竹芸家 竹芸展

choi

Roberta Smith, Bamboo Unbound. Baskets and other woven works attain a level of transcendence in the Met's first show devoted to form.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/ ... ers-of-the-art.html
(exhibition review on Japanese Bamboo Art: The Abbey Collection 日本の竹工芸：アビー・コレクション. Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met),  - Feb 4, 2016)

Two consecutive paragraphs:

"Bamboo contains multitudes. Perhaps nowhere more than in Japan, home to over 600 species of this amazing plant, officially a subfamily of grasses but blessed with a woody stem and the ability to lift well above its weight. For centuries, if not millenniums, bamboo has permeated everyday Japanese life, figured in some of the country’s best-known literature and become a staple of its art, as both motif and material. Its propensity to bend yet endure makes it a cultural symbol. In both Japan and China, an ink painting of a tiger in a grove of bamboo signifies social harmony and, it would seem, political savvy, as this wily animal is among the few able to navigate the dense bamboo forest.

"Bamboo's presence in Japanese art is lavishly paid tribute by the [exhibition] The first show at the Met to concentrate on basketry, it celebrates the promised gift to the Met of more than 70 mostly extraordinary bamboo baskets and sculptures from the New York collectors Diane and Arthur Abbey. The group nearly doubles the museum's holdings in this genre, joining some 80 bamboo baskets bequeathed in 1891 by Edward C Moore.  The core of this new presentation consists of 65 bamboo works from the Abbeys' gift, joined by nearly two dozen remaining in their collection and a handful from the Moore bequest. * * * the Abbeys are indeed collectors of contemporary (and modern) art. The baskets they are giving the Met complement the Moore bequest by being almost entirely from the 20th and 21st centuries

My comment:
(a)
(i) I was unaware of tales or tableaux of tiger and bamboo. But "竹と虎" combination seems to be common in Japan.
(ii) Q: 美術作品によく描かれている竹と虎にまつわる故事について知りたい. 西東京市中央図書館, Feb 5, 2010 (updated on Mar 11, 2010; control no: 西東京-20100202)
http://crd.ndl.go.jp/reference/m ... w&id=1000064540
(A: "「虎は千里の藪に住む」、「虎は千里の藪を越す」のことわざがあり。『易経』より「虎は風に従う」という言葉があり、風を視覚化したものが竹林であるという説もあり。以下の資料を提供。* * * ")
(A) The acronyms in the URL refers to Collaborative Reference Database, National Diet Library.
(B) my translation: Tigers live om bamboo thickets. Tigers cross bamboo thickets. These are phrases. 易經．乾卦．九五：「水流濕，火就燥，雲從龍，風從虎，聖人作而萬物睹」. Visualization of winds uses bamboos. {Based on] the following bibliography
(C) Japanese-English dictionary:
* yabu 藪 【やぶ】 (n): "thicket"
* sasageru 捧げる(P); 献げる 【ささげる】 (v): "(1) to lift up; to hold up; to hold above eye level; (2) to give; to offer; to consecrate; (3) to devote; to sacrifice; to dedicate  <彼は平和のため一生を捧げた。 He dedicated his life to peace?"
* musō 無双 【むそう】 (n): "peerless; unparalleled; matchless"
* morikago 盛り籠
   ^ kago かご(P); カゴ(P) 《籠(P); 篭(P)》 (n): "basket (shopping, etc.); hamper; cage"
* hanaire 花入れ; 花入 【はないれ】 (n): "vase"  (入れ (pronunciation: ire; meaning; entry) is noun of the verb iru (enter).)

