Iizuka Rōkansai (1890 –1958)
Item number: T-3302Size: H 3.3" x L 11.2" x W 13" (8.5 x 28.5 x 33 cm)
Age: circa 1941
Ikebana flower basket, bamboo and wood
Signed Rōkansai
Rōkansai plaited this flower vessel in a variation of the yottsume ami square pattern using light-colored bamboo. The shiny outer surface of the bamboo is facing up except for four strips in each direction, which face down so that he could incise his signature onto a shiny surface, and so that the shiny strips would be symmetrical. The basket is held together into its shape with a wood branch, which has been split to facilitate bending and which is held together to the basket with narrow bamboo straps. The bamboo strips and the distance between them are purposely of varying widths. These factors make the basket appear rustic and simply made, even though every detail was in fact carefully planned by the great master. The branch ridge is of a contrasting dark brown color, as is the bamboo otoshi flower holder, which has been shaved around the outside and applied with dark brown lacquer on all surfaces. The incised signature on the bottom of the basket reads Rōkansai.
The basket is in the shape of a leaf-gathering scoop, associating it for the Japanese with the autumn season when they collect fallen leaves with similarly-shaped tools. As the Japanese are highly conscious of the seasons, this flower basket was used most likely only during the autumn weeks, when leaves were falling, and then packed away safely in its box during the rest of the year.
It comes with its original fitted tomobako box, which is made the way Rōkansai usually ordered, of sugi-wood with beveled edges. It is inscribed on the outside and signed on the inside »Rōkansai saku« or »made by Rōkansai«; and sealed »Rōkansai.« The signature and the red oval seal are consistent with those illustrated for 1936 – 49 in Iizuka Rōkansai: Master of Modern Bamboo Crafts (Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, 1989), pages 118 –19.
For a very similar basket entitled »Minori« or »Harvest«, see Rōkansai: Master of Modern Bamboo Crafts (Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, 1989), item 63 on page 92, dated to circa 1941.
Rōkansai is widely acknowledged as the greatest Japanese basket maker of the twentieth century. The sixth son of the basket maker Hōsai I, he started out making intricate baskets in the karamono-style but went on to develop many new ideas and techniques. He pioneered modern bamboo crafts and exerted great influence on numerous post-war bamboo artists. His works are in the collections of many institutions, including the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art and the Idemitsu Museum of Art.
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