Melody of Strings Flower Basket (Hanakago)

1983
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
Shōchikudō had no intention of becoming a bamboo artist and did not formally study under his father, Kosuge Chikudō (1895–1966), but his work was accepted by the Tokyo Craft Arts Exhibition when he was just fourteen. After World War II, the Niigata Prefectural government hired him to teach bamboo basketry, his work was admitted to the Nitten exhibitions, and he became one of the seventeen founding members of the Japan Bamboo Artists Association in 1955.

He eventually turned his attention away from public exhibitions and toward design, manufacturing bamboo brooches and collaborating with fashion designers such as Issey Miyake (born 1938). He made Melody of Strings using a type of parallel construction (kushime).

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 小管小竹堂造花籃
  • Title: Melody of Strings Flower Basket (Hanakago)
  • Artist: Kosuge Shōchikudō (Japanese, 1921–2003)
  • Period: Shōwa period (1926–89)
  • Date: 1983
  • Culture: Japan
  • Medium: Timber bamboo and rattan
  • Dimensions: H. 15 3/4 in. (40 cm); W. 29 1/4 in. (74.3 cm); D. 7 1/2 in. (19.1 cm)
  • Classification: Bamboo
  • Credit Line: Lent by Diane and Arthur Abbey
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art