Maeda Chikubōsai I (1872-1950)

Tennen-dake tsutsumi-gata hanakago
(Bamboo basket with a handle, made of natural bamboo, in a shape of a hand-held drum)

Hakogaki
Top of the lid: Tsutsumi-gata hanakago (A hand-held drum shaped bamboo basket)
Back of the lid: Koyo kuze-no-sato, Chikubōsai tsukuru kore [This is made by Chikubōsai, in Kuze village, Koyo (“Imperial sunshine”)]

Senjo-ami (One thousand line construction) and Gozame-ami (mat plaiting)

Maeda Chikubōsai I was one of the most important bamboo artists working in the first half of the 20th century.

Late in the Taishō era (1912-1926), he made presentation baskets on behalf of the Imperial Household, for which he became famous.

Chikubōsai held a series of one-man exhibitions at the Mitsukoshi Department Store in Tokyo from 1926 until the late 1930s.

He was pivotal in promoting individual expression in the bamboo arts.

His son, Maeda Chikubōsai II (1917-2003), was the third bamboo artist to be designated a Living National Treasure (Ningen Kokuhō) in 1995.