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S E N S C T C HOU A L P T U R E

S E N S HE E VOLU T ION OF C T C TJAPANE SE BAMBOO H O U ART TO T HE 1960s A L P T U R E

SENCHA TO SC UL P T URE THE JAPANESE HAVE BEEN WEAVING BASKETS OUT OF BAMBOO since the late Jomon period (c. 1 4,000 – 300 BCE). Long before the arrival of Chinese bamboo baskets in Japan, the Japanese had already achieved a high level of basketry technique. The significance of Chinese baskets for Japanese bamboo artists lay not in any technique they introduced, but in the symbolic status assigned to them by Japanese elites through the tea ceremony. For more than five centuries, the tea ceremony has been one of Japan’s most influential cultural institutions, shaping not only aesthetic taste but also social, political, and economic life. The tea utensils used, including bamboo baskets, became powerful and valuable symbols of status. Since the late Kamakura (1 1 85 – 1333) and Muromachi periods (1336 – 1573), imported Chinese goods were particularly prized by Japan’s ruling class as prestige objects, a status that Chinese baskets also inherited. During the Edo period, the samurai class and wealthy commoners came to share this appreciation as they adopted the practice of the matcha-based chanoyu tea ceremony and, later, the senchado (“way of infused tea”) tradition. One might say that bamboo baskets became an art form in Japan when tea masters first adopted them as flower vases. Unlike metal or ceramic vessels, bamboo baskets are inherently incapable of holding water, making them an impractical choice for displaying cut flowers. Yet it was precisely this impracticality that appealed to the tea masters, who embraced the basket as an expression of intellectual playfulness and a philosophy that valued beauty, sensibility, and poetic resonance above utility. In doing so, they transformed the bamboo basket from a mere vessel for beauty into a work of beauty in its own right. This transformation took place initially within the world of chanoyu, but the increasing influence of sencha would open bamboo art to an even wider range of forms and possibilities. Sencha, the method of drinking brewed tea leaves as practiced in the Ming Dynasty (1368– 1644 ), was introduced to Japan by the Chinese monk Ingen, who arrived in Japan in 1654. Ko Yugai (1675 – 1 76 3), commonly known as Baisao (“the Old Tea Seller”), was a Japanese Buddhist monk of the Obaku School of Zen Buddhism and is considered the patriarch of the sencha practice. After leaving the temple, he would preach “the way of tea” as he sold tea on the streets of Kyoto. Many artists, intellectuals, and cultural figures were drawn to sencha’s convivial spirit and connection to Chinese culture, leading to the flourishing of a bunjin (literati) sencha movement. The Japanese practitioners of senchado considered themselves the inheritors of the Chinese literati tradition. The spread of literati sencha tea culture had profound social implications. Within the Confucian social order of China, the highest-ranking members of society were the scholar-officials, who earned their positions by passing the imperial civil service examinations rather than through hereditary privilege. By contrast, Japan was governed by a rigid four-tier

Flower Basket belonging to Chikuseian, China, Qing dynasty, 17 × 9.5 × 8.5 inches

social hierarchy consisting of samurai, farmers, artisans, and merchants. Beginning in the Genroku era (1688–1 704), urban economies flourished, particularly in Osaka. While Edo was a city dominated by the samurai class, Osaka was shaped by a prosperous merchant population. The townspeople of Osaka occupied the lower ranks of Japanese society, and their dissatisfaction with the system became a driving force behind the popularity of sencha tea culture which promoted Confucian ideals. One important figure in furthering the spread of sencha was Kimura Kenkado (1 736 –1802), a wealthy sake merchant, scholar, artist, and renowned art collector. A close friend of Baisao, Kenkado inherited several of the tea master’s most treasured items and played a significant role in promoting his influence. The “deification” of Baisao and the subsequent authoritative status of his former possessions meant that, just as in the chanoyu tea ceremony, the collection, possession, and provenance of tea utensils became crucial in sencha as well. There was a growing demand for karamono (Chinese things), including elaborate bamboo baskets to be used in literati-style flower arrangements. However, Japan’s isolationist policies during the Edo period meant that genuine Chinese imports were limited. Kenkado, along with his friend Tanaka Kakuo (1 782–1848), was instrumental in establishing both a market for, and domestic production of, sencha utensils. Assembly of sencha tea ceremony utensils with Kikyoku cabinet by Yamamoto Chikuryusai I