choi

(b) "the Met commissioned TANABE Chikuunsai IV [四代 田辺 竹雲斎 or 田辺 竹雲斎(4代); 2nd son of III; II was a son of I], a fourth-generation bamboo artist born in 1973, to create an installation piece that looms over the entrance to the show. 'The Gate,' as it is called, is two thick entwined coils that twist upward from the floor and spread out along the ceiling. Their scale is imposing; they evoke twin baby cyclones or, less violent, the bifurcated trunk of an ancient banyan 榕 tree, but their open-weave, light-colored Tiger bamboo [Chinese: 虎斑竹] is semitransparent and sort of weightless. * * * Throughout the exhibition you will see basketry abstracted, deconstructed and all but exploded in the hands of successive generations of artists. In 1975 TANABE Yōta 田辺 陽太 (1944-2008), a younger brother of Tanabe Chikuunsai III [本名 久雄], created 'Earth Dedicated to Children,' a low-lying mountain (or volcano) form that looks like a miniature earthwork, or maybe a model for James Turrell's 'Roden Crater [which is a real crater].' "
(i) Phyllostachys nigra 'Bory' (Tiger Bamboo). Bamboo Botanicals, undated
www.bamboobotanicals.ca/html/bam ... hys-nigra-bory.html
("A cultivar that orignated from Japan, this bamboo develops dark markings and patterns on it's culms that resemble that of a Tiger. New culms emerge green and slowly develop the markings as the culm ages")
(A) culm (n): "a monocotyledonous stem (as of a grass or sedge)"https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culm
(B) culm (botany)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culm_(botany)
(i) 田邊陽太 造 「子供たちにささげる土」 Earth Dedicated to Children (1975). The Met, undated.
www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/vi ... ;pos=16&amp;ft=*&offset=20
(A) For the definition of "sasageru," see (a)(ii)(C) above.
(B) The Met identifies the medium as "shichiku ('purple') bamboo."  The shi" and "chiku" are, respectively, Chinese pronunciations for kanji 紫 and 竹.
(ii) James Turrell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Turrell
(1943- ; American)


(c) "Basketry's [basketry: art of making baskets] processes do not extensively transform bamboo * * * The central technique is weaving. There will usually be some cutting or slicing, often into exquisitely thin strands, and maybe some soaking beforehand; along the way rattan might be used for reinforcement and, toward the finish, lacquer may be applied. But that's about it."
(i) "Rattan (from the Malay rotan) is the name for roughly 600 species of old world climbing palms."  Wikipedia
(ii) palmbob, Himalaya Rattan Palm (Plectocomia himalayana). Dave's Garden, Feb 22, 2004
https://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/35376/

This (35376) is a young rattan. Below, the third thumbnail (35375) from the left is a mature one, from a different locale but the same species.

choi

(d) "The linear structure of bamboo basketry maintains a remarkable clarity.* * * But bamboo basketry also accommodates what might be called crazy-quilt departures from the grid, as in the crisscrossing darn-stitch weave of NAGAKURA Ken'ichi's 長倉 健一 round 'Sister Moon Flower Basket' of 2004 — an intensely covetable, fittingly concave and seemingly inward-looking piece that the Abbeys perhaps understandably are keeping. And the physical variety of bamboo accommodates many sensibilities and degrees of refinement, from intricate forms and patterns that look like computer planning was required, to the relative crudeness of the exuberant 'Dancing Frog Flower Basket,' with its flamboyantly twisted handle and aggressive weave, made by HAYAKAWA Shōkosai III 三世 早川 尚古斎 [1864-1922] in 1918."
(i) "crazy-quilt departures from the grid"
(A) definition:
* crazy quilt (n):
"1:  a patchwork quilt of a type traditionally made in North America, with patches of randomly varying sizes, shapes, colours, and fabrics
1.1  a disorganized collection of things  <colonial America was a crazy quilt of laws>"
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/crazy_quilt
* crazy–quilt (adj; First Known Use 1888): "resembling a crazy quilt : HAPHAZARD  <a crazy–quilt system>"https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crazy-quilt
(B) View photos in crazy quilting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_quilting
(section 1 History: Crazy quilts became popular in the late 1800s)
(ii) "darn-stitch weave"
(A) darn (vt; etymology):
"1: mend (a hole in knitted material) by interweaving yarn with a needle  <I don't expect you to darn my socks>
1.1: embroider (material) with a large running stitch"
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/darn

