Some Memories of Bamboo

Kami-Katsura is a small suburban region in Kyoto, Japan. Bounded to

the east by residential and light industrial areas that run up to the
Hozu River, to the est it is held in !he!" by ooded slopes and
valleys here the population falls aay as the altitude gently !limbs.
#he distri!t is !riss-!rossed by a number of roads, in!luding the
relatively heavily-used Routes $ and %$, and is !ut in to by the
&rashiyama train line. &rranged along the short distan!e that stret!hes
from the Kami-Katsura railay station to the edge of the forest are all
the amenities you ould e'pe!t from a living high street( )-**s,
supermar"ets, +orists, !afes, ba"ers, hairdressers, restaurants,
nesagents and a post o,!e. -ol"s or" and shop, they go to s!hool,
meet in !ommunity asso!iations, garden and or" on their allotments,
orship at temples, tend graves and use the oods for a playground or
for somehere to stroll. -or all this movement of people and vehi!les,
there is a spe!ial tran.uillity here hi!h is re+e!ted in the a!ousti!
atmospheres from before dan until after dus".
&lthough / 0rst !ame to Kami-Katsura by a!!ident, / too" this stillness
as an invitation to remain. 1ater, it as a reason to return. 2n ea!h
visit, / al"ed up and don a par!el of land measuring 344 metres long
and no more than *44 metres ide, loo"ing, listening and re!ording.
Thirteen Scenes
Kiyosumi (1.21)
#o hundred metres above the Moss 5arden temple, the valley +oor
opens out and +attens out. /t as here, one Sunday, here / as
invited to a pi!ni! on an area of boulders and pebbles, some bla!"ened
by the soot of previous 0res.
&s the river sang its ay past, !ros heeled in the gaps in the trees
and inse!ts be!ame sloly moving spots of light as they ere !aught
in the bright sunbeams. #he damp pat!hes on my trousers - soa"ed
during a mistimed leap a!ross the stream - ere 0nally beginning to
dry out 6although they ere still able to give o7 a ri!h river smell
several hours later as / sat on the terra!e of a beautiful Kyoto
restaurant under gloing lanterns and !ir!ling bats8.
/n the valley, the food and drin" of the pi!ni! lead the !onversation on
to tal" of national !uisines. 1ittle Kiyosumi !alled me 9gramps: and
splashed stones into the stream or s"ittered them a!ross the ro!"s.
#he pit!h of his voi!e rose and fell in a!!ompaniment.
Another Level (7.43)
2ne afternoon, / happened upon a solid little transformer s.uatting
ne't to a level !rossing. &n audible ele!tri!ity emanated from the grey
bo', sounding a ra te'ture somehere beteen a buzz and a !ra!"le
hi!h thi!"ened and thinned a!!ording to an elusive logi!.
/ returned to the level !rossing over a number of days and stood
listening. ;ros sounded in the .uiet distan!e, smaller birds +itted in
+ight and on!e found a dialogue ith the arning signal of the level
!rossing. #he o!!asional high-pit!hed s.ueal of !ar bra"es and the
loer tones of !ombustion engines !ame and ent, bi!y!les spun
along and a oman<s high heels mar"ed her a!ousti! passage.
#he maroon trains of the Han"yu !ompany gleamed north and south on
the &rashiyama 1ine. #he short length of the !arriages, their slo
speeds in and out of the Kami-Katsura station and my relative
!loseness to them all !onspired to lend the trains an une'pe!ted sense
of heaviness. 1oo"ing up at the passengers through the !lean glass of
the indos, / o!!asionally !aught someone<s eye, gripping and then
letting slip a moment that !ould be held for a lifetime.
Kaeru: The Return (.47)
#he dog arrived li"e nature=s advan!e party, its !las sharp against the
grey stones as it snu>ed out an indi7erent re!onnaissan!e before
panting past ith its oner. / had heard the frogs !alling before( .uiet,
tired !rea"s issuing in isolation from the spring undergroth. #he e7e!t
seemed me!hani!al rather than biologi!al, more the dull reports of
some material under stress than anything li"ely to be produ!ed by
living tissue and beating blood. Seeping my mi!rophone li"e a metal
dete!tor a!ross the lo grasses by the river=s edge, / !ould never .uite
fo!us on the !all of an individual frog. Suspe!ting my bul"y silhouette
as s!aring them to silen!e, / set a mi!rophone up on a tripod and
un!oiled a long !able ba!" to a safe distan!e. #hrough the
headphones, / !ould hear the river running, +ies alighting and leaves
rustling but no frogs.
& fe days later, at the sound artist ?isu"e @anagisaa=s suggestion,
e hauled ourselves up on roots, over-hanging bran!hes and Autting
shelves of ro!" to try our lu!" in the green tunnels ground out by the
streams that fed the main river. & little an'ious about the steepness of
the slope and the distan!e of the drop, / spread out my a!ousti! net.
