Oku-Aizu Amikumi Zaiku

Three mountain plants

Oku-Aizu Amikumi Zaiku is basketry woven from plants gathered in the mountains of Oku-Aizu: hiroro sedge, wild grape bark and matatabi, or silver vine. For generations it was winter work in snowbound farm villages. Today it is made mainly in Mishima in Fukushima as hand baskets, shoulder and waist baskets, sweet dishes, rice-washing colanders and soba trays, valued for being sturdy, simple and handmade.

Each plant, its own weave

• Hiroro sedge is twisted into cord and woven so finely that it looks like lace.
• Wild grape bark is gathered around June, when chestnut trees flower; it is very strong and used for bags and baskets.
• Matatabi branches 1 to 3 metres long are woven into kitchen tools that drain well and stay supple when wet, so they rarely hurt the hands.

From the Jomon period

Pieces of rope and woven baskets found at the Arayashiki site in Mishima show that weaving skills here go back to the Jomon period. Later records describe baskets of wild plants, sedge rain capes, silver vine colanders and wild grape bark bags made for everyday life. When makers declined, Mishima began a living crafts movement, opening its Seikatsu Kogeikan craft centre in 1986, and the number of makers has grown again, many of them over 65.