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Moroyama Masanori Curator of Crafts Gallery, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
From Tanabe Chikuunsai I to Tanabe Chikuunsai III
Between the end of the Edo period and the Meiji period the art of sencha appreciation flourished throughout Japan like never before as a result of heightened interests in Chinese culture and literati culture. In terms of bamboo craft, imitations of supreme Chinese craft or Chinese-style objects such as baskets of various purposes (flower baskets, coal baskets and so forth) that strongly reflected the literati culture became popular. In Osaka, the centre of bamboo craft, many specialized basket makers competed for excellence and exquisiteness of their craftsmanship. Among these were renowned craftsmen Hayakawa Shokosai I, Donkosai and Wada Waichisai I. Shokosai I, in particular, took pride in his fame earned through many exhibitions and became the first to put his signature on his works. Through his enterprising disposition as a basket maker, he engaged in his craft with outstanding results. His son, Shokosai III, who became a prominent figure in the bamboo craft industry of Osaka, worked to define his role as a basket artist by presenting works as an independent artist and advocating the importance of individuality.
Tanabe Chikuunsai I (1877-1937), who distinguished himself at an early age studying under Waichisai I and was inspired by Shokosai III who acted as his teacher, not only excelled at traditional skills and elaborately fine weaving, but also accomplished his own unique expressions through studying weaving and dyeing techniques. For instance, he created unique styles by fusing his own elegant touch in flower arrangement with the Ryurikyo style (weaving of baskets in various forms, such as large flower baskets with a window-like opening, boat-shaped baskets, or flower baskets that hang from the ceiling with elegant decorations), while using koyadake (beautiful, refined old arrow shafts and bows reused by applying vermilion or black lacquer and gold-leaf decorations) for the body of his creations, or using double-hexagonal bekkō weaving or short-row plain weaving with openwork effect. Through this, and by maintaining literati basket styles that allows for free expression of sensitivity as the basis of his work, he was able to accomplish free and fresh individualistic creativity, contributing to a new life of bamboo craft and shaping the basis of Kansai-region bamboo craft today.
He made a name for himself as a modern artist by actively presenting new creations at private exhibitions (such as the show of masterpieces by himself and Tomioka Tessai held as the first exhibition at the Takashimaya art gallery at Nagahoribashi in Osaka in 1922 to commemorate the opening of the gallery), winning various awards (such as the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts (Paris) award in 1925) along the way. After seeing the show, Chikuunsai I praised the bold Shokosai III by saying that he excelled with “his experience in the study of the profundity of the art of flower arrangement,” describing his character by saying that he “is a master who is gentle and has a passionate attitude toward research. In contrast to Shokosai who was a genius that enjoyed spirited discussion, he is an enthusiast who is innocent and honest and wholehearted in every way” Such character greatly resembles that of Chikuunsai II and reflects the style of the Tanabe family.
Chikuunsai II (1910-2000), who established the way of inheriting the Tanabe family tradition, spent his childhood and adolescence during the period between the end of the Taishō era and early Shōwa era, when there was an increase in the awareness of the modernization of Japanese crafts which caused great waves of changes centering around Tokyo. At the tender age of 5 he was already giving demonstrations of basket weaving at the private exhibition of Chikuunsai I. In 1925, when he was 15, he already received the title Shouchikuunsai and opened his first private exhibition. After being selected for the first time alongside Iizuka Rokansai for the 12th Teiten (Imperial Academy art exhibition) in 1931, he became Chikuunsai II in 1937 after the passing of his father, Chikuunsai I. By basing on his creativity that follows the tradition, styles and the utilitarian aesthetics of Osaka’s bamboo craft, he became a prominent artist who elevated the tradition of basket making to an artistic level by designing works with classic styles and fresh originality. After WWII he became actively involved in the Nitten (Japan Fine Arts Exhibition) and explored the possibilities of formative expressions in modern bamboo craft alongside Shono Shounsai of Oita (who expressed his individualistic creativity through sculptural, three-dimensional forms and decorations), Maeda Chikubosai II of Osaka and Iizuka Shokansai of Tokyo.
His Spiral flower basket which won the Special Selection award at the Nitten in 1952 exemplifies his use of fine bamboo strips to achieve elaborate and incredible hexagonal openwork and fish-scale weaving. He also excelled in creating forms with an illusional effect that seem to give off a fragrant scent through layering long, rounded bamboo strips; as well as three-dimensional, sculptural pieces made from innumerous fine bamboo strips neatly woven together. In addition, he also created loose-weaving works that turned ever-changing natural phenomena such as ocean tides and floating clouds into elegant forms using fern-leaf head bamboo. These plus his flexible thinking and his active creation of works through exhibiting his skills won him popularity as an important figure in Kansai craft.