&gain, / only managed to !at!h a dissolute !roa" or to, a miserable
haul !ompared to the ri!h amphibian treasures presented to my ears.
T!o "a#$s (3.%)
/=d spent the morning andering the streets of Kami-Katsura( entering
a barbers and !oming out ith the best hair!ut / have ever hadB
gorging myself on green tea i!e !reams in paper-rapped !onesB
leaning against a glass telephone bo' and at!hing bla!" butter+ies
the size of my palm opening and shutting their ingsB getting lost in a
residential distri!t here !hildren=s laughter and dogs= bar"s ere only
o!!asionally interrupted by the rumble of a delivery tru!"B po"ing
around a +orist and ondering hether a plum tree seedling !ould
survive the Aourney home.
/ sat in a !afC here the !ustomers rustled their broadsheet
nespapers at ea!h other as the si!"ly strings of muza" rose and fell,
the !afC oner tamped don the espresso ma!hine<s portafltro, !hina
sounded brightly against !hina and sounded dully against the ooden
table, neighbours !ame and ent, e'!hanging gossip.
/n a later !afe, / pushed open the door and made my ay inside to 0nd
a table at the very ba!" of the main room. ?verything as subdued
movement and soft noise, the sishing of aitresses, dishes being
!hosen, orders !alled and !olle!ted, an urn steaming aay to itself,
!ro!"ery and !utlery sounding merry. My omelette arrived, a perfe!t
!ir!le of salty tomato "et!hup already on the plate. Domen tal"ed in
animation and, to my left, a group of smo"ers lit, inhaled and stubbed
their ay through a silent hour. Eearest the door, seated at paper-
!overed tables or leaning against the !ounter, ere those for hom
refreshment !ould only be brief.
&al'throu(h (2.32)
/n the afternoon, / too" the road due est from the railay station and
.ui!"ly sa the grey-green trun"s and the yello-green leaf !anopy of
the bamboo groves. &s the sun !ame out and the air armed / began
to regret the eight of the aterproofs / had stu7ed into my ba!"pa!"
but by then /=d Aoined the familiar route by the river and as
determined to push on until / rea!hed the ridge of the atershed.
&n upturned 0re-bu!"et balan!ed on a sta"e hammered into the
groundB a leaf !anopy that !losed and opened over-head, shafts of light
folloing !ooler pat!hes of shadeB unseen birds !alling from near and
farB and the !onstant presen!e of the river, no on the left, no on the
right, and no underneath as / !rossed a bridge. & glorious to hours
of al"ing later, the density of the surrounding forest prevented any
vie up or don the valley, frustrating any sense of progress toards
the ridge.
Rounding a !orner on the path, / sa an older man des!ending the trail
toards me. Repeatedly +apping his outstret!hed arms, his eyes bright
ith humour, he motioned for me to turn around. &bsorbing my halting
e7orts at Japanese, he mimed a "ey ith one hand and a lo!" ith his
other. Sha"ing his head, a smile still playing on his lips, he pointed
ba!" don the ay / had !ome, his nose almost tou!hing his "nu!"les.
)am*oo +arvest (7.4,)
/t as a series of auspi!ious en!ounters hi!h brought me to this small
part of the orld and, in every respe!t but one, the fortune of those
0rst days stayed ith me. /n 2!tober %44F, e had been !hased south
through Japan by terrible eather and on my 0rst morning in Kami-
Katsura the ind as still up. Sitting !ross-legged on the bal!ony of the
Jizoin #emple, / heard ith astonishment the !rea"ing trun"s, the
!rin"ling leaves and, o!!asionally, the sharp resounding !ra!"s of a
bamboo tree bent so far and so 0er!ely that it had stru!" its neighbour.
/ immediately promised myself that / ould re!ord this sound and it is
here, and only here, that my Kami-Katsura lu!" ran out. Eo matter ho
many times / returned, / only ever heard the softest of e!hoes of that
original for!e. /n %44), at a !onferen!e in Man!hester, / relayed my
frustration to the 0lm-ma"er /tsushi Kaase, ho lives in the shado of
the bamboo forest. He said ith an ironi! smile, 9Eo you "no Gen:.
2n my return trip, in May %44H, / as even more fo!used on re!ording
the sounds of the bamboo forest brought to life by ind. &gain,
nothing.
/ de!ided to dissimulate the e'perien!e, pushing into the oods and
grappling ith the relu!tant bamboo trun"s to bring them into for!eful
!ollision. Months later, / opened my laptop and began to stit!h
together the many tiny snippets of these fa"e bamboo sounds into a
!onvin!ing appro'imation of my memory. But this e7ort at trompe
l'oreille rang hollo.
