🪴 Garden Work in Japan: Testing an Antique Japanese Hand Saw on Bamboo – Japan Garden

🪴 This is an unedited, real-time garden video filmed in Shizuoka, Japan. The camera is left running for a short session as I test an antique Japanese hand saw I bought earlier that day at a local flea market for 100 yen. There is no narration—only natural outdoor sounds.

The saw appears to be a well-made, older tool, with good steel, clean teeth, and a solid wooden case. The previous owner’s name is faintly written on it, likely a farmer who used it regularly before it made its way to market. Wanting to understand the tool rather than speculate about it, I take it into the garden for about fifteen minutes to cut a few selected pieces of bamboo.

The test is instructive. The bamboo resists more than expected, making it clear that this is not a bamboo-specific saw, but a general wood or pruning saw—well suited to solid wood rather than fibrous, silica-rich bamboo. The lesson is practical rather than theoretical: tools reveal their purpose when put to work.

Although today’s session is brief, the saw has already found its next task. A large plum tree will be pruned next week, where this blade’s strengths should be better matched to the material.

Kurt Bell is a retired American writer living in the Japanese countryside. From an old akiya house beside the Yoshida River, he records quiet, real-time moments of garden work, tool use, and seasonal care. Japan Garden is intended for calm viewing, focus, rest, or simple companionship with a real place as time passes.

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