During the period between the 1960s and the 1970s there was an influx of art from overseas, and many craft artists in Japan’s craft world became more consciously aware of the innovation of forms and decorations in the midst of rapid changes with the many varieties of modern art including painting and sculpture pieces. Tanabe Chikuunsai III (Shouchiku, 1940-2014) and his younger brother Tanabe Yota (1944-2008) ventured beyond the typical class of conventional craft forms around the latter half of the 1960s that followed the trend of modern avant-garde, three-dimensional art to develop a bamboo craft art with a formative approach to modern art.
Having studied Industrial, Interior and Craft Design at Musashino Art University, Chikuunsai III apprenticed under Chikuunsai II, acquiring tricks of the traditional family trade, while seeking out new creations, such as formative designs resembling architectural structures through combining straight lines and circles or layered structures using old, unaltered bamboo arrow shafts. His younger brother, Yota, who also studied oil painting at the same university, also exerted his unique creativity in bamboo craft as an artist by integrating his consciousness of life with natural forms, such as seen in his Ikuno (cultivating agriculture) series filled with sentiments. The motifs of farmhouses with straw-thatched roof and the three-dimensional shapes in this series reflect the abstract representations of natural forms and are created by freely weaving Tiger Stripe bamboo strips that had been carefully prepared to take advantage of the special qualities of the bamboo.
From Tanabe Shouchiku to Chikuunsai IV
In 1991 Chikuunsai II yielded his title to Shouchiku and took the name Icchikusai, spending the rest of his late years leisurely and absorbed in creating works. Tanabe Shouchiku grew up weaving bamboo baskets and knew how to use cutting knives well by learning from his father (Chikuunsai III) and grandfather (Chikuunsai II). While this was partly to promote the passing of the family trade and the skills cultivated, it also allowed him to naturally get hands-on experience with materials and bamboo craft techniques from an early age, which exposed him to the techniques and beauty of handicraft.
My personal contact with the Tanabe family began in 1984, when I visited Chikuunsai II to ask him to tell me about bamboo craft and how he worked, in addition to inviting him to present his work at the special exhibition Modern Bamboo Craft to be held at the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo the following year. Since then, every time I visited him I would become more fascinated by his gentle disposition which reflects the stance of Chikuunsai II and Chikuunsai III toward the history and art of Kansai bamboo craft. This later led to my paper “The dawn of the modernization of bamboo craft — Tanabe Chikuunsai I” published in Volume 2 of the Bulletin of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo in 1989.
During that period I did not meet Tanabe Shouchiku (né Takeo, 1973-), but our first meeting (perhaps it was in 1999) upon my viewing of his large installation at the graduation exhibition held by the Department of Sculpture of the Faculty of Art at the Tokyo University of the Arts was impactful. This exhibition would later be linked to his grand series entitled Connection, a series of bundles of three-dimensional forms shown at the eponymous private exhibition held at Art Space in Tokyo in 2003. Rather than simply following traditional weaving techniques, he used large amounts of carefully treated Tiger Stripe bamboo strips, wrapping them in endless spiral forms. The installation reflects his consciousness of connections in life and the inheritance of traditional arts found within his creation of robust forms oriented toward three-dimensional modern art objects. His lecture and demonstration at a local art college held as part of the modern crafts exhibition in Singapore which I had organised in 2014 also drew a large number of audience. Given his rich experience, his demonstration allowed the audience a chance to learn about Japan’s unique bamboo craft tradition, proving that he was a spirited bamboo artist.
Shouchiku has thus far actively presented his works, given lectures and provided demonstrations by invitation of art museums and galleries in the U.S. and Europe, becoming highly appreciated as a modern artist. In particular, we can see from installations such as his bamboo teahouse at the Masaki Residence (Masaki Art Museum) in 2012 and Godai at the Guimet Museum in 2016 that Shouchiku draws from the identity of Japan (and the Japanese) to apply the concept of Connection between natural phenomena (such as water and wind) in life to bamboo as a natural material. Such installations constructed within indoor spaces have received much attention. This and the Japan Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition awards he has won for his fresh creativity linked to the tradition of the Tanabe Chikuunsai family and the lineage of Kansai bamboo craft have also allowed him to become a prominent artist of traditional craft in recent years. In addition, he has also pioneered a new frontier in bamboo craft, by collaborating with artists like the spirited Sasai Fumie (known for his/her dried lacquer works) and makie (lacquer sprinked with gold or silver powder) craftsman Wakamiya Takashi.
Being fully aware of his duty to rightfully continue the lineage of artistic Osaka bamboo craft, Tanabe Shouchiku shall hereby succeed to the name of Chikuunsai IV. Japan’s bamboo craft has become a modern plastic art that has been expanded along with the augmentation of the history of Japan’s modernisation by many artists. Today, Japan’s bamboo craft is widely known as an international art, drawing great interests both nationally and internationally. In addition to Chikuunsai IV’s creativity as a modern artist, he is also expected to lead a future where tradition will continue to survive.