Flower arranging basket in a large, splitting-ovoid form. Woven of black, branch bamboo and stained rattan. Signed on the reverse with an incised signature by the artist: Shobun Kore wo Tsukuru or Made by Shobun (Suemura Shobun, 1917 – 2000). Late Showa – early Heisei era, circa 1960 – 1980.

With the tomobako or original box, inscribed on the exterior of the lid: Marushi-chiku Hiyoku Hana Kago or Round Branch Bamboo, Layered Flower Basket; and on the reverse of the lid inscribed: (Osaka) Fu Kogei Ten Shuppin or Made for the Osaka Prefectural Craft Exhibition, and then signed: Suemura Shobun Saku or Made by Suemura Shobun, and sealed twice (the upper seal: Shobun).

Suemura Shobun worked in Osaka and studied under Yamamoto Chikuryusai I. He exhibited in the Nitten and locally in the Kansai.

Shobun sculpts here with a material he loved, natural stems of black bamboo. Rather than cut and plait, he bends. Thick with nodes, the material tends to refuse what he imagined. So piece by piece, he curved it back onto itself, overlapping and layering the sapling-like sections into a great, split oval form. Some of the bamboo runs in horizontal ovals; some in vertical ones that round across and up the sides to frame in the interior. A long line of insect wrapping (mushi-maki) textures the sweeping rim. Short ropes of insect stitch (mushi-kagari) hold together adjoining lengths along the sides. On the reverse, three parallel lines of simple cross knots (juji-musubi) end in massive cross knots while heavy insect wrapping restrains the heaviest sections on one side. This engineering links and stabilizes the universe of round bamboo rising above.

For biographical information on Suemura Shobun, c.f. Robert Coffland’s Contemporary Japanese Bamboo Arts, page 116, with illustrations of two pieces on pages 119 and 121. See also, Melissa Rinne’s Masters of Bamboo: Artistic Lineages in the Lloyd Cotsen Japanese Basket Collection, number 52.
With the original tsutsu or water container for the interior of the basket, cut from a short cylinder of bamboo, the exterior surface smoothed, then lacquered black.

An important, sculptural exhibition basket by this important postwar bamboo artist.