Exhibition

Introduction | Bamboo | Baskets
Tea Ceremony | Basket Makers | Conclusion

Tanabe Chikuunsai I (1877-1937) Flower Basket entitled Hall of Good Luck and Happiness, early 20th c. Photograph by Pat Pollard

Buddhism was introduced to Japan in the sixth century, and along with it came the custom of making altar offerings of flowers and related utensils such as bronze vases and bamboo baskets. In normal circumstances, bamboo baskets rarely survive the passing of time due to daily use and the perishable nature of the material. However, the imperial repository, Shôsôin, which was built during the Nara period (710- 794) and contains the largest number of early artifacts in Japan, preserves examples of bamboo crafts, of which more than five hundred are flower baskets. As with other objects in the repository, many of the baskets are probably of foreign origin. Appreciation of Chinese baskets continued to the time of Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1436- 1490), the eighth shôgun in the Muromachi period. Tradition credits Yoshimasa for the first use of a bamboo basket for secular flower arrangement. An enthusiast for emulating Chinese culture, Yoshimasa most likely used a basket imported from China to re-enact a cultural activity prevalent there.

Artist unknown Jar-shaped Basket Taishô- Shôwa eras (1912-89) Photograph by Pat Pollard

Until the sixteenth century, baskets valued for aesthetic qualities by the Japanese were limited to those imported from China. Reflecting the philosophy and formalism of the dominant Confucianism, Chinese baskets display perfect symmetry in form and weave techniques that are regular. However, Japanese farmers and commoners had been making and using much simpler and casually woven bamboo baskets for both religious and secular purposes. The first crucial turning point in the history of Japanese basketry resulted from the codification of a Japanese-style tea ceremony, chanoyu, by the sixteenth-century tea master, Sen no Rikyû (1521- 1591). With chanoyu, particularly a type called wabi-cha or withered-tea style, Rikyû advocated an aesthetic opposite of that of the Chinese-style tea ceremony. He encouraged appreciation of unpretentious beauty in imperfection and the simplicity of daily utensils. Thus, daily baskets, often irregular in shape and weave, were welcomed for the display of flowers in a tokonoma (alcove) of a teahouse. This development in the tea ceremony led to the categorization of baskets into two styles-- wamono (Japanese things) and karamono (Chinese things). By definition, wamono baskets are either direct descendants of farming or fishing implements, or they take inspiration from the informal qualities in design and weaves of those utilitarian items. Rikyû even used a simple cut section of a bamboo stalk, the style called zundo, which was often used by commoners as an inexpensive alternative to a flower vase. In another instance, his adaptation of a creel he saw being used by a fisherman at the Katsura River in Kyoto as a flower basket stimulated creation of a new style of baskets, referred to as Katsura-kago. This incorporation of native baskets to chanoyu also affected the emergence of a new style of flower arrangement, called chabana (flowers for tea), which ultimately aims to display flowers in a state as natural as possible.

Box signed "Chikuhôsai," Wall-mounted Flower Basket in the "Katsura" style, Taishô- Shôwa eras (1912-89) Photograph by Pat Pollard

The second turning point in the history of Japanese baskets is also closely related to the diversification of trends in the tea ceremony. While adaptation of native baskets greatly expanded the variety of bamboo baskets from the sixteenth century on, chanoyu, itself deriving from a Chinese custom of drinking tea, by no means excluded the use of karamono baskets. However, the demand for Chinese-style baskets increased tremendously due to the eighteenth-century resurgence of the popularity of things Chinese, which included the Chinese-style steeped-tea ceremony, or sencha. This sencha tradition, consequently, led to the proliferation of Japanese basket-makers skilled in creating Chinese-style flower baskets (karamono-utsushi). The lower-ranking samurai, well-educated townspeople, and sinophile artists and scholars advocated sencha partly as a reaction against the conventionalism of chanoyu and also as a political protest against an increasingly rigid feudal system.

In the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, as both chanoyu and sencha became cultural activities enjoyed by Japanese intellectuals, wealthy industrialists, and entrepreneurs, bamboo baskets continued to be sought-after objects.

Next - Artisans and ArtistsñBasket Makers

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Introduction | Bamboo | Baskets | Tea Ceremony
Basket Makers | Conclusion