Tōunsai made this basket with susudake bamboo, rattan, and lacquer, using the techniques of twill plaiting, looping, twining, and wrapping. Incised signature on the bottom reads Tōunsai. The basket comes...
Tōunsai made this basket with susudake bamboo, rattan, and lacquer, using the techniques of twill plaiting, looping, twining, and wrapping. Incised signature on the bottom reads Tōunsai. The basket comes with its original lacquered bamboo otoshi (water container) and a fitted kiri-wood storage box.
Tōunsai was listed as active in the Kanto region (Tokyo and surrounding prefectures) in the pre-war period. The use of dust fixed with lacquer to give an antique appearance and the exposed loops securing the handle are features also seen in works by Iizuka Rōkansai dating from about 1930. For a work by Tōunsai in the Lloyd Cotsen collection, see Joseph Newland, ed., Japanese Bamboo Baskets: Masterworks of Form and Texture, Los Angeles, Cotsen Occasional Press, 1999, p. 59, no.42.