Water, Wood and Wild Things : Learning Craft and Cultivation in a Japanese Mountain Town

Taking readers deep into evergreen forests, terraced rice fields, and smoke-filled workshops, Kirshner captures the centuries-old traditions still alive in Yamanaka. Water, Wood, and Wild Things invites readers to see what goes into making a fine bowl, a cup of tea, or a harvest of rice and introduces the people who dedicate their lives to this work. Part travelogue, and full of her own beautiful drawings and local recipes, this is an ode to a place and its people, as well as a profound examination of what it means to sustain traditions and find purpose in cultivation and craft.One night, food writer Hannah Kirshner received an invitation to apprentice with a ''sake evangelist'' in a misty Japanese mountain village. While there, she met a community of craftspeople, farmers, and foragers and learned their centuries-old traditions. This book invites readers to see what goes into making a fine bowl, a cup of tea, or a harvest of rice and introduces the masters who dedicate their lives to this work. Part travelogue, part meditation on the meaning of work, this is an ode to a place and its people, and a profound examination of what it means to sustain traditions.