In chanoyu, bamboo baskets are only used during the summer months, and tea masters typically favor simple, rustic baskets for flower arrangements. Consequently, when it came to creating works for chanoyu, bamboo artists’ creative production was largely restricted to charcoal baskets. In contrast, sencha practitioners preferred exquisitely crafted, elaborate flower baskets or offering trays. The sencha ceremony also uses a much wider variety of items that may be made from bamboo, including the kikyoku (tea utensil chest), rosen (small fan), robyo (low screen), chataku (saucers), and teiran (portable tea box), among others. The broad range of tea articles in sencha provided bamboo artists with far more opportunities to demonstrate both technical mastery and creative expression. It was within this environment that individual bamboo artists first began to emerge from anonymity. Who was the first bamboo artist? For many years, it has been believed that Hayakawa Shokosai I (1815–1897) was the first bamboo artist to sign his work. However, recent discoveries have identified Kobayashi Minminsai I as the earliest known bamboo artist, with a signed work dated sometime between 1 7 70 – 1 79 1. Initially a member of the artisan class, Minminsai’s success as an artist enabled him to ascend within the social hierarchy, eventually earning an appointment as an official retainer to the daimyo (feudal lord) of the Tsu domain, a social rank equivalent to that of the samurai. His work represented a newer, individual style and stood out at a time when basketry was not yet considered artistically equal to other traditions such as ceramics and lacquerware. Minminsai (birth year unknown, died 1 79 1), whose name at birth was Hyozo, hailed from the town of Matsuzaka, where he became known as “Kagoya” (basket maker) Hyozo. He was renowned as a master craftsman for his twill plaiting and production of ornate palanquins. He further honed his weaving skills in Kyoto, developing a new dying technique and methods for softening bamboo prior to plaiting. Initially summoned to work for the daimyos of the Kaga and Kishu domains, he ultimately became basket maker to Todo Takasato (1 746 –1806), the ninth lord of the Tsu domain, in current day Mie Prefecture. Takasato was said to be a man of culture, well-versed in Chinese literature, classical texts, and history from a young age. The domain was rich in literary arts, with haiku poets and scholars among its residents. Like his patrons, Minminsai excelled at flower arrangement and other arts popular among the bunjin (literati) and cultivated friendships with prominent cultural figures such as Kimura Kenkado. Kenkado, in fact, inherited an item known as Baisao’s Favorite Style Sencha Tea Brazier Fan, made by Minminsai I. The overlapping lifetimes of Baisao and Minminsai, together with their mutual association with Kenkado’s circle, suggest the possibility that the two men knew one another. Minminsai crafted both chanoyu and sencha baskets for Takasato; these baskets were likely not only for his lord’s personal use but also used as gifts and tribute items for the shogunate and other daimyo. According to the records, he crafted a cicada out of bamboo and affixed it to a flower basket. It was so lifelike it inspired Lord Takasato to give him the artist name “Minminsai” — “min min” being the onomatopoeia for the sound of cicadas. From that time on, he began signing this name on his works.

