Flower arranging basket in a low, squared form with sides curving inward to a flat base, woven of split smoked bamboo, antique bamboo arrows with lacquer, and split stained rattan. Signed on the reverse with an incised signature by the artist: Kosai Zo or Made by Kosai (Tanaka Kosai, 1912 – 1993). Showa 21 or 1946.

With the tomobako or original box, inscribed on the exterior of the lid: Ko Sen-chiku Morikago or Antique Arrow Bamboo Basket for Seasonal Fruit and Leaves; and on the reverse of the lid signed: Kosai Saku or Made by Kosai, and sealed: Kosai. Inside the box is an exhibition postcard of the basket, printed with the caption: Dai Nikkai Nihon Bijutsu Tenrankai Shuppin, Ko Sen-Chiku Morikago, Tanaka Kosai Shi Saku or Exhibited (at) the Great Second Japan Art Exhibition (Nitten), Antique Arrow Bamboo Basket for Seasonal Fruit, Made by Master Tanaka Kosai. Also in the box is a small printed postcard from the exhibition with his biographical information.

This basket was exhibited immediately after the Pacific War’s end, at the second Nitten in the autumn of 1946. Very few photographs from the first postwar exhibitions were reprinted in the Nittenshi, so the exhibition postcard included in the box for this piece provides rare primary source evidence.

Tanaka Kosai is one of a handful of artists linking the prewar and postwar worlds of studio basketry. He studied under Kameyama Kochikusai and worked in Kyoto. This basket was his entry to the 2nd Nitten, in 1946. As with the Teiten and Shin-Bunten exhibitions in the years leading up to the War, very few baskets were exhibited at the Nitten in its first decade. So it can be considered important from the standpoint of rarity. That may be the least of reasons to value this elegant, modernist play of color, texture and form.

Beginning in the Taisho era, both Tanabe Chikuunsai I and Maeda Chikubosai I incorporated antique arrows into basketry. The materials echoed the martial, samurai traditions of the upper class, references not lost on their educated patrons. As well, the antique arrows brought muted gold and red lacquer tones to the play of coloration, complementing the rich patina of bamboo sourced from three hundred year old farmhouse rafters.

Kosai creates an architecture for this basket that focuses attention on two beautiful, antique materials: arrow sections ornamented with gilt and red lacquers; and smoked bamboo with deep, gleaming patina. The tubular arrows he bends into curving lines, arrayed into curving planes that form the sides. The smoked bamboo he weaves in basic twill plaiting, its strong diagonals formed from broad, curving stays that catch the light across the floor of the basket. To hold these elements in place, overlays of cut, smoked bamboo in ¾” sections bind the rim inside and out, and then two other sections curve down from the corners to frame in the central plaiting, on both the front and the reverse. These corner-linked overlays must have been cut from massive, smoked rafter sections of timber bamboo and then carefully curled into the shape of the basket. Looking closely at both the front and back overlays, one realizes that this was a structural tour-de-force on the artist’s part. The corner nodes must initially have aligned with one another, where now they each bridge the corners diagonally, and the whole overlay is achieved in one, seamless piece. A rice-character stitch (kome-no-ji-dome) anchors the center of each arrow to form a line down the interior of each side, in addition to studding the framing overlays on the interior. Two lines of cross knots (juji-musubi) on each interior face curve away from the top rim, holding the arrows and lending visual emphasis to the soft curl of the planes. On the face, lines of insect wrapping (mushi-maki) line the interior of the overlay opening; on the reverse, repeating lines of simple wrapping (bo-maki) frame the overlays and the foot-ring. Also on the reverse, thinly cut stays of stained bamboo create a delicate twill plaiting within the overlay framing. Rather than distract from the minimalist form and materials, Kosai replaced traditional side or top handles with hemispherical, half-moon openings on the two sides, just below the rim.

For other baskets by Tanaka Kosai, c.f. Melissa Rinne’s Masters of Bamboo: Artistic Lineages in the Lloyd Cotsen Japanese Basket Collection, number 60; and Masanori Moroyama’s Japanese Bamboo Baskets: Meiji, Modern, Contemporary, number 45.

With a fitted tsutsu or water container for the interior of the basket for flower arranging, cut from a thick cylinder of timber bamboo with two node walls, one side cut away and the cylinder set on its side, the exterior surface lacquered a dark, purple-black color.