Tanabe Chikuunsai II (1910-2000)


Showa era (1926-1989), 1945-1956A tall-handled bamboo flower basket, chiefly executed in gozame (mat-plaiting) technique with extensive fine rattan knotting to the handle and rim, and finished in lacquer, with a striated and lacquered otoshi (water holder) cut from a whole section of bamboo; signed on the base Chikuunsai tsukuru (Made by Chikuunsai); with a wood tomobako storage box inscribed and signed Fuki takate tsubogata hanakago Tekisuikyo Chikuunsai tsukuru ('Riches and Honours' tall-handled flower basket, made by Tekisuikyo Chikuunsai) and sealed Denri no in (Seal of Denri) and Chikuunsai. 59cm (23¼in) high. (3).
|The second Chikuunsai, based in Osaka, seems to have copied the practice of naming his baskets from his Tokyo rival Iizuka Rokansai, who pioneered the title Fuki ('Riches and Honours') in 1926; see Suzuki Satomi, 'Iizuka Rokansai ni miru kindai takekogei no geijutsusei (Iizuka Rokansai: The Evolution of Modern Bamboo Art)', in Jinbungakkai zasshi (The Journal of Human and Cultural Sciences), 38.2 (November 2006), 93-122, p.97.