After Minminsai’s death in 1 79 1, five of his descendants would go on to use the same artist name. The Minminsai lineage continued until the early 1920s, over four generations and a total of six artists. During the Edo and Meiji periods, Minminsai II through VI primarily produced flower baskets and tea ceremony utensils, though one record shows that they also crafted musical instruments out of bamboo for Gagaku, classical Japanese imperial court music. Their aesthetic range encompassed both intricately crafted pieces for senchado to more rustic works for chanoyu. The lineage was known for its unique finishing techniques and frequently featured decorative elements of zigzag-patterned rattan work and alternating wider and finer strips of bamboo on the horizontal sections to give a visual contrast. Multiple generations of Minminsai were known for their skills in ikebana, and Minminsai III was a top-ranked creator of bonseki (miniature stone gardens). Minminsai I was succeeded by his eldest son, Hyozo II (d. 1830 ), then by his grandson Takejiro (d. 1862), and later his great-grandson Kakunosuke (1830 –1878). As Minminsai IV, Kakunosuke won a prize in 1877 at the First National Industrial Exposition, a government sponsored exhibition modeled after the World Expositions of Europe and the U.S. Another great-grandson followed, though his given name is unknown; he is believed to have died around 1884. The sixth and final Minminsai was Mikiko, Kakunosuke’s widow, who assumed the name after her husband passed away. Mikiko died in the early 1920s, and despite having won an award at the Second National Industrial Exposition in 1 881 alongside Hayakawa Shokosai I, she has been largely forgotten after her death. Kobayashi Minminsai VI deserves recognition as the first recorded woman bamboo artist in Japan. From the Edo through the Meiji periods, sencha tea gatherings evolved into venues for exhibiting, documenting, and trading artworks, functioning similarly to modern art exhibitions and fairs. Within this context, the market for Japanese bamboo art developed in Osaka, the economic and cultural center of sencha tea practice and tea utensil trade, from which artistic tastes and fashions spread to other major cities. It is traditionally taught that modern Japanese bamboo art began in Osaka in the 1850s when Hayakawa Shokosai I first signed his work. Although Shokosai may not have been the first to inscribe his artist’s name on his baskets, he still deserves to be remembered as the father of modern Japanese bamboo art for his radical reimagining of the bamboo basket and its place within Japanese art. Hayakawa Shokosai I (1815 – 1897) was born into a samurai family of the Sabae domain in today’s Fukui prefecture. His birth name was Hayakawa Togoro. In the Sabae domain, emphasis was placed on scholarship for those in the court, and as a son of a samurai, Hayakawa had an academic, as well as martial, education. Yet Shokosai made a choice, like Minminsai two generations earlier, to become a basket artist. After completing his basketry apprenticeship in Kyoto, he moved to Osaka. As a samurai, he would have been skilled in the use of swords and other blades (he used a shortened Japanese sword to split bamboo) and was likely familiar with imported materials like rattan. Rattan, native to Southeast Asia, was a rare and expensive

KOBAYASHI MINMINSAI I

Ohanaike (Flower Vessel), 1 7 70 to 1 7 91, 14.75 × 8.75 × 7.5 inches

material used mainly to decorate weapons such as long bows and swords. This may be the reason why Shokosai’s early work primarily featured rattan, then considered a luxury material. Karamono baskets were finely crafted, symmetrical pieces often with handles, made with thinly peeled bamboo skin, and densely woven with fine strips. They featured intricate rattan wrapping on the rim and handles, as well as decorative rattan knotting. These baskets were produced in Southern China, a warmer region where the bamboo is softer and easier to process than the bamboo grown around Osaka. While it allows for extremely fine strips and versatile weaving techniques, the thin strips lack structural strength. To compensate, these baskets are finished with a thick layer of urushi lacquer. Darkly colored karamono baskets often possess a visual weight reminiscent of bronze and iron vessels. Shokosai rejected this aesthetic. Rather than concealing bamboo beneath layers of lacquer, he developed a process of preparing and dyeing that preserved the warmth and texture of the natural material. Shokosai made his baskets from green bamboo, and to color them he shaved off the waxy surface of the bamboo with an extremely sharp knife, which would allow dye to penetrate the bamboo fibers. Next the bamboo was split into fine strips and woven into the desired form. The woven basket was then boiled for several hours in a dye bath. According to a conversation with Shokosai V, this dye was made by simmering plum wood with a mordant to stabilize the color. While karamono baskets possessed the shine of lacquer, Shokosai succeeded in creating an elegant, satin-like surface with warm tones. Once Shokosai perfected his process, he proudly declared his work to be of a new Japanese style. Shokosai carved onto the signature plate, “Made by Shokosai of the Great Japan,” serving as proof it was not of Chinese origin. His work quickly attracted the attention of collectors, and the purchase of a tea box by the Empress at the First National Industrial Exposition in Japan instantly established him as the country’s leading bamboo artist. His artwork was highly praised among sencha tea masters and wealthy practitioners even at the height of karamono popularity. An indication of this is the recorded use of a set of ten baskets made by Shokosai I in the Great Seiwan Tea Gathering of 1862; no other baskets by a Japanese artist appear in the record. While Kobayashi Minminsai established a distinctive regional artistic tradition within the Tsu domain, Hayakawa Shokosai I created a distinctly Japanese art form with national recognition. Shokosai’s reputation extended beyond Japan. His work first gained international recognition through Justus Brinckmann (1843 – 1915), founding director of the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg and a judge at the 1873 Vienna World’s Fair. Seeking to revive Hamburg’s declining willow basketry tradition, Brinckmann acquired several dozen of Shokosai’s baskets for the museum, recognizing them as exemplary models of the craft. Shokosai’s work was also acquired by Edward C. Moore (1827–189 1), the head designer for Tiffany’s. Inspired by Shokosai’s success, many of his contemporaries in Osaka began signing their own baskets, fostering an atmosphere of artistic competition that dramatically elevated the quality of Japanese bamboo art during the Meiji (1868 –1912) and Taisho (1912–1926) periods. Leading artists of the time included Wada Waichisai I (185 1–1904), Ikenaga Donkosai (unknown), and

