Making A Traditional Japanese Bamboo Fishing Rod

The joints are then lacquered. This is the same lacquer that is used in all traditional Japanese and Chinese wares like chopsticks, tableware and decorations. Real lacquer is strange stuff, made by drawing the sap from certain varieties of tree, and is actually poisonous when wet. It also has a slightly unpleasant smell, which is remarkably like vomit. Most people suffer a skin reaction to it, which is caused by a substance in the sap called urushiol, but apparently I am one of the lucky few that do not suffer serious dermatitis from it. However, it did make my eyes smart a little and on one occasion, it caused a layer of skin to peel off my thumb after I used it to apply lacquer. Fortunately one seems to develop a resistance to the lacquer, and now I don’t need to use gloves anymore.

The lacquer is applied to the wrapped thread with a brush from human hair, and the rod pieces are then placed in a special wooden box, rather like a coffin, which has been sprayed lightly with water. Real lacquer does not dry but rather cures, absorbing moisture from the air and polymerising into a very hard and inert material. This process takes 8 to 12 hours. Once the lacquer has cured, it is sanded flat and then re-lacquered. This process of lacquering, curing and sanding down is repeated, until a nice even and shiny lacquer is reached. After four or five coats, character can be added to the lacquer by putting on a layer of red or green, or pieces of smashed mother-of-pearl or gold dust. When I was away from the workshop, my teacher put on the final layer, comprising a green lacquer of his own creation that is his trademark.

The lacquer not only looks good but it strengthens the bamboo. Once cured, lacquer is very hard and resistant to water, heat and microbes; this is why it is used in tableware and many traditional crafts such as Japanese musical instruments and scabbards for swords. The next step is to make all the pieces fit one another, by filing down the insides of the joints and the insert-end of the tip. This step is very hard as everything is done by hand, and if you shave off too much from the bamboo surface and the join is loose, the rod is ruined. There are however a number of tricks and special techniques to ensure the fit is good, such as to smear charcoal dust on the insert to see where inside the joint it is rubbing, or to swing the rod in the air right next to one’s head and listen to it: a bad fit will make a squeaking or knocking sound (or ‘talking nonsense’, as my teacher calls it).

Once all the parts fit each other well, the next step is to lacquer the body of the rod. This is done with a different type of lacquer, and instead of using the human brush, it is applied with one’s thumb and forefinger and spread along its length. This is done only once, and the rod is left to cure in its special tomb for the right time. The lacquer used is a raw untreated variety, and even a thin layer, once it is cured, leaves a very rich colour on the rod and it picks out the fibres on the bamboo, giving it a very aesthetically pleasing lined appearance.

With the rod lacquered, the guides and reel seat are wrapped on. The guides are wrapped with the same silk thread as before, and the thread lacquered several times in a reddish-brown colour called shu.

At this point, the rod is ready. I tested the action on the floor of my teacher’s workshop, and it looked just right for whiting. More importantly, the transition between bamboo and fibreglass tip is smooth and almost seamless, so the rod shapes well and is made much stronger as the bamboo takes the strain as well (instead of just bending at the joint, which will make it a weak point). The final step was to wax the whole rod with a cotton cloth.