Yame Bamboo Screens
Bamboo screen (sudare) products have a history of more than 100 years as a specialty bamboo craft of the Yame region. Nationally renowned as a producer of bamboo products, the Yame region has continued the production of bamboo screens alongside other bamboo crafts.
◇The origin of Yame sudare
Passed down from Japanese missions to Sui China during the Nara period (710~794), Yame bamboo screens are said to have begun when Kyushu bamboo craftsmen presented screens to the Kyoto nobility to be used as partitions in the building of a shrine. Bamboo screens have been produced as a specialty bamboo craft of the Yame region for over 100 years. Using locally-grown bamboo processed into higo (thin bamboo sticks), to this day craftsmen weave individual strands on a loom. Other processes, such as sewing borders along the edges or affixing decorative tassels and metal fittings, are also done by hand.