Yamamoto Chikuryusai I (1868– 1945). Amidst this first boom in bamboo art, yet another artist emerged who would profoundly shape the future of bamboo art: Hayakawa Shokosai III (1864 – 1922). After the early death of Shokosai II (1860 – 1905), the Shokosai name passed to his younger brother, who returned to Osaka from Tokyo and boldly challenged not only the karamono tradition, as his father had, but also the established conventions of Osaka’s own bamboo masters. More fundamentally, he questioned the very principles of woven form, ushering Japanese bamboo art into a new era. For millennia, woven objects around the world have been shaped according to established patterns that prioritize technical precision and repetition. Shokosai III overturned this rubric. His precocious talent and technical skill was evident from an early age, winning him the Phoenix Prize at the 1878 Paris World’s Fair when he was only fourteen years old. However, he came to abandon predetermined weaving patterns in favor of a more improvised, irregular approach that demanded artistic intuition and structural ingenuity. He called this new method the “ice-cracking pattern” because the irregular shapes formed by his weaving resembled fractured ice. Artists today often refer to it as ara ami (rough plaiting). Its impact on Japanese bamboo art was revolutionary, opening new possibilities for artistic expression comparable to the transformative effect of Abstract Expressionism in Western painting. His innovations, seemingly mocking the technical prowess of his contemporaries, also challenged the very foundation of craftsmanship at the time – each basket was conceived as a unique work of artistic expression rather than the product of workshop formulas or commissioned designs. The core of Shokosai III’s art lies in the artist alone, engaging one-on-one with the medium, relying solely on his own sensibility and the inherent properties of the material. By stripping away unnecessary ornament, he created works whose apparent simplicity and great personal expressiveness concealed extraordinary technical mastery and artistic intention. Like many leading artists of his generation, Shokosai III was deeply immersed in the broader world of literati culture. A skilled bamboo flutist, painter, and practitioner of Kagetsuan Sakata-style senchado, he collaborated with scroll painters and poets while cultivating friendships with many leading cultural figures. These intellectual exchanges shaped an artistic vision that extended beyond basketry and positioned him as a leading cultural authority in his era. Because each of his baskets were one-of-a-kind creations, the number of works he was able to create was limited. Yet, his influence on the course of modern Japanese bamboo art is difficult to overstate. During the height of Shokosai III’s career, another innovator emerged from Sakai, Osaka. Tanabe Chikuunsai I (1877– 1937), who had studied under Wada Waichisai I (185 1– 1901), responded to Shokosai III’s provocations by embracing and reinventing the tradition that Shokosai was rebelling against. Chikuunsai created works rooted in the Japanese bunjin culture, consciously distinguishing his work from the Chinese aesthetic that had long influenced bamboo art. Drawing inspiration from the flower-basket paintings of the mid-Edo literati painter Yanagisawa Kien (1 7 03–1 758), Chikuunsai developed the Ryurikyo-style Flower Basket, referencing Kien’s artist name, Ryurikyo. Although baskets and flowers were common subjects in Chinese literati painting,