Bamboo Harvest as re!orded on my 0nal day in Kami-Katsura,
slipping and sliding a!ross a dense !arpet of dry leaves as a man in
faded blue overalls lassoed the dead bamboo at the top of the trun"s
and to pull them don to the forest +oor.
4 a.m. -you.yu.i (11.%/)
/ had been told that the mon"s at the JyouAyuAi temple greeted the
dan ith a gongyo I daily devotional e'er!ise I of drums and bells.
#he temple stood J4 metres from the upper +oor bedroom of a friend<s
house here / as sleeping, separated by small yard, a hedge and the
temple gardens. / laid out my re!ording e.uipment in preparation and
set the alarm !lo!" for J a.m.
2n the eviden!e of the audio 0le that remains, / must have o"en,
!limbed out of bed, sit!hed on the e.uipment and promptly fallen
asleep here / stood, snoring in gentle, rhythmi! rasps. Kerhaps o"en
by a soft breeze of !ool air, / !ame to. Kulling the indo fully open, /
held the mi!rophone out at arm<s length in time to hear the 0rst
!himes, beats and !hants, mu>ed by remoteness, the intervening
foliage and the batteries fading on the mi!rophone.
?isu"e on!e told me that hat he as interested in ere the sounds he
heard after he had pressed stop. / li"e that and / li"e the mur"y .uality
of Jyoujyuji Dawn, the result of the re!ording having been dredged up
from the depths of failing te!hnology and some of the noisy sludge
digitally slui!ed o7. /t is as if an a!ousti! fog has des!ended to blur
outlines and ma"e distan!e unfathomable, a !loudiness that shados
the fortunes of memory and meaning.
)ir0 1n The )ush (2.4/)
/n my shorts and sandals in the middle of a glade, / thought about ho
sound travels. Sound is 0rst sent on its Aourney by a movement, by a
s.ueezing and then a releasing of the air mole!ules that surround the
sour!e. #his !ompression 6s.ueezing8 and rarefa!tion 6releasing8
establishes the pea"s and troughs of the sound-ave that radiates
outards, determining the !hanges of pit!h over time. #he sound-
ave<s survival depends on a !omple' e.uation that relates the
strength of the sour!e<s original energy to the spe!i0! !hara!teristi!s
of the air through hi!h it is for!ed.
#he rushing brightness of the river has not been able to ma"e its ay
up here. #he ater<s endless e'!itation of the air, a persistent a!ousti!
presen!e don in the valley, has been dissipated by distan!e and
further diminished by the ro!", soil and trees that no stand beteen
us. #he ind is bloing through the tree !anopy high above,
!ontinually s!attering tens of thousands of little !ir!les of sound in all
dire!tions, !ir!les that lose their individual identity by the time they
rea!h my ears, rapped up into a !olle!tive sigh.
&lthough / have stood still for over an hour, / have yet to see the birds
hose mus!les, syrin'es and bea"s are being or!hestrated in pursuit of
su!h !omple' simpli!ity.
2a!n To!n (.%3)
#he early morning air had handed the eyes and the ears a gift. /n the
light everything seemed !lear( the raised veins and soft bla!" hairs on
the ba!" of my right handB in the middle distan!e, the short !lumps of
green grass sprouting in the pale bron earth of the building siteB and,
furthest aay, the sloly saying !anopy of the bamboo groves still
someho giving o7 a sense of de0nition. #he same !larity as shared
by the sounds that had ta"en up temporary residen!y Aust est of the
Aun!tion beteen Route $ and Route %$. /t as not Aust that the
sour!es of sound ere alloed to be audible, to be plotted in spa!e
and to pla!ed in little bo'es mar"ed human, animal, transport and
ar!hite!tural. #he sounds themselves seemed to shine, their a!ousti!
details pi!"ed out. #he sounds= te'tural .ualities, their rising and falling
volume, their movement toards and aay from me and their
intera!tions ith ea!h other, all these stood out in sharp relief.
/n the Kami-Katsura dan, there as no dispersing ind, no diluting
rain it nor any bullying aural ba!"drop to dron everything out. Sound
!ould be sound.
Saiho.i (a!a (4.2)
Sitting on the riverban", / !an see through the shallo ater to the
small sediment-!overed ro!"s. @ello leaves, fallen from over-hanging
trees, !ir!le on the surfa!e, !asting spinning shados belo. #he air
around me is soa"ed through ith etness( plips and plops, gurgles
and tri!"les all brea" through the surfa!e of a rushing, sirling and
roaring sound that spreads out a!ross the valley +oor. Something
similar must have been heard here for the hundreds of thousands of
years that the river has ta"en to !ut its ay don through the geology.
