Hayakawa Shōkosai III (1864-1922)

Tall, oval-shaped bamboo flower basket for large flower arrangements. Resting on a chrysanthemum plated base, the wall of the vessel has been woven in a mat style with a perfectly even egg-shaped form, finished with a combination of thinly split regular bamboo stripes and openwork pattern and a mouth made of a ring of intertwined natural bamboo stems. The handle is also made of three separately fixed and then intertwined natural bamboo stems.

However, using a classic Chinese model of bamboo basketry, Hayakawa Shōkosai III added some significant, more informal Japanese details by using natural bamboo.

The Hayakawa family is considered the founding fathers of modern bamboo art in Japan, as Hayakawa Shōkosai I (1815-1897) is said to have been the first to sign his works in 1856. His fifth son, Shōkosai III, took over the family business after the early death of his elder brother, Shōkosai II, in 1905. Experts agree that he may have played the most important role in "expanding the expressive possibilities of bamboo, departing much further from Chinese models than his father." (Earle 2018, 17) With his flexible, organic style, he exerted an immense influence on later bamboo art.

Signed underneath: Sansei Shōkosai tsukuru (Made by Shōkosai III) and dated inside the lid of the box: Mizunoene shūshin (Autumn 1912).

Reference: Joe Earle: Baskets. Masterpieces of Japanese Bamboo Art 1850-2015, John Adamson Dist A/C (2018).

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