Chikuunsai deliberately looked to Kien, a leading figure of Japanese literati culture, to assert the Japanese character of his art. In a different body of work, he achieved the same goal by other means, incorporating fragments of antique ceremonial arrows, embellished with gold leaf and black and red lacquer, as decorative elements in his work. Long regarded as sacred objects in shrine rituals and the imperial court, the arrows subtly evoked the Japanese spirit. Chikuunsai’s Osaka literati style was widely admired, earning praise even from Shokosai III, who remarked, “Chikuunsai’s work has its own identity.” A gifted painter, scholar, flower arranger, and practitioner of sencha, Chikuunsai became head of the Seifu Seizan school of flower arrangement and achieved full mastery of the Kagetsuan-Sakata school of senchado. With a workshop of talented disciples, he produced a large and influential body of work and helped shape the artistic and intellectual life of Osaka. Maeda Chikubosai I (1872 – 1947) emerged as one of Tanabe Chikuunsai’s principal contemporaries and rivals during the golden age of bamboo art in Osaka. Born in Kuse Village (present-day Sakai City), his potential was recognized at a young age by Shokosai III, who encouraged him to pursue bamboo craftsmanship. After initially producing baskets for the European export market, he worked under Chikuunsai following the First World War. Building upon his teacher’s refined, intellectual aesthetic foundation, Chikubosai introduced a more rustic and dynamic sensibility with the inclusion of bamboo roots and imperfect or deformed bamboo. Chikubosai became known for pairing a bent bamboo root handle (later known as the “Sakaistyle handle”) with an intricately woven body, creating a striking contrast between the natural irregularity of the handle and the precisely plaited body. His signature style was soon emulated by other artists. He later pushed this approach further by creating intensely textured and highly organic baskets and trays using only bamboo roots, seeking to capture and express what he regarded as the essence of Japanese aesthetic sensibility. Shokosai III, Chikuunsai I, Chikubosai I and the other artists of the Osaka milieu influenced and challenged each other, shaping a golden age of bamboo art in Osaka into the 1930s and 40s. Their work synthesized the intellectual legacy of sencha literati culture with a distinctly Japanese aesthetic, establishing a tradition that would profoundly influence subsequent generations of bamboo artists. By the 1 920s, another reform movement had emerged 250 miles east of Osaka. Iizuka Rokansai (1890 – 1958) was responsible for establishing Tokyo and the surrounding area as the second major bamboo art center in Japan. Born in Tochigi, Rokansai was the seventh son of locally renowned basket maker Iizuka Hosai I (1851 – 1916). In 1 9 10, his family relocated to Tokyo, where he became involved with the city’s leading kogei (craft art) artists. These artists had acquired technical skills and a broad art education through formal, university-style instruction, not through a traditional apprenticeship. A movement to see kogei recognized as equal in stature to ‘fine art’ had emerged among the staff and student body at a number of art schools, particularly at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. Rokansai was an original member of an organization formed with the goal

HAYAK AWA SHOKOSAI III

Daimin Flower Basket with Handle, 191 9, 18.5 × 9.25 × 8.75 inches

of winning kogei’s acceptance into the prestigious Teiten, the state-sponsored art exhibition. Teiten established a category for craft art in 1927, but it would be two more years until it exhibited bamboo art, two works from the Osaka artists Yamamoto Chikuryusai II (1898 – 1976) and Sakaguchi Sounsai (1899 – 1967). In 1931, Rokansai was selected to show his work for the first time at this national fine art exhibition. The following year, his submission won the Grand Prize. Rokansai advocated for an individual style of bamboo art driven by each artist’s personal vision. Bruno Taut (1880 – 1938), a renowned German architect who lived in Japan for several years in the 1930s, wrote, “Japan’s outstanding potters, metalworkers, lacquer artists, and bamboo artists are not craftsmen in the European sense; they are true artists.” He highly praised Chikuunsai I, Yamamoto Chikuryusai I, and Rokansai. Taut identified Rokansai’s art as modern, recognizing the artist’s desire to break with tradition and forge a new path. Rokansai created an artistic vocabulary that was not dictated by function or tradition – one not inspired by the literati aesthetics of the Osaka style. He created a system to categorize different styles based on shin-so-gyo, a concept borrowed from calligraphy. Shin is formal, gyo is semi-formal, and so is informal or cursive. Rokansai gave his works poetic and evocative titles, such as Strong Wind Over the Field and Cosmos, based on the ideas and feelings that inspired them; he was one of the first bamboo artists to do so. A prolific and popular artist, Rokansai had many talented disciples who worked under him, many of whom went on to develop their own styles. His stature was such that many expected Rokansai would be the first bamboo artist to be named a Living National Treasure, but he passed away in December of 1958 before that came to be. While Rokansai was reshaping bamboo art in Tokyo and Osaka’s masters were refining the Japanese literati aesthetic, a third center of bamboo art was developing in Beppu, a hot springs resort area on the southern island of Kyushu. By the late 19th century, the bamboo items so popular overseas during the heyday of the world expositions saw declining exports, especially to the U.S. following the enactment of the Dingley Tariff Act in 1897. This had little impact on Osaka artists, who still had clients for flower baskets, presentation trays, and other tea ceremony articles. However, places like Arima and Iyo, production centers which produced baskets almost entirely for export, were hard hit. Many skilled craftspeople began moving elsewhere to survive. In 1902, the city of Beppu established the Beppu Municipal Industrial Apprentice School and recruited a number of these displaced basket makers as instructors. Beppu, newly connected to the rest of Japan by port and rail, was becoming a popular tourist destination. Visiting Japanese travelers wanted to take home locally produced souvenirs, leading to the flourishing of bamboo craft as a regional specialty. The proliferation of villas and exclusive ryokans, frequented by business leaders and cultural figures, created a demand for high-quality art objects as well. The styles and techniques brought by craftspeople from Arima and Iyo became the foundation for what would become the Beppu style. The apogee of this style was known as the “exquisite jar-shaped flower basket,” distinguished by its solid, substantial form, combinations of complex weaving patterns, and its dark antique patina. Though most technical elements were shared as a kind of common stylistic currency, individual preferences regarding plaiting patterns, scale, and