/ ent 0shing for ater( !asting a hydrophone into the !urrent,
loering a mi!rophone don a storm drain, !at!hing the drips that fell
from a graveyard tap into a metal atering !an and the reverberations
of ro!"s thron from !on!rete bridges by blue-blazered boys.
#he pleasures of present and the pro'imate ere all around yet there
as still that sharp tug of distan!e, the pull of my ife and !hildren far
aay.
A 4uiet Storm (4.4)
1istening as proving tiring. Keeping my ears open to the soft and the
loud, the !onstant and the intermittent as be!oming a strain. #he
trials of re!ording stret!hed things out further. Mispla!ed mi!rophones,
depleted batteries and !orrupted hard-drives ere +eeting frustrations
!ompared to the sloly solidifying sense that the heard life of Kami-
Katsura as eluding my e7orts to !apture it.
2ne evening in my hotel room, / as over!ome by the feeling that my
re!ordings all sounded hopelessly inert and inarti!ulate and by the
simultaneous temptation to delete the hole lot. Dould it be better to
start again ith pen and paper and pro!eed from the 0ner grain of
memory and the softer fo!us of ordsL ;ould / get aay ith a spo"en
ord albumL
&rmed ith to !ans of beer from a vending ma!hine, / sat don by
the river to at!h the herons glide past in the gloom. Rain began to
spot the pavement, the grasses and the ide e'panse of ater and /
headed ba!" to the hotel, !urling up fully !lothed on the bed.
Da"ing up ith a sti!"y mouth and a !ramped left "nee, the rain had
hardened outside the indo. Kla!ing the little hard-drive re!order on
the sill, / pulled ba!" the shutters and the !urtains and let in the damp,
!ool air. &s thunder pealed in the distan!e, / tried to remember the
!ounting game my brother and / used to play henever a storm passed
by.
)us 1s )as5 Train 1s 2ensha (7.34)
&ll is movement. 2f !ourse it is. #he movement of buses, ta'is, !ars,
bi!y!les and tru!"s a!ross the asphalted earthB the straining passage
of trains along the steel rails held in pla!e by ooden sleepersB the
o!!asional heli!opter and, rarer still, passenger Aet engines ma"ing
their presen!e felt from a distan!e of $444 metres. #he movement,
too, of people( dog al"ers ta"ing the valley trailB s!hool!hildren
shrugging their shoulder bags into more !omfortable positions hile
!rossing the main roadB !ommuters funnelling through the railay
station barriersB an old man, his fa!e tanned and lined from a life
outdoors, running out a yello hose pipe in the Jizoin temple gardensB
a ta'i driver, his pea"ed !ap held by his left hand in the small of his
ba!", pa!ing in !ir!les outside the telephone bo' in hi!h /=m trying to
ma"e a !allB a man earing a grey hooded seatshirt, grey seatpants
and blue and yello #igers trainers Auggling to apples as he aits
outside an apartment blo!".
Dithin ea!h of these movements, many smaller ones. #he !ontinuous
transfers of for!e and energy inside ea!h body( the stret!hing and
!ontra!ting mus!les, the animation of bones, lungs and hearts. Dithin
this bus everything seems in motion( the rattling metal !hairs, the
surges of oil pumped through the hydrauli! systems, the hirring
motor beneath my feet, the soundaves from the horn, from the K&,
from my voi!e and from the driver=s too.
Shitsuren Shimashita (2.12)
-or me there is something spe!ial about seeing the moon against an
afternoon s"y. Maybe the moon is !ommonly out on daytime at!h and
all that is unusual is that / have found the time to loo" up but sin!e
!hildhood / have e'perien!ed the sight as a "ind of blessing, a sign of
lu!" and life.
& hite moon as high against a deep blue s"y on #hursday the %%
nd
of
May as / al"ed past the Ko"e-dera temple. & bla!" ta'i had Aust dran
to a halt and the hite-gloved driver as opening the door to help a
passenger out. &lthough / passed the Moss #emple every day for
several ee"s and although it as !elebrated as one of Kyoto=s most
beautiful, / had never been inside. / told myself that / preferred the
.uieter attra!tions of the smaller temples less dire!tly part of the
tourist trail.
/ !aught the softest suggestion of sad singing in the air and hurriedly
!onne!ted the mi!rophone to the re!order and settled the headphones
over my ears. / loo"ed around until / sa an imma!ulately dressed
older oman, a sil" s!arf "notted around her throat, leaning against
the railing by the SaihoAi gaa stream. &s e strolled together, she
sang and tal"ed, e ate boiled seets and / understood her to have
su7ered grievously in love. & ee" later, e met again on a small path
belo my favourite Jizoin #emple. & Japanese friend revealed that the
oman=s su7erings ere medi!al rather than romanti!. Her heartbrea"
had been a literal one.