Works by artists of the Japan Craft Arts Association, the Nitten World, and independent artists.

This is a fully illustrated guide to the art, craft and design of bamboo, as demonstrated by the Japanese. It demonstrates how to use inexpensive materials to create sophisticated effects in the home and garden. A list of bamboo collections, gardens and research sources is included. For centuries, bamboo has fascinated legions of craftspeople, plant lovers and devotees of the handcrafted object. And nowhere is bamboo used more elegantly and distinctly than in Japan. Its presence touches every part of daily life-art, crafts, design, literature, and food. Its beauty

Japanese Bamboo Baskets: Masterworks of Form and Texture surveys nineteenth- and twentieth-century baskets of Japan, their place in history, and the elevation of bamboo craft work to an art form. It features more than 250 illustrations of selections from the largest known collection of Japanese flower baskets. This is the first book in English to examine bamboo baskets as modern sculptural masterpieces as well as chronicle the development of Japanese flower-arranging baskets from utilitarian containers through their subsequent transformation into art. At the heart of this volume are dramatic portraits of works in the Cotsen Collection. Full-page and double-page illustrations abound. Large-scale details and second views evoke the forms, textures and three-dimensionality Of the baskets, revealing their monumentality and the architecture of their construction. The baskets illustrated were selected primarily for their visual qualities, and are organized by region. They rage from 1890s examples by the first basket maker who signed his work to 1990s creations by leading bamboo crafts artists. Pieces by all those who have been made Living National Treasures are included. This book is filled with new information and superlative works of art. It will be treasured by anyone who has known the joy of holding a rough-woven basket or admired the delicate tracery of bamboo strips in a contemporary work of bamboo art.

Once neglected in the West, Japanese basketry now claims a loyal following among art lovers, collectors, and craftspeople in the United States and Europe. Japanese Basketry acknowledges this growing interest by presenting a stunning array of the best baskets to come out of Japan in the last 150 years....[and] frames the pieces in a wealth of original material, beginning with a preface by pioneer collector Lloyd Cotsen -- from book jacket.

Sculptural beauty and technical flair highlight Japanese ceramics and baskets from the Snider Collection The blossoming of contemporary crafts in Japan that began in the twentieth century is rooted in a long and rich tradition of exquisite design and technical accomplishment. Featuring some 100 works by close to 60 artists, Fired Earth, Woven Bamboo showcases the range of creative approaches in Japanese ceramics and bamboo art beginning in the postwar period and focusing on the past three decades. Some artists choose to break out of the bounds of vessel shapes to create wildly sculptural forms, whereas others choose to pursue individual expression through more nuanced approaches. All engage in dialogue with their materials as well as with traditional forms, functions, and techniques. The works that spring from their hands--delicate or monumental, humorous or spiritual, rustic or sophisticated--testify to the vitality of the contemporary crafts movement and to the marvelous variety of artistic achievement it has fostered. Enhanced with historical and biographical essays by a leading expert on Japanese crafts, Fired Earth, Woven Bamboo provides a fascinating tour of contemporary ceramic and bamboo arts in Japan as well as an introduction to the riches of the Mary Ann and Stanley Snider Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

This title celebrates contemporary Japanese bamboo masters whose imaginative new works are changing the definition of basketry.

* New monograph on bamboo artist Tanabe Chiku'unsai IV* Reveres the long tradition of bamboo art in Japan* A detailed exploration of Chiku'unsai IV's life and motivations* Exclusive insights into the working methods of a master craftsman* Chiku'unsai IV has exhibited at TAI Modern, Mingei Gallery and the Metropolitan, among many moreThe bamboo: tall, strong and flexible. This fast-growing shoot has been used as a construction material, a foodstuff and fuel for millennia, from India to Japan. Tanabe Chiku'unsai IV's art elevates bamboo to new heights. By weaving together small pieces of fibrous stalk, he creates vast, detailed sculptures without the use of rivets or adhesives. Under Chiku'unsai IV's skilled craftsmanship, bamboo is more than a functional tool: it is modern art, a unifying symbol of Japanese culture. His sculptures revere traditional workmanship, while conveying important contemporary messages - the codependence of nature and man, and the importance of protecting our environment. Part autobiography, part introduction to the craft, this monograph follows Chiku'unsai IV's growth from a child marveling at his grandfather's mastery of bamboo, to a maestro in his own right. Bamboo weaves his past to his present, providing a sturdy foundation on which his art continues to build. "Love bamboos, live with bamboos," says Chiku'unsai IV. As this book demonstrates, he has done precisely that.