Recommended kinds of bamboo
WAZAO-IPPON recommends Hotei bamboo as the material of wazao. At the same itme it is beautiful as a craft itself, it is also suited for practical use and allows you to enjoy what we see as the essense of fishing.
- - A material suitable for various kinds of fish
- - A material that eneables to enjoy the push&pull with the fish
- - A material with historical background supporting the development of Kawaguchi rods.
A material suitable for various kinds of fish
Fishpole bamboo is thin but though. It tissues are dense and therefore are hevy but it is a lot more sturdy than it looks. It is also strong against wind and rain and even weathers fishing from a boat on rough waves too.
A material that eneables to enjoy the push&pull with the fish.
Fishpole bamboo is not only tough but is highly flexible. When the fish bites on the bait, it lets you to pull and let go, let go and pull, allowing you to play with the fish which we value as one of the beauty of fishing with wazao.
The felxibility o the rod helps to release the power of the motion which results "calming" the fish. For example when one fish bites on the bait and starts raging, it is rare you catch other fish. With rods made of fishpole bamboo howerver, it is said that it enables to catch multiple fish at ones as they stay calm.
Instead of easily catching the target, we suggest to admire the encouterment with each fish and communicate with them by the push&pull tactic.
A material with historical background supporting the development of Kawaguchi rods.
Kawaguchi-city, Saitama has been the home of many wazao craftsmen from the old days and once manufactured 90% of the wazao Japan-wide making it one of the main industry in the area. One of the reasons that pushed Kawaguchi-city as the production site of wazao was because fishpole bamboos could be found in Shibagawa.
Fishpole bamboo has tough joints, skin and flesh and starts to glow and hardens even more just like ivory when going through a long drying process. It is not only beautiful but each one of them have grows a different look and its originality was one of the secrets behind its popularity.
About HOTEI bamboo（fishpole bamboo）
Also called 呉竹（くれたけ）、五三竹（ごさんたけ）、琉球竹（りゅうきゅうたけ）、人面竹（じんめんだけ）、仏眠竹（ふつみんだけ). As it looks masculine, it is sometimes refered as "man bamboo" as well. Its length varies from 2-3 sun to 20 sun and its width from 0.01 sun. to 3.5 sun. Valued as a material to form the tip of the rod. *Sun is a japanese unit of length. 1 sun = approx. 30cm
Bamboo that are widely handled as materials for wazao are:
- 布袋竹
- 真竹
- 淡竹
- 黒竹
- 矢竹
- 内竹
- 丸節 etc.
There are kinds refered by its place of origin as well. Koya-take originating from the Koya-mountain in Wakayama prefecture are particulary popular among craftsmen of spatula rod in Kansai area (Western Japan)