If you do not understand, no problem. Go straight to next, which explains both definitions in Oxford dictionaries.
(B) Royce Davids, Basic Embroidery Stitches. Darning Stitch. Royce's Club, Oct 31, 2011.
http://roycedavids.blogspot.com/ ... itches-darning.html
(C) darning
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darning
("is a sewing technique for repairing holes or worn areas in fabric or knitting using needle and thread alone. It is often done by hand * * * where patching is impractical or would create discomfort for the wearer" / section 3        Pattern darning)
(iii)  "Nagakura Ken'ichi's  round 'Sister Moon Flower Basket' of 2004 — an intensely covetable, fittingly concave and seemingly inward-looking piece".

I have searched exhaustively and can find just two photos. (I fail to find its Japanese name, if any, or what sister moon flower is.)
(A) Japanese Bamboo Art: The Abbey Collection at The Met Fifth Avenue, through February 4, 2018. Arts Summary, June 25, 2017
https://artssummary.com/2017/06/ ... gh-february-4-2018/
(photo caption: "Right: Nagakura Ken'ichi, Japanese, born 1952. Sister Moon Flower Basket (Hanaire), Japan, Heisei 平成 [元号] period (1989–present), 2004")

* Definition of "hanaire" is found in (a)(ii)(C).
(B) a close-up photo (this photo appears in print but not online) :

Art - New York Times Syndicate.
https://www.nytsyn.com/images/photos?keyword=Bamboo
("BAMBOO EXHIBIT 6[:] 2017-08-03 [date of first appearance in nytsyn.com] 'Sist­er Moon Flowe­r Baske­t (Hana­ire)' by Nagak­ura Ken'i­chi")

choi

(e) "As with many of the crafts that the Japanese have cultivated into art, great aid came from China, specifically in the refined baskets that began arriving in the 13th century for use in Esoteric Buddhist rituals and soon became part of traditional Japanese tea ceremonies. Chinese forms continue into the present, like the elevated offering tray from 2012 by FUJINUMA Noboru 藤沼 昇, born in 1945 and now designated a Living National Treasure 人間国宝 in Japan. 'Peerless Fruit or Offering Tray' very much lives up to its name."
(i) Esoteric Buddhism  密宗
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/密宗
(又稱密教、真言宗)
(ii) Monika Bincsik, Japanese Bamboo Art: The Abbey Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017, at page 38
https://books.google.com/books?i ... %20Tray&f=false
(photo no "50 Fujinuma Noboru (Japanese, b 1945). Peerless (Musō) fruit offering tray (morikago). * * * ")

For Japanese definitions, see (a)(ii)(C).

choi

(f) "Hayakawa Shokosai I (1815-1897) [is]  thought to be the first Japanese bamboo master to sign his works. The Moore bequest's Shokosai I is a large and regal Chinese-style flower basket that has the silhouette of a Ming dynasty stoneware storage jar (similar to the one sitting beside it). The Abbeys have enhanced this masterwork with two more of his pieces: a wonderful anomaly in the form of a perfectly bowled bowler hat in bamboo and rattan and a boxy yet gently swelling lidded basket for transporting tea ceremony utensils.  Since Shokosai I's time, basketry has tended to be dynastic, usually along the male line * * * The two women represented in the show — KAKIWARA Aya 梶原 あや ['aya' is Japanese pronunciation for 綾], born in 1941, and ISOHI Setsuko 磯飛 節子, 1964 — may be a sign of change, but for the most part bamboo art is handed down from father to son or from a master to an apprentice. Tanabe Chikuunsai IV is preceded by Tanabe Chikuunsai III, II and I, with examples o
f the clan's impressive efforts lined up in front of “Misty Bamboo on a Distant Mountain,” an atmospheric ink painting by the Chinese artist Zheng Xie f郑燮 [1693–1765; commonly known as 郑板桥; among 扬州八怪] from 1753. It is one of several stirring, sometimes carefully matched pairings of baskets and two-dimensional works. My favorite involves a hanging scroll by the great YOSA Buson 与謝 蕪村 [1716 – 1784; poet/ painter]. Near it, you will find a one-man dynasty named Iizuka Rōkansai 飯塚 琅玕齋 (1890-1958), represented by seven basketry works whose variations in color, purpose, form and fineness make an especially breathtaking moment in a show splendidly full of them."
(i) "The Moore bequest's Shokosai I is a large and regal Chinese-style flower basket that has the silhouette of a Ming dynasty stoneware storage jar"

