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By Maezaki Shinya Associate Professor, Kyoto Women’s University
Bamboo, a green and flexible plant that grows in abundant nature. Weaving thousands of split and shaved bamboo strips with his heart and soul. The combination of extremely thin strips of bamboo dyed in two separate colours seems to replicate the painted tiger by Edo-era artist, Ito Jakuchū, but is in fact an 8-metre-high work created in Paris using torafudake (bamboo with tiger-stripes). Such is the work of Tanabe Chikuunsai (fourth generation, born in 1973) which is both historical and modern, while always seeking to expand to the outside world.
Tanabe Chikuunsai IV (formerly Tanabe Shouchiku III, né Takeo) was born in Sakai, Osaka in 1973. By the time he was born, his great-grandfather, Tanabe Chikuunsai I, had already passed away. His grandfather became the second in line, and his father succeeded to the title of Tanabe Chikuunsai III, creating art pieces under the name Tanabe Shouchiku. With bamboo being an integral part of their family life, Tanabe Chikuunsai IV began weaving bamboo even before reaching the age of discretion. And as if a matter of course, he enrolled in the Department of Sculpture at Tokyo University of the Arts. Everyone thought he would follow the footsteps of his father to continue the family bamboo craft business, but what awaited him at the university was a number of unexpected options for his future. Uncertain whether he would want to spend all his life working with bamboo, he spent several years outside of university searching for other future possibilities besides bamboo craft. However, he eventually realized that bamboo craft was his life.
Once he made the decision there was no more doubting. With his father’s permission, he graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts with a woven bamboo piece. After graduation, he spent two years learning at the Oita Prefectural Bamboo Craft Training Center in order to acquire the skills and techniques of Oita prefecture (a representative bamboo craft production area in Japan) that are different from those of his family. Upon returning home he learned from his father the techniques passed down for generations in his family and continues to acquire skills and techniques today, whilst searching for his own unique techniques.
As a flexible material to work with, bamboo has been part of the lives of people in Asia since ancient times. In Japan, lacquered bamboo-woven vessels have been unearthed from Jōmon-period sites, demonstrating that bamboo was already used by the Japanese in daily living spaces. Since those ancient times, bamboo has been used for various purposes, from building construction to intricate handicraft. But besides being a cheap and handy material, bamboo holds important significance as well.
Since ancient times bamboo has been used as a motif in China as a symbol of integrity and constancy, signifying one’s firm principles. The evergreen bamboo stands firm even in cold winter and against winds. Yet, as it soars with dignity, it is hollow inside and shows no concern with worldly things. Such quality has thus been associated with one of the virtues desirable of people to better themselves.
This concept would later be brought to Japan, and bamboo would continue to be used as a motif in many historical paintings, as well as a material and design motif for stationeries and furniture. In other words, the use of bamboo for the pieces created by the generations of Tanabe family and their disciples in itself already carries this concept, one that is also embodied in the attitude to continue using the same material and techniques.
Besides using bamboo, another common characteristic of past generations of Tanabe masters is probably the tradition of adding new techniques to the family’s traditional craft making. Tanabe Chikuunsai I created karamonokago (Chinese-style bamboo flower basket used to complement the tea ceremony) which symbolised the era of literati culture. His successor made extremely detailed woven bamboo baskets with light openwork. Tanabe’s father (Tanabe Chikuunsai III) created abstract shapes by piecing bamboo parts together instead of weaving. Having inherited these techniques developed by his forefathers, Tanabe also follows tradition to expand the range of his unique work.
The Three Pillars
Tanabe Chikuunsai IV’s work is supported by three pillars. The first pillar is functional pieces such as flower baskets made by bamboo craftsmen in Sakai that originated in the Meiji period. By applying techniques passed down through the generations, he continues to present his work at the Japan Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition which takes place twice a year. In 2010 he received the Best Young Artist Award from the Japan Kōgei Association, and in 2015 he received the Kinki Region Award from the same association. In 2016, his Sensujigumi Hanakago – Sozo Toshi piece created in a modern form using the openwork weaving technique developed by his grandfather won him the Honourable Mention Award from the association. As a leading young artist in the world of bamboo craft, he created this work in modern form but with traditional techniques.
In recent years, his work has gained more recognition in the west. It was increasing demand in the United States for bamboo craft that saved Japan’s bamboo craft industry in the 1980s, when the craft was on the verge of dying out. The bamboo reminds one of Asia, while large-scale works reflect the spacious luxury mansions of the affluent. Bamboo sculptures with geometric elements have garnered much more attention than functional bamboo vessels. Tanabe has also presented such works of various themes after his graduation piece. His works have attracted attention not only from the United States but also from Europe in recent years, with museums and art galleries increasingly adding his works to their collections every year. Rather than simply creating whatever fancies him, he has a good grasp of the trends in Japan and overseas and pays attention to the proper use of his works.
The second pillar is his collaboration with craftsmen from different fields, such as working with lacquer artist Wakamiya Takashi to apply raised lacquer work on bamboo craft and thus successfully recreated the techniques once lost in the Meiji period. They continue to present the fruit of their collaboration using the same techniques, each time with a different theme, first “Jakuchū in the Price Collection”, followed by “1200 years of Kūkai and Mt. Koya”, and most recently, “Zen”.
