Page 81 - Bonhams September 11 2018 New York Japanese & Korean Works of Art

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PROPERTY OF VARIOUS OWNERS In point of unusual materials, in this case the root of kanchiku
(literally, “cold bamboo”), a mottled variety that emerges in the fall,
1169 unconventional plaiting techniques, and novel form the present lot is
an outstanding example of the pioneering creativity of Shokosai I’s
HAYAKAWA SHOKOSAI I (1815-1897) later period.
An Important Early Documentary Bamboo Basket for Tea
Utensils
Meiji era (1868-1912), circa 1886 1170
Of stained madake bamboo, kanchiku bamboo root, and rattan, the YAMASHITA KOCHIKUSAI (1876-1947)
cylindrical body and domed lid worked in vertical mat plaiting, the A Handled Bamboo Flower Basket
base in twill plaiting, the rim and foot-ring wrapped and knotted, the Taisho (1912-1926) or Showa (1926-1989) era, 1920s-1930s
lid rising to a knotted fitting holding a bamboo ring, the two swing Of smoked madake bamboo and rattan, the body worked in a
handles finished in wrapping and knotting, the interior lined with silk combination of plaiting techniques including twining over diagonal
brocade, signed on the base Nanajuni-o Shokosai kore o tsukuru plaiting under a framework of double verticals, the base in two
(made by Shokosai, aged 72) layers of square plaiting, the handle formed from a piece of bamboo
With a tomobako wood storage box inscribed on the cover rhizome, the whole finished in wrapping and decorative knotting,
Kanchikukonsei maru chakago (Circular tea-utensil basket made signed on the base Kochikusai
from kanchiku bamboo root), inscribed inside Nanajuni-o Shokosai 16 1/2in (41.7cm) high
kore o tsukuru and sealed Shokosai and another seal, affixed with
four photographs of exhibition medals $1,500 - 2,000
9in (22.8cm) high
Little is known of the career of Yamashita Kochikusai (not to
$3,000 - 4,000 be confused with another artist named Kochikusai who used a
different character for the syllable Ko), but he appears to have
Rightly regarded today as the founding father of Japanese bamboo worked in Osaka and judging from the style of this lot was likely a
art, at age 18 Hayakawa Shokosai abandoned his position in pupil of Maeda Chikubosai 1 (1872-1850), who used similar rich
the service of a regional daimyo and wandered for several years combinations of plaiting techniques and often added handles made
acquiring new skills before eventually setting up a basketry business from bamboo root. An example of Kochikusai’s work from the
in Osaka in 1845. At first he wove baskets that were very close Cotsen Collection is in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (inv.
copies of Chinese originals, but over time he developed a new no. 2006.3.325).
plaiting language and from as early as 1856 began to sign his work,
gaining prominence on the national stage by receiving an award at
the first Domestic Industrial Exhibition in 1877. The storage boxes for
his works sometimes bear photographs of medals drawing attention
to this and subsequent successes, as here; for further examples of
this practice, see A+C VWG, Baskets: Masterpieces of Japanese
Bamboo Art, 1850-2015, n.p. [Catalogue of the Naej Collection], cat.
no. 028 and Melissa Rinne, Masters of Bamboo: Artistic Lineage in
the Lloyd Cotsen Japanese Basket Collection, San Francisco: Asian
Art Museum, 2007, p. 21.

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