proportion allowed artists to develop highly individual styles. By the Showa period (1926–89), Beppu had become a major center of bamboo craft art, surpassing Osaka and Tokyo in terms of volume. The two men who had the greatest impact on Beppu’s development into a center of bamboo art were Iwao Kounsai (1901 – 1992) and Shono Shounsai (1904 – 1974). Kounsai was instrumental in developing and leading the local bamboo craft industry, and he trained many of the artists who became masters of the Beppu style, such as Kadota Niko (1907– 1994) and Maeno Koyo (1913 – 1983). Shounsai focused on ambitious artistic expression and exhibited his work at national competitions, competing with artists from Osaka and Tokyo. Though he had mastered Beppu’s traditional style as a young artist, he pursued a dramatically different personal style, creating elegant forms, often trays, that emphasized the beauty of straight and curving lines of bamboo. Just as he was being recognized as a young rival to Rokansai, his submission to the Nitten exhibition in 1953 was rejected. That year he had made not a modernist line construction piece, but a more traditional pine-needle plaited basket in a simple, round form. This rejection prompted Shounsai to fundamentally rethink his approach, pushing him away from classical forms. Over the next three years he would submit works inspired by the movement of waves, culminating in his 1956 Nitten submission, Doto (Surging Waves). Doto was called a “flower vase,” but it completely abandoned the formal qualities of a vessel, possessing neither a mouth, body, nor even an interior. Long bamboo strips, arranged in parallel, twist and loop in a shape reminiscent of a cresting wave. Regarded by many as the first bamboo sculpture, Doto signaled a shift in the boundaries of bamboo art, previously centered on vessel forms, toward sculptural expression and non-functional art. The year 1956 proved significant for bamboo art. The Nitten exhibition featured, alongside Shounsai’s Doto, a work by Maeda Chikubosai II (1917–2003), which resembled a Möbius strip. Furthermore, at the Niigata Prefectural Exhibition, Baba Shodo (1925 – 1996) unveiled Susutake Offering Basket, a large, horizontal line construction piece resembling a pair of wings. That similar experiments were happening simultaneously in Kyushu, Osaka, and Niigata, suggests that progressive bamboo artists had already begun moving toward pure sculptural expression by the mid-1950s. In 1961, Maeda Chikubosai II exhibited Ryudo (Fluid) at Nitten. In earlier sculptural works, artists still included a bamboo tube for holding flowers when submitting pieces to exhibitions, as a last concession to function; however, in Ryudo, Chikubosai II closed the opening altogether, eliminating any space for a bamboo tube. The development of bamboo as a sculptural art was closely linked to movements in other fields. The 1950s saw progressive kogei artists abandoning functionality and creating abstract works that challenged the rather conservative aesthetics of the Japan Fine Arts Exhibition (Nitten). In 1954, Yagi Kazuo (1918 – 1979) created Mr. Samsa’s Walk, marking the first non-functional sculptural object in ceramic art. In the 1960s lacquer sculptures began to appear, and the introduction of Styrofoam cores expanded the range of possible forms. These new developments were counter to the mingei art movement, which was still dominant in the mid-20th century. More

