美術館: Old prints about hemp farming (large) きせる 浮世絵 長野県の美麻村 Hemp and sumo 麻の葉 Other hemp images See also: 「日本の麻」図書館

Kiseru pipes Japanese kiseru pipes have a much smaller bowl than Western tobacco pipes. The middle section is from bamboo or some other type of wood while the ends are made from metal (often silver or bronze). This has revived the word in a new meaning: The cheating on train fares in automated ticket gates by paying (coins, metal) for two tickets for the first and last short sections of a long trip and cheating (wood) on the middle section. Bronze and ebony, Kyoto around 1780 (picture by H.G. Behr). The name of the pipe is derived from the word ksher of the Khmer language of Cambodia, a country where hemp has long been cultivated as a drug and is still sold in public market places today. Though some North Americans assume kiseru to be only usable for opium or hashish smoking, they are in fact very suitable for marijuana and use it very efficiently. Bruyere wood and bamboo, Tokyo 1982. (picture by H.G. Behr). Kiseru were also used for tobacco, of course, though not originally in Cambodia. Some kiseru are sold as "fashion pipes" at o-miyage (souvenir) stalls in rural tourist locations. "Fashion pipe", brass and bamboo, Kuroyamasantaki 1998. See also: Hemp in religion, for fibre, food and fuel, marijuana, as medicine Marijuana prices in Japan, How many users, The Hemp Control Law