HOCKINSON -- On Jim Grandy's five-acre property near Hockinson stands an exquisite Japanese teahouse crafted of cedar, mahogany, walnut and pine. The teahouse incorporates two cultures so subtly that they fuse as one.

He calls his business The Bamboo Man. And though he has never been to Asia, his workshop could pass for a Japanese design studio. The structures are not authentically Asian, he acknowledges. Like most of his work and his property, they represent a hybrid of Japanese themes and Northwest tastes and materials.

"The style isn't authentic Japanese, but Northwest Japanese," he says.

Grandy's work sells steadily. His custom bamboo trellises and gates, often used in Japanese-themed gardens, are in demand, and he receives several orders each year for his sturdy, serene teahouses. Although he once sold his work wholesale to stores, he now sells only custom work.

Nearing completion on the property at 11801 N.E. 212th St. are two gates crafted of bamboo, cedar, lodge pole pine and copper accents. A large gate, he says, sells for $2,000 and a smaller one for $1,500. The gates are big sellers. In the past 10 years, he estimates, he has crafted hundreds.

It started, he explains, in 1994, when he was laid up for a month in bed in Wenatchee to allow a detached retina to heal. It was during that time that he had an idea to build trellises.

He built 10 of them, took them to Seattle, and they sold on the first day.

"The first I made were cedar latticework," he explains. "Then I put bamboo in, and they started looking Japanese. I had a knack for it."p>

Demand for the trellises grew, and he noted that designs "started pouring out of me." He began building the Japanese-themed gates, and this led to more designs.

"I was doing lots of things for Japanese gardens," he says. "Then I heard someone built a $350,000 Japanese teahouse. I said, 'I could do that.' "

He has not, he acknowledges, built one in that price range yet, but he has built less costly structures for customers in Oregon, Washington and California.

He is now working on a teahouse in the Sacramento area that he estimates will cost $65,000 to $100,000. Near Twisp in northern Washington, he will build a teahouse/bathhouse and possibly other projects in a hidden canyon that he says is ideal for Japanese-style structures.

A catalogue of examples for prospective customers shows his most popular designs. They include various gates that are typically spare and severe with a sense of gravity usually associated with Japanese design. In addition to teahouses and trellises, he creates privacy screens, fences, benches, covered sitting areas and bamboo water features.

Six years ago, Dan Bonker noticed Grandy's work and purchased a teahouse for his secluded property in the Salmon Creek area. Later, he asked Grandy to build a bridge over a small water feature.

Bonker still owns the property, though he lives most of the year in China.

"There is a mystic aura about it," Bonker said of Asian design. "It offers a glimpse into a different society and culture, and I think it fits with the Northwest."

Enthusiasm for using bamboo as a feature in houses and gardens is widely shared.

"You can't make it into a standard shape that everyone can fit into their standardized product," said Darrel DeBoer, an architect based in Alameda, Calif., who often works with bamboo. "It think it is something that lends character. You have the detail already built into it with the nodes, the skin and the round shape. The ornament and the character is already there."