Chikubōsai made this large basket with smoked yadake (arrow-shaft bamboo), susudake bamboo, rattan, and lacquer, using the techniques of chrysanthemum plaiting (base), parallel-line construction, plaiting, bending, wrapping, and knotting. Incised...
Chikubōsai made this large basket with smoked yadake (arrow-shaft bamboo), susudake bamboo, rattan, and lacquer, using the techniques of chrysanthemum plaiting (base), parallel-line construction, plaiting, bending, wrapping, and knotting. Incised signature on the base reads Chikubōsai made this. The basket comes with its orginal fitted wooden tomobako storage box inscribed outside "Finely plaited flower basket with natural bamboo handle"; inscribed and signed inside "Chikubōsai of Kuse Village in the Sen’yō District [Sakai] made this in the fall of 1942"; seal mark: Chikubōsai
Maeda Chikubōsai I worked with Tanabe Chikuunsai I (1877–1937) from about 1912, manufacturing utilitarian baskets for export, but began to exhibit high-quality work from 1926 after a period of intense study of earlier pieces for the sencha style of tea drinking, making several pieces for presentation to the emperor and imperial family. He had access to an abundant supply of susudake (smoked bamboo gathered from the roofs of ancient farmhouses), which he used frequently in his work. This important piece from the latter part of his career exemplifies his mastery of the parallel-line construction technique in stiff arrow-shaft bamboo, and skillful use of natural bamboo to form a natural handle that complements the precision of the basketry.
For a work with an identical dated signature, see A+C VWG, Baskets: Masterpieces of Japanese Bamboo Art, 1850–2015, n.p. [Catalogue of the Naej Collection], 2017, cat. no. 168 and for a vase by Chikubōsai I with a similar profile but plaited in different techniques, see cat. no. 163.