Bamboo cup - wiped lacquer pine soot finish

At a glance

- Bamboo craft (竹工芸), Kyoto; by Takanochikko, third-generation workshop, own bamboo grove
- Fuki-urushi (拭き漆) wiped lacquer with pine soot (松煙 shoen); deep smoky tone
- 7cm wide, 7cm tall; develops a richer patina with use

The pine soot finish changes everything about this cup's personality. Where the natural finish version is pale and quiet, this one is deep and slightly smoky, the bamboo grain still visible beneath a tone that suggests old lacquerware or a winter evening.

Made by the same hand as the natural version. Takanochikko (高野竹工) in Nagaokakyō, Kyoto, a third-generation workshop cultivating its own Kitayama mountain bamboo grove. The process here adds one further step: pine soot (松煙 shoen) is mixed into the fuki-urushi (拭き漆) wiped lacquer before application, producing the deep, dark tone that deepens further with use over time. The bamboo grain and nodes remain visible through the finish, giving each cup a character that is both ancient-feeling and genuinely contemporary. Kyoto's bamboo craft tradition stretches back to the fourteenth century and the tea ceremony culture that shaped the city's aesthetic. These cups carry that lineage lightly.