DiscoverCraft makers and the evidence for their practice
Portrait of Hiromi Kiriyama.
Portrait of Hiromi Kiriyama. · 深堀良和 (Nishinippon staff photographer) · Headshot source page for Hiromi Kiriyama · Headshot image for Hiromi Kiriyama
Classification
basketry

桐山浩実

All makers

Hiromi Kiriyama

Profile

Background

Kiriyama was born in Kashiba, Nara, and now works in Taketa, Oita. His practice developed into a semi-farming, semi-craft life rather than a gallery-first career. He has spent more than three decades making green-bamboo baskets and is strongly shaped by the Mingei idea that useful objects acquire beauty through ordinary repetition.

The materials are local. Madake is harvested from nearby bamboo groves; tsuzurafuji vine is gathered from deeper mountain areas and used where flexible binding and rim structure are required. Material selection, splitting, shaving and weaving are continuous decisions rather than separate stages.

Practice

Green-bamboo (aotake) baskets: he cuts the bamboo, splits and shaves the strips, and weaves each basket himself, from table baskets to carrying baskets; he stresses judging the bamboo in the grove as the basic skill. [7, 1]

Work over time

  1. Education Left the national technical college's chemical engineering course for a physical-education university, which he left after an injury (per 婦人画報 profile). [7]
  2. Employment Worked at a welfare facility, where he learned farming skills; began woodworking around this time. [7]
  3. Education Graduated from the Oita Prefectural Beppu technical training school, bamboo craft course; founded Aotake-kobo in Yufu, Oita, the same year. · Oita Prefectural Beppu Advanced Technical School (bamboo craft course) [7]
  4. School textbook inclusion His work appeared in a junior high school art textbook (Mitsumura Tosho). [15]
  5. Relocation Moved the workshop to Taketa, Oita, with a gallery attached. · Taketa, Oita, Japan [7]
  6. Teaching His eldest son Sora began an apprenticeship with him after studying art and crafts at university and graduate school and working for a Kyoto tea-ceremony publisher. [7]

References

  1. 青竹工房 桐山
  2. Headshot source page for Hiromi Kiriyama Retrieved 2026-10-01
  3. Headshot image for Hiromi Kiriyama Retrieved 2026-10-01
  4. 青竹工房 桐山・桐山浩実 — 幻奏庵
  5. 桐山浩実 青竹細工展 — 市川籠店
  6. 大分・竹田の青竹細工作家 桐山浩実 — 松本経済新聞
  7. 青竹細工作家・桐山浩実さん — 婦人画報デジタル Retrieved 2026-10-02
  8. 市川籠店「青竹工房 桐山 個展」 Retrieved 2026-10-02
  9. 日本橋髙島屋 桐山浩実『青竹の籠』展 Retrieved 2026-10-02
  10. 福岡天神・岩田屋本店『青竹の籠展』 Retrieved 2026-10-02
  11. 【掲載情報】季刊『住む。』春号に掲載されました Retrieved 2026-10-02
  12. 髙島屋「民藝展」出展いたします Retrieved 2026-10-02
  13. 桐山浩実 青竹の籠 展 Retrieved 2026-10-02
  14. 2026年 年間スケジュール — 青竹工房 桐山 Retrieved 2026-10-02
  15. 作家紹介 - 青竹工房 桐山 Retrieved 2026-10-02
  16. 製品紹介 - 青竹工房 桐山 Retrieved 2026-10-02