Susudake bamboo; mat plaiting over double verticals, wrapping. Signed underneath: Made by Shōunsai. Comes with a fitted wood tomobako storage box inscribed outside 'Hanging flower basket [in the form of]...
Susudake bamboo; mat plaiting over double verticals, wrapping. Signed underneath: Made by Shōunsai.
Comes with a fitted wood tomobako storage box inscribed outside "Hanging flower basket [in the form of] a fisherman’s creel"; signed inside Ueda Shōunsai; seal: Shōunsai
A pupil of Tanabe Chikuunsai I, Ueda Shōunsai became an independent artist in 1917; for a very similar basket by Tanabe Chikuunsai II (1910–2000), see Baskets: Masterpieces of Japanese Bamboo Art, 1850–2015 [Catalogue of the Naej Collection], 2017, no. 138. The narrow-necked form of the basket is based on those carried at the waist by Japanese fishermen; their use in flower arrangment can be traced back to the great teamaster Sen no Rikyū (1522–1591), who spotted one being worn by a fisherman on the banks of the Katsura River and immediately purchased it to hold a flower arrangement for his patron, the warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537–1598).