Maeda Chikubōsai I 前田竹房斎 初代 (1872 –1950)
Wide-Mouthed Flower Basket 広口花篭
Item number: T-3375Size: H 19.5" x D 10" (49.5 x 25.5 cm)
Age: dated 1942
Ikebana flower basket
Madaken bamboo, Hōbichiku bamboo
and rattan.
Incised signature on the bottom:
Chikubōsai kore tsukuru »Chikubōsai made this«
Box inscription, outside:
Hiroguchi hanakago »Wide-Mouthed Flower Basket«
Box inscription, inside: Autumn day of the 2602nd year of the Japanese Imperial calender (=1942). Senyō Kuzezato Chikubōsai kore tsukuru »Chikubōsai of the Senyō Studio in Kuzezato made this« with square red seal mark reading Chikubōsai.
This large ikebana basket is made in the Chinese karamono style, with exacting symmetry and perfection.
The bottom is made of bamboo in the circular amida kōami plaiting, where the bamboo strips are arranged tangentially to form a circular opening, which is reinforced by two larger bamboo pieces crossing the center. One of these pieces bears the incised signature reading Chikubōsai made this.
The sides are made of narrow strips of split madake bamboo, plaited in a variation of the ajiro ami twill pattern. The sides are reinforced by six vertical bamboo ribs, which are tightly plaited with rattan. The rim is plaited in no less than five different patterns. The handle is made of three Hōbichiku bamboo sections, decorated on the top with fine knotting and held to the body at ten points using tight rattan knotting.
The basket comes with its original fitted kiri-wood tomobako box bearing the inscriptions, signature and seal mark of Chikubōsai.
Chikubōsai was one of the greatest basket makers of the Kansai region. He was active in the golden age of Japanese basketry, 1910 – 40, when high-quality baskets such as this one were eagerly collected by the Japanese and used in the tea ceremony. Chikubōsai remained active through the second World War and continued to make outstanding baskets in those difficult years, such as this one in 1942 and another, item17 in our 2009 publication, in 1941.1
His son, Chikubōsai II (1917 – 2003), continued the basketry tradition and was named Living National Treasure for bamboo crafts in 1995.
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