Fire blowing bamboo

Japanese: 火吹竹 - ひふきだけ

A tool used to blow or light a fire. It is a bamboo tube about 2 shaku long with a small hole at one end and a knot left, and was already seen at the end of the Muromachi period. Depending on the region, it is also called a fire starter bamboo, a breather bamboo, a blowing bamboo, or a blowing bamboo. It was only recently that fire could be easily obtained with the distribution of sticks and matches. Before that, it was an important role of a housewife to keep the fire burning and to stoke and blow on it every morning, so the blowing bamboo was a useful tool. There is also a custom in various places of offering a blowing bamboo to the gods and Buddhas for the number of years a person has been old when praying for recovery from whooping cough or ear discharge, and in the past, there was also a custom of giving a blowing bamboo to relatives to celebrate the 77th birthday.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

火を吹きおこしたりたきつけたりするのに使う道具。一端に節（ふし）を残して小さな穴があけてある長さ2尺ぐらいの竹筒で，室町時代末にはすでに見られた。土地によって火起し竹，息つぎ竹，ふすり竹，吹竹ともいう。付木（つけぎ）やマッチが出回って火が容易に得られるようになったのは新しいことで，それ以前は火種を絶やさず毎朝火をかきおこして吹きつけるのが主婦の重要な役目であり，このため火吹竹は重宝な道具であった。また百日咳や耳だれの病気平癒を祈願する際に，神仏に火吹竹を年の数だけ奉納する風習も各地に見られ，かつては77歳の喜寿の祝に火吹竹を親戚に贈る風習もあった。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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