Making Old Fashioned Japanese Bamboo Stilts

One of the more delightful of the many forms of Japanese bamboo craft are stilts called takeuma (bamboo horse). The stilts are made from lengths of bamboo outfitted with special wooden footrests. It takes some skill and experience to know how to secure the footrests such that they may bear the weight of a rider as large as an adult.

My father-in-law (Suzuki Hiroshi) made 15 sets of stilts for use at our local elementary schools 100 year anniversary festival. Being a retired woodworker (shoji door and window maker) he has much past experience making bamboo and other wooden toys for his four children and two grandchildren.

Apologies: In the video I inaccurately describe the stilts as takeume which means bamboo plum instead of the proper name takeuma. I also mention at the beginning of the video that my father-in-law will be making bamboo helicopters called taketombo. While he did make the taketombo I sadly did not have a chance to film this and was unable to include any promised footage in the final video.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Japan
• Japanese
• Bamboo
• stilts
• bamboo take
• takeuma
• Japanese Tokaido
• Softypapa
• Walking in Japan

[bighousedaddy]

How is this old fastion... other than the bamboo everything else wasn't...

Love it though...

[softypapa]

@bighousedaddy It's old fashioned in the sense that the modern versions of these stilts are usually made of steel pipe with metal and rubber footrests. Most elementary schools have these though it's becoming rare to see them made out of bamboo and wood held together with simple loops of wire. ~Kurt :-)

[LesbianSerialKiller]

I made some brutal stilts from watching this video. I'm surprised they held up as well as they have.

[softypapa]

@LesbianSerialKiller I am delighted to hear that you were able to make some nice stilts using the information shared in this video. I too was surprised to learn how durable such stilts can be. Have fun! ~Kurt :-)

[Luminasita]

"Don't ask me. No excuses." I hope to see more of Yumiko, she's hilarious! Your father-in-law is pretty cool, too- I saw the video of the shoji expo. Is there any footage of his work I missed?

Hilarious to see you on the stilts, too- I'm surprised you were able to keep your balance in such extreme positions for those few seconds- must be all that bike riding!

~Kat

[softypapa]

Hello Kat, It's great to hear from you and I hope that all is well in your part of the world. Thanks for watching this video and for your comments. Yumiko does have a good sense of humor and I always like to get her take on things. I think that the only cause of my balance is the inertia gained by the extra weight around my middle. A bonus I would rather do without. :-) Have a great day! -Kurt :-)

[TRUSTRIDE]

Good Tru-stride stilts

[fenix310]

they had chain saws back then??

[SirFrancisBaconn]

Haha, your balance sucks man.. :D

[idominic69]

In japan we use super secret Japanese craft to construct the bamboo stills -buzzsaw- "ZZZZZZZ!!!!!!" haha

[mcshawnboy]

I knew this couldn't be happening in the USA as a cadre of lawyers & naysayers always keep fun at bay! But, in their defense, they're concerned with safety. There was great humor & levity in UR video so as not to seem like 10 minutes at all. I've have to watch more of UR stuff. That wasn't Home Depot in the shot,was it? All of popular journalism on wood crafting hobby sing the praise of pull saws from Japan, to see a craftsman with circular saw on a traditional job seemed a black comedy.

[GaurdDuck]

Looks like fun.

[SuperNatasha13]

Wow Nice