|
 Exhibition
Introduction | Bamboo | Baskets | Tea
Ceremony
Basket Makers
| Conclusion
|
Signature
of
Hayakawa Shôkosai I
(1815- 1897)
Photograph by
Denis Nervig
|
|
Japan's
modernization since
the late nineteenth century had a far-reaching impact
on traditional media such as bamboo crafts. The newly
introduced notion of "art" as defined in the
Western perspective was at first confusing and incompatible
with the existing indivisible relationship of art and
craft in Japan. Although appreciation of bamboo baskets
in the tea ceremony setting corresponds essentially to
the Western custom of displaying and viewing fine arts,
modern basket makers had to consciously establish an independent
niche for their medium in the new paradigm of art.
Previously,
bamboo baskets, whether intended for daily use or use
in a tea ceremony, were made by farmers or anonymous
craftspeople, who could have been relegated to this
low status craft because of a physical disability. Even
at the height of the popularity of baskets during the
Edo period, basket makers seem never to have gained
individual fame. The reason for this might stem from
a lack of consciousness about originality as we know
it today. Yet, all was to change in the late nineteenth
century with one small but significant mark made by
the basket maker Hayakawa Shôkosai I (1815- 1897),
in whose footsteps followed a line of truly "modern"
bamboo artists (takekôgeika).
Hayakawa
Shôkosai I is the first basket maker to consistently
sign his works and is the forerunner of modern Japanese
basket artists. He was born to a lower-ranking samurai
family who served a regional lord in the Echizen area
(current Fukui Prefecture). Soon after losing his father
at the age of nineteen, he moved to Kyoto and began
his apprenticeship under a local basket maker. Although
it was not uncommon for low-waged samurai of this period
to take up a side job to make their livings, Shôkosai
exhibited much enthusiasm and pride in his acquired
craftsmanship. In 1845 he moved to Osaka, undoubtedly
the mecca of sencha culture and the center of
bamboo basket production. There he began to carve in
his name at the bottom of his baskets--a clear individual
statement that he no longer complied with mere imitation
of Chinese models. In ten years time, he became the
most important and influential artist of all the basket
makers during the late Edo to the early Meiji period
(1868- 1912). Works by Shôkosai I ultimately enjoyed
international exposure at the Paris Exposition of 1878.
|
Hayakawa
Shôkosai V
(b. 1932),
Flower
Basket in
the Form of an
Abacus Bead,
Shôwa era
(1926-89)
Photograph
by
Pat Pollard
|
|
The
Hayakawa lineage remains hereditary. Moved from Osaka
to Kyoto after World War II, it is still active today,
headed by the fifth-generation master, Shôkosai
V (b. 1932). The distinctive technique of this family
is an extremely difficult and time-consuming scraping
of top skin from bamboo strips by a sharp knife and staining
the strips with a natural dye extracted from the wood
of plum trees, which is rarely done today. These methods
allow Hayakawa basket makers to produce strips of perfect
evenness and flawless surface with a subtle luster, which
are particularly effective in creation of Chinese-style
baskets, upon which Shôkosai I first established
his reputation. A flower-arranging basket by Shôkosai
V, for example, continues this tradition while ingeniously
forming the basket into the shape of an abacus bead by
fully exploiting the flexible nature of bamboo. The bamboo
bands of even width each tapered at bottom and top are
kept in place by knots of extremely thin strips of rattan
encircling the body. The vertical and horizontal orientations
are perfectly balanced, and the subtle sheen of the bamboo
surface highlights the sculptural quality of this basket.
The pride of the first Hayakawa artist is carried on in
this contemporary work through the signed name "Shôkosai."
|
Iizuka
Rôkansai
(1890-1958)
Hanging
Flower Basket
mid-20th century
Photograph
by
Pat Pollard
|
Unlike
Hayakawa Shôkosai I who founded his own lineage
of basket makers, Iizuka Rôkansai (1880- 1958)
came from a basket making family, based in Tokyo.
