Oita Prefectural Bamboo Crafts Training Center
This school was founded in 1939 as an occupational retraining center for wounded soldiers from Oita Prefecture. The facility moved to its current location in 1963 and became the Oita Prefectural Bamboo Crafts Training Center, an occupational training school for bamboo crafting.
Students enrolled in the school’s two-year course learn bamboo material preparation and processing, weaving, dyeing, and coating techniques. They focus on basic skills during the first year and pursue more creative endeavors during the second. Class sizes are kept small, and students pay no tuition or other expenses aside from a relatively small fee for clothing and books. The baskets and other goods they produce during training are sold by the prefecture to raise funds for the school’s materials.
The school aims to cultivate craftspeople equipped with the skills needed to produce bamboo goods suited to the demands of today’s consumers, and many of its graduates go on to become prominent creators in the field. In 2009 the school established an incubator-style workshop to support the creative activities of bamboo artisans hoping to launch their own businesses or establish themselves as independent producers.