Bamboo
The water carrier is adorned with bamboo, another concept from ancient Japanese culture. She raised her prices in 1993, allowing her to add bamboo to her ceramics. She harvests her own bamboo, washes it and microwaves it to destroy parasites before adding it to her ceramics. The bamboo is functional, further adding to the idea of simplicity in daily rituals in our modern society. This bamboo would allow the water carrier to hang from the pole. Without this double-basket system, Japanese people would have had to either carry singular baskets or attempt carry one basket in each hand. So, bamboo made life significantly easier for the ancient Japanese.
Bamboo is a tree-grass, meaning that it grows in leaf surface and extends high upwards but the bottom remains the same. It can grow up to 90 cm in 24 hours and maintains its height for 30 to 60 days. Bamboo has a special significance for the Japanese. It has been used since the Jomon Period, from 10,000 B.C. to 300 B.C., and most of the 2,000 species of bamboo are native to Japan. It has been used for anything from toothbrushes to ceremonial baskets. Basket making is a particularly skillful craft that has been around since the 8th century in Japan. Bamboo symbolizes purity, resilience and strength, thus representing the material culture of Japan. Basket making required six to ten years of intense apprenticeship. Once completed, baskets were used for Buddhist tea ceremonies, the art of flower arranging (ikebana) and water carrying. Lenore chose to create this ceramic with incorporated bamboo to keep Japanese traditions alive, a phenomenon strongly encouraged by the Japanese government since World War 2. The government even created the Living Natural Treasure Program to designate artists for basket making, solely to ensure this tradition continues.