Celebrating Visionaries in Bamboo Innovation

Koichiro Ueda (1899 - 1991) was a well-known Japanese scholar recognized throughout the world as one of the leading authorities on bamboo. One of his most esteemed awards was the Order of the Sacred Treasure from the Emperor of Japan. He was professor at Kyoto Industrial College and president of the Japan Bamboo Industries Association.

Of his many published works, these two books are outstanding:

Studies on the Physiology of Bamboo, KyotoUniversity Press, 1960.

Bamboo, by Robert Austin and Koichiro Ueda, photos by Dana Levy, Weatherhill Inc, 1970.

A highlight in his bamboo life was a special bamboo conference at the XVII International Union of Forest Research Organizations Congress in Kyoto (1981), with 33 reports and the Inauguration of his designed Rakusai Bamboo Park, a living monument garden using bamboo as a replacement for the deforestation around Kyoto due to industrialization.