Signed underneath Rōkansai saku (Made by Rokansai) Comes with the original faceted and lacquered bamboo otoshi (water holder) and the original fitted wood tomobako storage box. The box is inscribed...
Signed underneath Rōkansai saku (Made by Rokansai)
Comes with the original faceted and lacquered bamboo otoshi (water holder) and the original fitted wood tomobako storage box. The box is inscribed outside Hanakago (Flower Basket); inscribed and signed inside Mei Sanbo Rokansai saku (Name: “Three Treasures,” made by Rōkansai); three-part seal: Ro, Kan, Sai
The title alludes to the sanbodai, literally “stand for three treasures,” a small offering table with a tall foot and wide rim that features in Shinto ritual, particularly at the New Year. This is an early masterpiece in Rokansai’s informal yet tightly controlled Sō style, his freest manner which he himself described as the hardest to execute because it “offers the greatest potential for individual creativity.” The combination of so-style plaiting with a time-honored, formal shape perfectly embodies Rokansai’s genius for combining tradition with modernity.
The tripartite seal on the storage box indicates a date of manufacture between 1927 and 1934; for the seal, see Tochigi Kenritsu Bijutsukan (Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts), Iizuka Rokansai ten (Iizuka Rokansai: Master of Modern Bamboo Crafts), exhibition catalogue, 1989, pp. 118–119.