Flower arranging basket in an irregular globe form with a loop-style handle. Woven of split yellow-brown toned bamboo with sections of interwoven root wood. Signed on the reverse with an incised signature by the artist: Hosai Sanjin or Hermit Hosai (Iizuka Hosai II, 1872 – 1934). Taisho 13 or 1924.

With the tomobako or original box, inscribed on the exterior of the lid: Shirosabi Oni-Ami Hana Kago or White Rusted Bamboo Demon (Rough) Woven Flower Basket; and on the reverse of the lid: Kinoe-ne (1924), and signed: Iizuka Hosai-o(kina) Sanjin Kore wo Tsukuru or Made by Revered Old Man, Hermit Iizuka Hosai, and sealed twice: the upper one illegible, and the lower one: Hosai Koji or The Hermit Hosai.

Hosai works here in a consciously rustic style appropriate for use in a tea room. He takes sections of smoked, blond bamboo from wide diameter poles, then cuts and splays it flat. This creates the long, vertical striations where round stays are essentially flattened and split lengthwise. These he partially cleans of smoke, leaving dark highlights (thus the “white rusted” bamboo). The effect richly textures the surface. A hexagonal plait begins formally on the base, but quickly loosens into irregularity as it rises up the sides. Dark root wood sections glance through the plaiting at the rim, and then weave in and through the body of the plaiting horizontally as they descend to the center of the body. A bundle of twisting stays gathers from two points on each side and ropes together to arc across the rim in the handle.

A powerful and beautifully balanced basket, full of intense movement and a play of dark against light color.