by Gary Gach

Original article at Asian Art.com

In conjunction with Masters of Bamboo, the Asian Art Museum held a reception featuring one work each from ten artists considered to be the next generation of this truly amazing art form. This extended display was then kept for a month beyond the week of the reception (February 15–March 18, 2007) before the pieces returned to their owners. More important were the artists themselves, who were present at the event.

At the opening reception, artist Honda Syoryu, a disciple of Kadota Niko, addressed the large reception. He attested to the fact that the bamboo medium takes decades to master, noting that at age 55, he’s “finally about to graduate from of the realm of the younger generation of bamboo artists.”

He echoed the sentiment of his colleagues when he spoke of how the new Western market affords the bamboo artist the freedom to try things they haven’t had the courage to try before. “For me,” he said, “who spent most of my career making traditional flower baskets and offering trays, the encounter with this new American audience has allowed me to make a quantum leap in my art into the realm of free sculpture using the motifs of nature, time and space, and the universe.” Absent from mention was the reality that patronage in Japan is dwindling along with the space of a contemporary home, with seldom room for the luxury of a flower basket anymore.

A little later, we spoke with Nakatomi Hajime, a student of Sensei Honda. Although he looked the youngest, he was dressed in the most traditional Japanese style. Beside him, under glass, was The Sound of the Moon, an ovoid orb with a vertical cylinder down the center. On first glance, it looked very traditional next to many of the free-form creations on display, yet just a breath of modernity changed everything. The strands weren’t plaited right flush against each other, but rather had ample widths of space between them: thus, both the ovoid sphere and the concave cylinder could be viewed simultaneously. He compared the effect to jazz, whose appreciation consists in both the parts and their interrelation to form a whole.

We asked if he’d had an opportunity to see the work of Ruth Asawa while he was here. (Her major retrospective at the De Young had just closed before Masters of Bamboo opened.) His face lit up. It seems the artists all visited the De Young Museum and had their horizons widened to see her work and the catalog from her show. Mr. Nakatomi found her work wonderful and noted the similarities between her work in wire and theirs in bamboo. It was like a bolt of lightning, he recalled, to consider what a trail-blazer she was. He says he now lists her among his favorite artists, along with Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and Buckminster Fuller.

Speaking of great people, without question the man of the hour was Mr. Lloyd Cotsen, who invested his attention to this relatively obscure art form when its future was tenuous at best. For this special occasion, he offered Asianart.com the following statement.

“For better or worse, it seems to this outside observer of the art of the Japanese basket maker, the emphasis on a tradition is loosening, thus allowing a flowering of individual artistic interpretation, direction, and innovation. However the discipline and links of these new artists to the old ways are secured by the mentorship of their teachers and by the power of their basket-making heritage. . . . This ensures a continuation of the Japanese basket-making tradition, albeit with the recognition that the future ultimately depends on the creativity of succeeding generations.

“Mentors understand and protect the tradition. The next generation, represented in this exhibition, seeks to bend, if not break, that tradition. These opposing aims create a wonderful dynamic that can be seen in Japanese society as a whole and here in the microcosm of bamboo basket development.”

Also on hand at the event was Koichiro Okada, who worked closely with Asian Art Museum curator Melissa M. Rinne on the Masters of Bamboo exhibition, as liaison, teacher, and collaborator. He told us he agreed with Mr. Cotsen’s notion of a loosening of emphasis on traditional response. He finds it’s true now even in the most conservative school of bamboo art in Japan.

Mr. Okada notes there are two major professional artists organizations to which bamboo artists belong. “One group,” Mr. Oakada points out, “is called Nitten (Japan Fine Arts Exhibition) and the other is Nihon Kogeikai (Japan Craft Artists Association). While Nitten artists emphases ‘sculptural beauty,’ Nihon Kogeikai artists work in a framework of tradition and craftsmanship. The notion of a creative edge has been very important to Niiten artists, but it is also carries weight to the Nihon Kogeikai artists, especially in recent years.

“Two of the leading bamboo artists in the Nihon Kogeikai are Hayakawa Shokosai V and Katsushiro Soho. Both are Living National Treasures and both favor innovation and imagination in their works. Some of the artists who submit ‘old-style’ baskets recently have been severely criticized by these leaders, and as Mr. Cotsen points out, Hayakawa and Katsushiro nominated two of the raising young stars from the Niiten world for the ‘Next Generation’ event.”

A week later, we caught up with curator Melissa Rinne, and learned that the artists were not only able to absorb a diversity of art as well as meet collectors and lovers of this art form, but also to network amongst themselves. “The event,” she said, “brought together most of the important younger artists in this field for the first time. Though they all knew one another by name and by work, this was the first time that most of them had really spent an extended amount of time talking with their peers about their life work. There were very serious conversations about the future of their art forms, and the artists agreed among themselves to mount an exhibition together, which would be a wonderful breaking through from the traditional divisions within the bamboo artist community, based on the two major artist associations — which have fairly different emphases.”