At first, the collaboration involved just him and Wakamiya Takashi, but it then developed into new collaborations. In 2014 he held the Yūgō suru Kōgei — Deai ga michibiku Dentō no Mirai (Fusing Crafts: Encounters that Lead to the Future of Tradition) exhibition at Ginza Wako Hall showcasing works created with the theme of “encountering of different materials” in collaboration with Wakamiya Takashi, Kirikane (metal foil cut into small pieces for decorative design) glass artist Yamamoto Akane, dried lacquer artist Sasai Fumie, and white porcelain artist Wakasugi Seiko. In 2016 collaboration with Wakamiya Takashi, Sasai Fumie, Jizai Okimono artist Mitsuta Haruo, wood sculptor Oguro Arisa, ceramic artist Kato Ryotaro, and guilder Manuela Paul-Cavallier led to the success of their Yūgō suru Kōgei — Tabi ni deta Yadokari no Hanashi (Fusing Crafts: The Story of Hermit Crabs on a Journey” held at the Takashimaya Department Store’s gallery in Osaka.
The theme of the project was to bring traditional crafts back together. The various crafts established during the Edo period from a combination of different materials were separated into categories by material during the Meiji period to facilitate the exhibiting of products at world expositions and fairs in the west. The aim of the project is to ‘fuse back’ these crafts that have, over 100 years since the Meiji period, evolved separately by the material used. The novelty of works created through this project have attracted attention from many direction, sparking a new trend in collaborated craft making.
The third pillar is bamboo installations. With the concept “Art that Remains in Our Memories” he first created an installation for display at the Yamaguchi residence in Sakai in 2011, before going on to create other installations at different venues by getting inspirations from each venue to create pieces appropriate for the place. These installations are created onsite and disassembled after the exhibition period is over, making them works of memories instead of records. The disassembled bamboo pieces are placed in water to be recycled and used for the next installation. In other words, the memories of the venues where Tanabe’s installations have hitherto been displayed and the memories forged on viewers by the installations are woven together through bamboo as a medium. The repeating of the concepts of “continuity” and “regeneration” produce a connection with space that transcends time.
The torafudake bamboo used for his installations grows only in the mountains of Kochi. This type of bamboo is unusual because about one in every twenty comes with a tiger-stripe pattern. The cause of the pattern is unknown, but when this type of bamboo is cultivated in other mountain areas it simply grows as ordinary bamboo with no patterns at all. Apart from the rarity of this bamboo as a material, bamboo also signifies integrity and constancy, as mentioned before. It can be said that the unbending and noble image of the bamboo lies at the basis of his work.
In October 2015 a Franco-Japanese art exchange exhibition was held at the Domaine de la Celle Saint-Cloud located some 10 kilometres north of the Versailles. Titled Beyond Connection, the exhibition was 12 days in the making and it embodied the three main themes: Japan, France and the people involved in the exhibition. These three themes intertwined and dominated over the entire exhibition space. The installation was taken apart after the five-month exhibition ended, as had been done with Tanabe’s previous works. The bamboo strips used, however, were kept in storage in France. Following that, he became the first Japanese to exhibit an installation, titled Godai, at the Musée Guimet in February 2016. The installation represented a world where the five elements that make up our world intertwine.
This was an enormous work towering over the interior of the circular exhibition venue. Standing in front of the installation was like being in Japan and you could feel the tenderness of nature which has been gradually disappearing from our daily lives. What Tanabe proposed with this was a new way of linking time and space across the world, as well as the question hinted to our society at how we should engage ourselves with the ever-changing nature.
It is astonishing that he attained these achievements through the three different pillars within the past five years. Behind his achievements lies his father’s (the late Tanabe Chikuunsai III) understanding of him as an artist, as well as the tremendous support from people around him. First, there is his family. His works with the theme of “connection” are filled with kindness and they gleam with his thoughts of his family. His mother, wife, and his three children who are proud of their father are his spiritual support. Then, there are his students who aid him in the creation of continuously growing volume and types of pieces. From finely woven tobacco cases small enough to hold in one’s hand to enormous installations, without these students his creation of the wide variety of works would be impossible. There are also the handicraft artists with whom he creates, mutually influences each other, and shares learning spaces. Besides them there are also flower arrangement and tea-ceremony experts who provide him with artistic viewpoints that differ from artists. In addition to these are photographers who make beautiful visual records of his works and designers, not to mention also art historians who pass and will pass on his legacy to posterity.
All these people come together around him and enhance his creativity. They form an auxiliary force he can depend on, without compromising the artist in him. It is a force of people connecting that helps Tanabe create new works and the future. That is to say, his own strength to create art has hitherto been accompanied by other forces to help him elevate his art. This is the very reason that he, Tanabe Chikuunsai IV, has an unprecedented presence in Japan’s craft world, and I believe that he will be the driving force that will lead the Tanabe family and Japan’s bamboo craft world to the future.