Bamboo

竹 take

Bamboo grows straight and stays green through winter, so it stands for integrity, resilience and growth. It is part of the pine-bamboo-plum trio for New Year and weddings.

Ancient; pine-bamboo-plum grouping from China

Bamboo was both a vital material and, in Chinese literati culture, an emblem of the upright gentleman because it bends without breaking and stays green in winter. With pine and plum it forms the 'three friends of winter' (shōchikubai), adopted in Japan as a New Year and wedding motif, and bamboo now forms the centre of kadomatsu gate decorations. Bamboo-and-sparrow designs became crests of the Uesugi and Date families.