hikers. They were starved to death … Now the situation is stabilizing, I think.” Hmmmmmmmmmmm. (Please see my posts about deer in Tanzawa in July 2017.) A Hunter was sitting still, and concentrating on somewhere over there. We could hear faint barks of dogs from the other side of a deep valley. The catch was coming …

Could you see hairs of deer here?

They did it.

A hunter is here.

You see?
 The plants along the road are unnaturally ‘mowed’ by deer.
 They ate the top soft part of these plants.

The mountain was cold and quiet otherwise. The majority of the sound we could hear was the hum of airplanes high above and intermittent bird calls. Voices of impatient Japanese tit (Parus minor) were mixed with occasional easy-going calls of Varied tit (Parus varius). Listening them “in Japanese,” they were pronouncing the same word, but the speed was definitely different. “Tsu-tsu Pea, tsu-tsu pea (Japanese tit)” vs. “Tsu-u-Tsu-u Pea-a, tsu-u-tsu-u pea-a (Varied tit).” As they are in the same genus, there might be some interesting story during their evolutionary process … We’ve found several couples of Red-billed leiothrix (Leiothrix lutea) which is designated as one of the worst invasive species to Japanese archipelago. “Wow, this is my first time to record them in Yadoriki Forest.” A veteran instructor said. There happened so many things in a seemingly silent winter Tanzawa …

A feather of White-bellied green-pigeon (Treron Sieboldii).
 They live in this area of Tanzawa,
 and go to Oiso Beach 大磯海岸 to drink salty water.

I found the scenery was very contemplative and, beautiful. There is not much color in winter forest. Understating ever-green trees. Various hues of greys from trunks and boughs of deciduous trees. Dry January of Kanagawa Prefecture gave us the clearest blue sky that contrasted astonishingly with the ridge lines of mountains. Before the maples shed their leaves we could only imagine the depth of the valley from the canopies that could be seen from high bridges. Now it is clear down there were streams with very rocky riverbed. That was a landscape we found in traditional ink paintings of China and Japan. Hadano Forestry Road is not yet opened thoroughly due to the slope failure between Mushizawa Forestry Road Junction 虫沢林道分岐 and Shin’nashi Bridge しんなし橋. Though, it’s the route where 4-wheel vehicles can run. If you plan to have a small peek of deep Tanzawa Mountains 丹沢 during winter, please try this road if only for the first 1 hour stroll from Yadoriki O-hashi Bridge 寄大橋. I guarantee you a meditative but relaxed weekend afternoon in quiet and monotonous mountains ... The world of Zen.

In July

The same place in January

In July

And the same place in January.
 Oh my … the slope is collapsed here …

Yadoriki O-hashi Bridge in July

The bridge in January

Oh, by the way, all the forestry roads in Japan are for permit-holders only to drive by whatever vehicle, i.e. car, bikes and motorbikes. Please walk!

If you find an environmental issues in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター

657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121 〒243－0121　厚木市七沢657

Phone: 046-248-0323

You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/

There is some misunderstanding: Skunk vine cream!

Skunk vine (Paederia scandens). It smells, er, skunky when we tear its leaves, stems, etc. It seems to me in the US it is regarded not only as invasive but also fire-hazardous for their forest … Though, it has very cute flowers during summer. Recently I’ve learned its fruits were called “Hand cream for farmers’ wife.” One of my seniors for Forest Instructors Association told me that before Japanese villagers used it when they suffered frostbites and chapa cracks. I did a little bit of Googling. Yes, traditionally they have been commonly used for anti-inflammatory medicine especially in tropical area. Japanese also have been very familiar to this plant for more than millennia. It was called already in the 7^th century Hekuso-kazura = skunk vine. Believe me, Japanese and English denominations are almost identical for this plant; Hekuso = Skunky, and Kazura = Vine. People have known the plant somehow useful. In Manyo-shu 万葉集, an ancient collection of Japanese poetry published around the 7^th to 8^th century, there is a poem,

さう莢に延ひおほとれる屎葛絶ゆることなく宮仕えせむ　高宮王 

Just like Skunk vines clinging to Mysore thorn (Caesalpinia decapetala var. japonica), I’ve determined to work for the office no matter what.

Prince Takamiya

… at least, the poet knew utility of the vine, don’t you think?

Skunk vine fruits in Yokohama, January

After picking the fruit,
 the stems of skunk vine became like this.
 I was a bit meticulous
 to remove papery skin from the fruits at this stage.
 It turned out to be a useless effort.
 When we mash the fruit,
 whether the skins remain or not is completely irrelevant.

Some researchers are now checking their effects scientifically. Oral intake of (whichever part of) the plant, it seems to me, has no definitive evidence for safety. Topical usage of fruits could be a safer bet as farmers’ wives did. This site reported the seeds contain 9% oil. Out of it, 10% is palmitic acid + oleic acid + linoleic acid, and 20% is sterol … Sounds good for skin. It also contains arbutin and indole which are the chemicals for cosmetics … OK. So, I tried to make a “hand cream” with fruits of skunk vine. Ingredients are simple; thoroughly washed fruits of skunk vines, and Vaseline. It would be easier for you with below photos to see what I’ve done. Here they are:

This site says
 the ratio of the fruits and Vaseline is roughly 1 to 5,
 but it does not specify the unit for the measure.
 I chose volume, not weight. This is the amount for …

40g Vaseline.
 In weight the fruit of the above photo has 32g.

I simply mashed the fruit with a pestle.

Interestingly,
 crushed fruits of skunk vine were not smelly,
 but,  I would say,
 had a scent similar to cucumber beauty products
 … cukes are for sunburn to quell swelling of skins …
 Maybe skunk vines have similar effect …
 Arbutin would be for sterilization and whitening,
 wouldn’t it?

Seeds for skunk vine were very hard and
 difficult to grind with a pestle and mortar.
 I decided to stop pounding at this point,
 and hoped the component of the seeds oozing out.

I mixed the squashed fruits with Vaseline, for

the final product.

Er … you see? It’s difficult to use this mixture as ordinary hand cream carried in our daypack for frequent usage. The mashed skunk vine fruits yield black juice, which makes Vaseline mixture blackish. As a cream to treat chapa cracks, the product could have some effect. I applied it on my fingers and wore gloves for a while. Dried skins of my fingers stopped souring for sure. Though, I’m not sure if this is the effect of Vaseline or skunk vines, and black juice remained between my nails. Let me experiment with this mixture this winter to see what would turn out. By the way, the word for flowers of Skunk vine is “Misanthrope; There is some misunderstanding; Unexpected.” Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.