Last but not least, also present and speaking at the event was Rob Coffland, owner of TAI Gallery, where Mr Okada works. Ten years ago, Lloyd Cotsen had asked him to look for baskets. He recalls he made mistakes at first — buying baskets simply because he liked them. Now he’s not only the expert in the field, but his gallery is in a unique situation of being The One to permanently feature this art form. Thanks to his good eye, sensitivity to the culture, nurturing of good working relations, and selfless devotion, visitors, collectors, artists, and the art itself are in good hands.

We might emphasize that the diverse bonds Mr. Coffland has formed with individual artists are as important as works exhibited or sold. As Lloyd Cotsen points out, “An art is nothing without its artists, for they are the ones responsible for the culture, tradition, and the creativity their work reflects.”

In 1970, there were between 600 and 700 bamboo craftspeople making a living in Japan, creating items ranging from simple food steamers and chopsticks to flower baskets of extraordinary beauty and complexity. The world has changed much since 1970. Today less expensive bamboo objects imported from Southeast Asia have largely displaced locally made wares in Japanese shops. In Oita Prefecture, which for over one hundred years has boasted the largest concentration of bamboo craftspeople in all of Japan, the number of people working with bamboo has shrunk by two thirds. The Commerce, Industry, and Labor Department of the Oita Prefectural Government has long appreciated the cultural and economic importance of bamboo crafts in the region and is actively promoting the field to ensure its long term vitality. Bamboo artists have also banded together to help their cause. The Oita Bamboo Fine Arts Association was formed to bring together both sculptural and more traditional artists, and the Beppu Bamboo Craft Union has looked after the artists’ interests for many years. Individual masters, such as Shono Tokuzo, Yamaguchi Ryuun and Morigami Jin, have taken an active role in encouraging the next generation of bamboo artists.

Two generations ago the apprenticeship of a bamboo craftsman might have lasted ten years. The first few years were often exclusively spent learning how to select and cut bamboo into usable strips for the master. It might take five years before a student was making simple baskets from start to finish. Many years passed before an ambitious assistant would offer works with their own signature to be judged by their master and the public. This may seem a daunting process to us in the West, but the apprentice knew this would lead eventually to a good livelihood, and all the years of disciplined focus aided in establishing a worthy personal style. Master bamboo artists of today will often speak of a self-transcending devotion to the tradition and to the medium itself. Many say they allow the bamboo to speak through them, and they strive to be true to the spirit of bamboo. This humility shows what is considered the ‘proper mind’ of a Japanese artist working in a traditional craft.

Modern teaching methods are more condensed. The two-year course taught at the Oita Prefectural Bamboo Craft and Training Support Center teaches the preparation of bamboo, the different plaiting patterns, and the vocabulary of knots seen in bamboo art, but then a student must find a mentor and, most of all, keep up full-time studio practice. However, the evaporation of the domestic market for bamboo articles means most students cannot support themselves through bamboo craftwork. If a graduate is lucky enough to be hired as an assistant by a master artist, and still wants to work in the field five years after splitting their first culm of bamboo, a threshold has been reached.There is a good chance this person will continue on the path of mastering bamboo art. Few who begin arrive at this five-year mark. Few have enough savings to live on for five years while they spend 60 hours a week honing their skills. To care for bamboo art’s future, we must find new ways for the student to earn whilethey learn.

For nearly twenty years, TAI Modern (formerly TAI Gallery)has exhibited Japanese bamboo art in the United States and Europe with great success, finding hundreds of passionate collectors. The strong international response to bamboo art has fueled efforts within Japan to promote and nurture this unique creative capital. The new artists exhibiting at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center were challenged jointly by the Oita Bamboo Industry and Culture Association and TAI Modern to work on designing a centerpiece for the home that would be priced at a level affordable to many people. If a worldwide market for Japanese bamboo decorative arts could be rekindled, much as it was by the Arts and Crafts Movement of the late 19th century, a new source of earnings could allow young artists the time they need to master their medium.

The results of the centerpiece project are promising. All the artists deserve congratulations and I hope they forgive me for only mentioning a few of them. The work by Kizaki Kazutoshi, a student of Shono Tokuzo, has a strong design that connects it to his teacher’s famous lineage but employs a bold red color that is emphatically individual. Matsuda Hiroki’s exuberant fireworks-inspired piece will appeal to many viewers. Taniguchi Michito has created a playful, eccentric form that is weighted to stand at various angles.Yufu Hiroshi is working to synthesize his own style with the powerful techniques he has learned from his father, Shohaku, and Kodama Mie has enlivened a basic basket form by incorporating dynamic horizontal dividing layers.