初代早川尚古斎造　唐物花籃  Large Karamono-Style Flower Basket (Hanakago). The Met, undated
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/62167
(Date: ca 1870s–80s; Medium: Timber bamboo and rattan; Dimensions: H 19 3/4 in (50.2 cm); Diam. 16 in. (40.6 cm); Credit Line: Edward C Moore Collection, Bequest of Edward C Moore, 1891; Accession Number:91.1.2068)
(ii) "a boxy yet gently swelling lidded basket for transporting tea ceremony utensils"

初代早川尚古斎造 茶籃(提藍)  Basket for Transporting Sencha Tea-Ceremony Utensils (Chakago or Teiran). The Met, undated
http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibit ... &amp;oid=706893
(Date: ca 1877–80s; Medium: Rattan and brocaded silk; Credit Lineromised Gift of Diane and Arthur Abbey)
(A) The "chakago" and "teiran" (again: "ei" means a long vowel of "e") is pronunciation for 茶籃 and 提藍, respectively -- all are Chinese pronunciations for respective kanji, except "kago" (a pronunciation shared by kanji: 籠 (usually) and 籃).
(B) sencha  煎茶
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sencha

Compare 煎餅 and 焙煎 (n and v: "roasting (eg of coffee)" with
senjiru 煎じる 【せんじる】 (v): "to boil; to decoct; to infuse  <このお茶は、１０分間煎じなさい。Let the tea draw for ten minutes>"
(iii) 清 鄭燮 遠山煙竹圖 軸/ 鄭燮筆 遠山煙竹図  Misty Bamboo on a Distant Mountain, The Met, undated
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/44620
(Credit Line:From the PY and Kinmay W Tang Family Collection, Gift of Oscar L Tang, 1990; Accession Number:1990.322a–d)
(iii) "[A] one-man dynasty "?  Rōkansai has a son engaged in the bamboo art, too. See Shōkansai IIZUKA  飯塚 小玕斎
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shōkansai_Iizuka
(A) 玕 is a Chinese word that is no longer used in Japan (Japanese government said so, which published a list of common kanji). Jim Breen online dictionary (in its kanji dictionary only; not shown otherwise ) indicates its Chinese pronunciation is "kan" (Japanese pronunciation absent) and it means "inferior variety of gem."  
(B) 玕 (n): "着似玉的美石。見「琅玕」"  Taipei: 教育部異體字字典, undated.
dict.variants.moe.edu.tw/yitib/frb/frb02594.htm
(A) Tang Ping-yuan  唐炳源 (1898 – 1971; 字星海; Hong Kong: 南海紗廠創辦人; 妻子是民國時期外交部次長溫秉忠的長女溫金美)
(B) A son of the above is 唐騮千  Oscar L Tang
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/唐骝千
(1938- )

choi

(g)
(i) photo caption is this NYT review:
(A) " 'Dance' made by HONDA Shōryu 本田 聖流 in 2000"
(B) "HONMA Kazuaki's 本間 一秋 [秀昭親子] 'Breath' "
(C) Hayakawa Shokosai III's 'Dancing Frog Flower Basket' "    "三代早川尚古斎造 「舞蛙」花籃" (per The Met)
(D) " 'Flowing Pattern 流紋 [2014],' by HONMA Hideaki 本間 秀昭."
(ii) Here is the URL for the Met exhibition.
http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibit ... japanese-bamboo-art

Click "Exhibition Objects" in the left column to view more artwork.  Beneath "Exhibition Objects" is the "Exhibition Catalogue" for sale, which is (e)(ii) above.