The Iizuka family was clearly one of the most successful
lineages in the Meiji to Shôwa eras (1926-89): the
works by Rôkansai, his father, and two elder brothers
were showcased and awarded prizes in the Paris Exposition
of Decorative Arts in 1925. However, Rôkansai played
the most pivotal role from 1912 to the 1950s in establishing
modern Japanese basketry and bamboo craft-art (takekôgei).
Determined to modernize bamboo crafts, Rôkansai
pursued the creation of new techniques and styles that
are freely sculptural and transcend the limits of Chinese
models. First, he actively promoted the artistic potential
of bamboo baskets by participating in government-organized
Crafts Exhibitions (Kôgeiten), begun in 1918, and
the Japan Art Crafts Association (Nihon Kôgeibijutsukai).
Second, he expanded his own creative capacity by studying
painting, the tea ceremony, flower arranging, and calligraphy.
The fruits of this self-cultivation were reflected in
his highly individualistic and diverse styles. In the
early Shôwa period (second half of the 1920s to
the early 1930s), he held one-person shows of his work,
just as a modern painter would exhibit his or her work.
|
Signed
"Chikuryôsai"
Vase-shaped
Flower Basket
Taishô- Shôwa
eras (1912-89)
|
Last,
and most important, Rôkansai created formal distinctions
for three basket stylesñ shin, gyô,
and sô (ëformal,' ësemi-formal,' and ëinformal').
Adopted from the stylistic distinctions in Chinese calligraphy,
this tripartite terminology places the entire bamboo basket
medium within the same aesthetic framework as established
high art forms such as calligraphy and ink painting. Shin
style employs highly refined, regular forms and weave
patterns and focuses on perfection rather than the organic
quality of bamboo. Chikuryôsai's vase-shaped flower
container, for example, emulates the form and smooth texture
of a ceramic vase. Gyô style, on the
other hand, allows a certain degree of irregularity in
both form and texture. Sô style, as Rôkansai
noted in 1939, is the most difficult of all for it requires
the greatest exertion of the artist's expressive force.
In this sense, sô style is closest to free-form
sculpture or an abstract painting as the basket maker's
improvisational arrangement of bamboo strips traces his
physical as well as conceptual activity. By introducing
this new approach to bamboo, Rôkansai blurred (once
again) the boundary between art and craft.
With
the appearance of Shôno Shôunsai (1904-
1974), the art of bamboo was officially acknowledged
by the government. The first among bamboo craft-artists,
Shôunsai was designated a Living National Treasure
in 1967. Selected by the Agency for Cultural Affairs
of the Ministry of Education, Living National Treasures
are the "holders of Intangible Cultural Properties"
as defined in the Cultural Properties Protection Law,
enacted in 1950. This legal system aims to protect and
support individuals' skills and techniques in performing
arts and crafts that have been significantly enriching
Japanese culture at large. Today, some one hundred forty
individuals and organizations hold this title, and three--
Shôunsai, Iizuka Shôkansai (b. 1919) and
Maeda Chikubôsai II (b. 1917) work in bamboo craft-art.
All three are well represented in this exhibition.
|
Shôno
Shôunsai
(1904-1974)
Basket
entitled
The Shimmering of
Heated Air
c. 1958
Photograph
by
Pat Pollard
|
Shôunsai
was a sickly youth and unable to manage anything but a
sedentary vocation like bamboo craft. He first apprenticed
in Satô Chikuyûsai's workshop in Ôita
Prefecture, located on the southern island of Kyûshû,
where high-quality flower baskets are a famous regional
product. After mastering basket-making techniques at the
early age of twenty-two, Shôunsai established his
own workshop and began exploring various styles that conveyed
his artistic ideals. The beauty of bamboo, its simplicity,
flexibility, motion, and strength are unified into one
ethereal yet undeniably architectonic structure in his
assured hands. His work entitled Kagerô (The
Shimmering of Heated Air) from around 1958 represents
the culmination of self-expression, transforming the nature
of bamboo into something that no boundary can contain.
Next
-
Conclusion
Introduction
| Bamboo
| Baskets
| Tea Ceremony
Basket Makers | Conclusion
|
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