Flower arranging basket in a leaning, cylindrical bag form. Woven of split and leached, blond bamboo with blond branch bamboo sections. Signed on the reverse with an incised signature by the artist: Rokansai Saku or Made by Rokansai (Iizuka Rokansai, the go or art name of Iizuka Yanosuke, 1890 – 1958). Early Showa era, circa 1940.

With the tomobako or original box, inscribed on the exterior of the lid: Hana Kago or Flower Basket; and on the reverse of the lid titled: Shime or Closing; and signed: Rokansai Saku or Made by Rokansai, and sealed: Rokansai. Note: the signature and seal are consistent with those illustrated in Iizuka Rokansai: Master of Modern Bamboo Crafts, pages 118 – 119, upper and lower register, for 1936 – 1949.

With the title, Shime, Rokansai points to the dramatic mouth of this treasure bag-form basket, encircled with a knotty section of bent, branch bamboo that bends back across itself on one end, while diving diagonally across the face of the basket on the other. A sacred treasure bag could be thought to close with a sacred rope or shimenawa, so it seems likely that this is the artist’s allusion. As well, the sencha tea tradition common to literati held that “found” or natural materials such as bamboo or even stone that echoed other forms were an example of heaven’s energy at work. Certainly, Rokansai knew this intimately and the dramatic use of this beautiful branch bamboo was no accident. Here, Rokansai creates a dramatically leaning form. A loosened and abstracted version of square or lozenge plating forms the sides and base. He eschews any formal knotting or weaving vocabulary from the classical idiom. Only the most basic techniques were chosen for an elemental, simple form. Texture and movement fill the piece, as Rokansai emphasizes the leaning quality with strong, repeating diagonal slats. These turn in a wave-like manner around the rim, cresting and doubling back, many with the matte interior side out as they fall back to be inserted into the face of the basket.

Rokansai was the most intellectual of bamboo artists. One guesses that his treasure bag was a metaphor for the universe in which we live, open or closing to us depending on our eyes and understanding. His work always reflects an innate sense of proportion and appreciation for texture, movement, and color. This leaning bag would have failed in lesser hands, seeming too simple, clumsy or ugly. Instead it rests as a brilliant and beautiful metaphor, a prose poem that compels our attention and admiration.

With the original tsutsu or water container for the interior of the basket, cut from a broad cylinder of bamboo, the exterior surface cut away and scored, then lacquered a dark red-brown color.