A scooter made with hemp fibres. A real Mondrian. And Japanese rope used for shibari. Sounds like somebody got three museum collections mixed up. But these are all part of the story at Amsterdam's Hemp Gallery. The scooter is called the Be.e, and its frame is made with hemp fibres. Yes, an actual electric scooter. That's quite a change from the usual conversation about cannabis in Amsterdam.
The gallery opened in 2009 as a second location for the Hash Marihuana & Hemp Museum. It had a makeover in 2021, complete with hemp cladding on the walls. There's an audio tour, old objects and plenty of examples of things people have made from the plant. Paper, sails, clothing, building materials. Nothing particularly new about some of those uses, either. Hemp was doing useful jobs long before anyone started calling everything sustainable.
Then there's Cannabis Japonica, an exhibition exploring hemp's place in Japanese traditions and Shinto culture. That's where this little Amsterdam museum gets particularly interesting. One minute you're reading about rope, the next you're looking at art or learning about a plant's place in religious history. You could visit the city for its famous coffeeshops and end up discussing a scooter made from cannabis fibres. Amsterdam does have a habit of surprising people.