Standing next to these youthful efforts are works made by the most accomplished bamboo artists in the world. While these artists’ works speak for themselves, I can’t help but mention several. Using the simplest of shapes, Abe Motoshi Kiraku’s pine needle plaited basket is a marvel of subtlety while Kibe Seiho’s basket, armored in aged, smoked bamboo, displays amazing, rich color. The Kajiwaras, husband Koho and wife Aya, staying true to the vessel form their entire careers, have created unmistakably individual styles that complement each other. And while the vessel tradition is ancient in Oita, the region is also the birth place of modernist, sculptural bamboo art. Shono Tokuzo, son of Shono Shounsai, the great pioneer of the sculptural tradition, strives to both communicate a contemporary sensibility in his art and honor the natural beauty of bamboo. Tokuzo’s work tends toward the philosophical, questioning the identity and role of a basket in its holding of something tangible and the identity of sculpture which holds space. Also trained in Shounsai’s studio, Tanabe Kochikusai is a seminal artist, being his master’s primary assistant during the creation of the first abstract art made of bamboo. Oita is home to individualists with free roaming imaginations as well, such as Sugiura Noriyoshi, Yonezawa Jiro, and Kawashima Shigeo.

When the next generation of bamboo artists steps forward to claim its place, we cannot be sure how many it will number or know what its artworks will look like. But all of us who love bamboo will know we have done all we could to ensure this next generation of bamboo artists will be just as vital and creative as the previous five generations have been.

Steven Halvorsen, TAI Modern, September 2014

In honor of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition centennial celebration, TAI Modern is thrilled to present an expansive group exhibition at the Japanese Friendship Garden of San Diego, San Diego, CA, September 12 – December 6, 2015.The show will include over forty bamboo artworks created by a variety of artists. This special preview exhibition on view at TAI Modern highlights several historic works, some on view for the first time.

The 1915 Panama-California Exposition—which celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal and sought to establish San Diego as a port of call—was the site of a major early exhibition of Japanese arts and culture, including bamboo art, in the United States. Beginning in the late 19^thCentury, Japan’s participation in the world’s fairs initiated some of the earliest encounters with Japan’s art and culture within Europe and the Unites States, resulting in an enormous demand for their unique products.

Japanese Bamboo and the World Expo: A Century of Discovery celebrates the fairs’ roles as critical moments of international exposure that inspired Japanese bamboo artists to further their crafts. With pieces spanning from an 1887 vessel by Hayakawa Shokosai I to Nakatomi Hajime’s 2015 Prism: Square, the exhibition provides a rich introduction to the diverse developments bamboo arts have undergone throughout the last century. The show is organized around three primary regions of bamboo art: Kansai, centered around the historic cities of Kyoto and Osaka; Kanto,which encompasses the Tokyo metropolis and the urbanized center of Japan; and Kyushu,the southernmost of Japan’s main islands.

KANSAI

The birthplace of modern Japanese bamboo, the Kansai aesthetic is characterized by elegant forms, balanced proportions, refined craftsmanship and elaborate detail. Kyoto, the historic capital of Japan for over a millennia—also the birthplace of the sencha tea ceremony—was traditionally home to members of the nobility, whose refined tastes and high culture influenced bamboo artists. Three pieces from the Hayakawa Shokosai lineage, spanning almost a century, exemplify the region’s graceful shapes,intricate rattan work, rich dyes, and harmonious integration of various weaving techniques. In later works, such as Tanabe Chikuunsai II’s Lily-shaped Flower Basket, all of these traits are retained while artists have shifted toward lighter constructions and airy, open weaves.

KANTO

The Kanto region, centered around the Tokyo metropolis, is home to artists known for their innovation and break with tradition. From a broad range of colors and types of bamboo to inventive, asymmetrical shapes, these artists share an impulse for experimentation. This is evident in Isohi Setsuko’s cherry-red dyes and Honma Kazuaki’s use of shakotandake, a unique type of speckled bamboo grass. Oki Toshie’s geometric Spring Breezeand Honma Hideaki’s abstracted sculptures exemplify ongoing explorations within bamboo’s potential for new techniques and forms.

KYUSHU

Kyushu, the youngest of the three regions (bamboo art began in this region in the early 1900s), is currently home to the largest number of practicing bamboo artists due to the establishment of the Oita Prefectural Bamboo Craft and Training Support Center in the city of Beppu. Influenced by a number of teachers from various regions, the Kyushu artists are known for powerful constructions and robust, jar-shaped curvatures.Interest in dynamic horizontal progression can be seen in pieces such as Honda Syoryu’s Sound of Wavesand Okazaki Chikuhosai’s Flower Basket with Arrow Design. Many of these artist’s styles embrace bamboo’s wooden qualities, often using wider strips of material and dyes in a natural palette; this is seen in Yufu Shohaku’s muscular Sacred Mountainand Iwao Honan I’s Blue Ocean plaited Flower Basket.