Shooting STARS

Collectors looking for their next obsession need look no further than the Japanese art of bamboo weaving, embracing as it does feats of technical and artistic beauty which have for centuries been underappreciated in the West. According to Daniel Ezkenazi, the organiser of an exhibition opening this month, museum-quality pieces are still within the reach of most collectors.

When Japan opened its borders in the 19th century, western merchants seized on the island’s artworks which most mirrored their own. Japanese woodblock prints, calligraphy and ceramics were all leapt upon by European collectors, while weaving –viewed as craft work at best and utilitarian at worst – was ignored.

But all that is set to change with western collectors nally getting to grips with its staggering complexity and skill.

History of bamboo

Bamboo has for millennia been at the heart of the Japanese way of life. By the eighth century, bamboo baskets were incorporated into Buddhist ceremonies, containing petals to be scattered or used to bless the deceased (sange). During the 15th and 16th centuries, bamboo vases took a central place in the important Japanese tradition of both ower arranging (ikebana) and the tea ceremony.

Although the Japanese word for the tea ceremony, chanoyu, literally means “hot water for tea,” the practice involves much more than its name implies. Chanoyu is a ritualized, secular practice in which tea is consumed in a specialised space with codi ed procedures. e act of preparing and drinking matcha, the powdered green tea used in the ceremony, is a choreographed art requiring many years of study to master.

e late Edo period in the second half of the 19th century was a time of transition in Japan from a feudal society to a modern nation-state.

e new elite organised large tea ceremonies held over several days, often for hundreds of guests. ese lavish displays required numerous high-quality, nely plaited large baskets for ower compositions, leading to a ourishing of bamboo craft.

Opposite page Fukunishi Ryosei (b. 1941) Kagayaki II (Radiance II) ower basket, c. 2017. Signed Ryosei. Madake bamboo and rattan. Height 35.6cm, width 38cm, depth 23.5cm with ikebana by Mrs Sumie Takahashi, master of ikebana and her husband. All images, unless otherwise stated courtesy of Ezkenazi

Right Dish with cherry blossoms in bamboo baskets, Edo period (1615–1868), 1690–1720, image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Below right Elstner Hilton (photographer), a basket weaver in Japan, 1915, image public domain

Below left Tanabe Chikuunsai I (18771937) drum-shaped ower basket made from old arrow shafts with ikebana by Mrs Sumie Takahashi, master of ikebana and her husband

Symbolism Of Bamboo

Depictions of bamboo appear on decorative arts, from lacquerware, ceramics and textiles to sword fittings.

In Chinese society bamboo was a favourite subject for painters for whom it represented strength and endurance due to its hardiness.

Bamboo is also linked to the pine and plum, the latter being the first flower of spring.

The plant also appears in the third century tale of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, which describes how seven Daoist scholars retire to a bamboo grove to embark on erudite conversation. Their story became legend and the frequent subject of painting in China, and eventually Japan.

Similarly, a tiger in a bamboo grove was thought to convey the idea of a peaceful and harmonious society, as the tiger is one of the few animals able to navigate the thick bamboo forest.

Ancient tradition

e cities of Osaka and Sakai became noted for the production of Chinese-style bamboo works. e Kansai region, where Osaka is located, was home to many wellknown Japanese literati, who patronised the region’s growing number of bamboo basket masters (kagoshi), primarily for ower baskets to be used in tea ceremonies.

e art of chabana (cha meaning tea, and bana meaning ower) came to the fore, which saw ower arrangements presented in beautiful receptables in front of which people sipped while admiring their beauty. Many a tea poem was born around this time period. During the same era, the practice of drinking loose leaf tea (versus powdered tea) also emerged.

By the end of the 19th century bamboo craft began to be recognised as an art form. Hayakawa Shōkosai (18151897) was the rst Japanese basket maker to sign his work.