and more artists creating abstract works emerged within Nitten. In 1961, the progressive Modern Craft Art Association was established by artists from Nitten’s Craft Art Division. They proclaimed, “The true essence of kogei lies in the artist’s aesthetic illusion, which serves as a foundation for making full use of so-called craft materials to create a unique expression of beauty through their sculptural effects, regardless of whether the work is three-dimensional or two-dimensional, the goal is to pursue the beauty of kogei.” Japanese craft arts have swung between progressivist and traditionalist trends over the years in accordance with government policy. The Cultural Properties Protection Law, enacted in 1 950, was an attempt to swing the trend towards tradition. It established a system to protect holders of Important Intangible Cultural Property (commonly called Living National Treasures), with certifications beginning in 1954. In 1955, the Nihon Kogeikai (Japan Craft Arts Association) was established as a non-profit association with Prince Takamatsu as the first president, launching the annual Japan Traditional Craft Arts Exhibitions. Shounsai was first invited to exhibit in 1 965, and in 1967 became the first bamboo artist to be named a Living National Treasure, the honor many had once expected would go to Rokansai. Chikubosai II, at one time one of the most progressive artists in Nitten, was also invited to participate in the Japan Traditional Craft Arts Exhibitions in 1959 and went on to change his artistic affiliation to the Nihon Kogeikai in 1970, leaving Nitten. Chikubosai II became a Living National Treasure in 1995. The 1960s was an era marked by artistic movements that blended tradition and innovation. Many talented bamboo artists across Japan vied with one another to show works in their own distinctive styles. These included Tanabe Chikuunsai II (1910 – 2000), the son of Chikuunsai I; Suemura Shobun (1917– 2000), an Osaka-based artist who specialized in bending slender culms of black bamboo to compose unique sculptural vessels; Tanaka Kosai (1912 – 1993), a Kyoto-based artist who created modern vessels and sometimes used innovative coloring; Higashi Takesonosai (1915 – 2003), another Kyoto-based artist with one of the most original and creative minds of his era; and Ishikawa Shoun (1895 – 1973), one of Rokansai’s talented students, who flattened wide bamboo strips and assembled them to create sculptural flower baskets. This list could go on and on. Thanks to their work, the 1960s and 70s can be called a “golden age of creative bamboo art.” That story will be told in the future exhibition, Sencha to Sculpture: The Evolution of Modern Bamboo Art to 1 999. n Koichiro Okada

IIZUKA ROKANSAI 16

Fukuroku(Happiness and Prosperity), 1 950 to 1 958, 15.25 × 7 × 7 inches

Antique Karamono Charcoal Basket Pre 17 74, 4.5 × 9.25 × 9.25 inches Aged Flower Basket with Handle 18

China, Qing dynasty, 20.75 × 9.75 × 8.75 inches >

Karamono Basket for Flowers China, Qing dynasty 18.75 × 7 × 5.75 inches Karamono Boat-shaped Basket China, Qing dynasty 20

15.25 × 13.75 × 1 1 inches >

Karamono Fruit Basket with Handle, China, Qing dynasty, 7 × 8 × 7.25 inches

Untitled Peony Basket, China or Japan, Edo to Meiji period, 20.5 × 1 4.75 × 6.25 inches >

24 24

From left: KOBAYASHI MINMINSAI IV

Charcoal Basket for Sencha Tea Ceremony, 1862 to 1878 7.5 × 5.25 × 5.25 inches KOBAYASHI MINMINSAI V

Charcoal Basket for Tea Ceremony 1878 to mid 1880s 4.75 × 10.75 × 10.75 inches KOBAYASHI MINMINSAI II

Flower Vessel, 1 7 9 1 to 1830 8.25 × 7.5 × 7.5 inches KOBAYASHI MINMINSAI I

Ohanaike ( Flower Vessel) 1 7 70 to 1 79 1 14.75 × 8.75 × 7.5 inches KOBAYASHI MINMINSAI VI

Bamboo Basket mid 1880s to late 19 1 0s 4.5 × 12 .25 × 1 1.25 inches KOBAYASHI MINMINSAI III

Round Sweets Box for Tea Ceremony 1830 to 1862 4.5 × 1 1.5 × 10.25 inches

HAYAK AWA SHOKOSAI I 26

Untitled Presentation Tray, mid 1850s to 1860s, 9 × 10.5 × 10.5 inches

HAYAK AWA SHOKOSAI I

Presentation Tray, 1860s to 1870s, 7.75 × 10.25 × 9.75 inches

IKENAGA DONKOSAI I 28

Untitled Flower Basket, mid to late 19th century, 15.5 × 9.5 × 9.5 inches

IKENAGA DONKOSAI II

Sencha Charcoal Basket, late 19th to early 20th century, 8.25 × 7.75 × 7.5 inches

YA M A M OTO CHIKURYUSA I I

Banbanzai, 1930s to 1945, 15.5 × 10.75 × 10.5 inches < Karamono Style Flower Basket, 1930s to 1945, 22 × 12 × 8.5 inches

HAYAK AWA SHOKOSAI III

Sencha Charcoal Basket, 1907, 6.25 × 7.25 × 6.5 inches 32

Jar-shaped Flower Basket with Handle, 1913, 22 × 8.5 × 8 inches >

HAYAKAWA SHOKOSAI III

Offering Tray with Handle, 1 9 15, 1 2.75 × 13.5 × 1 4 inches < Jar-shaped Flower Basket with Handle, 1 9 1 4 , 20.25 × 10.25 × 8.75 inches

WADA WAICHISAI II

Flower Basket, 1925, 14.75 × 10 × 8.5 inches TANABE CHIKUUNSAI I 36

Flower Basket with Antique Arrows, early 20th century, 2 1.5 × 4.75 × 4.75 inches >

TANABE CHIKUUNSAI I

Kuze Style Offering Tray, early 20th century, 12 × 13.25 × 13.25 inches < Kanchiku Flower Basket, early 20th century, 18.75 × 10.5 × 10 inches

M AEDA CHIKUBOSAI I

Untitled Flower Basket early to mid 20th century 18.5 × 9 × 8.5 inches Flower Basket, 1940 40

18.5 × 9.75 × 9.5 inches >

M AEDA CHIKUBOSAI I

Morikago Offering Tray early to mid 20th century 10.75 × 16 × 16 inches

M AEDA CHIKUBOSAI I 44 Bashoami Flower Basket, early to mid 20th century, 19.5 × 1 1 × 10.75 inches

YA MA MOTO CHIKURYUSAI II

Flower Basket, 1930s to 40s, 9.75 × 8.5 × 6.5 inches

HAYAK AWA SHOKOSAI IV

Kinmei Bamboo Offering Tray 1930s to 1975 9 × 15.25 × 15.25 inches

IIZUKA ROKANSAI 48

Strong Wind Over the Field, 1920s, 14 × 14.25 × 13 inches

IIZUKA ROKANSAI

Cosmos, late 1930s to 40s, 13 × 16 × 13.5 inches

IIZUKA ROKANSAI

Tie Together, 1950s, 7.25 × 5.75 × 2.5 inches 50

Bamboo Forest, 1950s, 20 × 7.75 × 8 inches >

SHONO SHOUNSAI

Toss-In Style Flower Basket 1940 to 1944 15.75 × 5.75 × 5.5 inches < Purple Bamboo Flower Basket

mid 1930s 7.75 × 1 4 × 9.5 inches

MONDEN KOGYOKU 54

Revive, 1946, 12.5 × 1 1 × 1 1 inches

KADOTA NIKO

Chidori-plaited Flower Basket, Showa period, 10.5 × 14.5 × 14.5 inches

TANABE CHIKUUNSAI II

Jar-shaped Basket with an Ear, mid to late 20th century, 12.5 × 6.5 × 6.5 inches < Diamond Pattern Flared Basket, 1938 to 1945, 18.75 × 8.25 × 8.25 inches

57 57

UEDA SHOUNSAI 58

Hobi Bamboo Tray-style Flower Basket, 1940, 7 × 17.5 × 17.5 inches

ISHIKAWA SHOUN

Flattened Bamboo Flower Basket, 1950s to 60s, 10.5 × 10.5 × 10 inches

This catalogue accompanies the exhibition

SENCHA TO SC UL P T URE: T HE E VOL U T ION OF JAPANESE BA MBO O ART TO T HE 196 0 s August 28 – October 10, 2026

YA M A M OTO CHIKURYUSA I I

Set of Rattan Sencha Teacup Saucers, 1927, 1.25 × 4.5 × 4.5 inches