20 Exhibitions


CREATIVE SPLENDOUR Japanese Bamboo Baskets


Tis exhibition of a series of installations of 20th-century Japanese baskets from the 19th century to the present ,on loan from the Toma Foundation, survey the outstanding accomplishments of Japanese basket makers from three regions of Japan: the Kansai region, which encompasses the ancient capital, Kyoto; the Kanto region, which stretches westward from Tokyo; and the southernmost island of Kyushu. Te exhibition demonstrates the specific techniques and styles of cutting and weaving bamboo that are particular to each of these geographic regions. Maeda Chikubosai II


(1917-2004), is perhaps best known for his layered structures and complex surfaces. He was born in the Hirai section of Sakai, where all of the Maeda clan lives and was apprenticed to his father, a well-known craftsman. After the Second World War, he began to show his work in various exhibition around Osaka. In 1953, his first piece was accepted in the Nitten (the arts exhibition first established in 1907) in 1952, and in 1959 at the Japan Traditional Crafts Exhibition. In addition to modern baskets made from round strips of bent-and-gathered bamboo, the artist produced baskets for the sencha tea ceremony,


continuing this Osaka basketry tradition. He was honoured as a Living National Treasure for bamboo craft by the Japan government in 1995. Another of the artists in the


exhibition is Higashi Takesonosai (1915-2003). Born in Kyoto, he began to exhibit works at the annual Nitten exhibitions in 1952. Beginning in 1990, he also submitted works to the Traditional Art Crafts Exhibitions. He is best known for his unique structural compositions made with parallel construction.


• Until 2 January, 2024, San Antonio Museum of Art,


Texas, samuseum.org


HER BRUSH Japanese Women Artists


Taking a nuanced approach to questions of artistic voice, gender and agency, this exhibition explores, through more than 100 works of painting, calligraphy, and ceramics from 1600s to 1900s, female artists in Japan. Many of the artworks are on view for the first time to the public. Tracing the pathways women artists forged for themselves in their pursuit of art, Her Brush explores the universal human drive of artistic expression as self-realisation, while navigating cultural barriers during times marked by strict gender roles and societal regulations. Tese historical social restrictions served as both impediment and impetus to women pursuing artmaking in Japan at the time.


Willow and Frog by Oishi Junkyo, mid-1900s, ink and colour on paper, gift of Drs John Fong and Colin Johnstone. Photo © Denver Art Museum


Breaking Waves in the Pines (Shoto), by Murase Myodo, late 1900s, hanging scroll, ink on paper, gift of Drs John Fong and Colin Johnstone. Photo © Denver Art Museum


Te exhibition is


organised into seven sections representing different realms in which artists found their voice and made their stamp on art history. Artists in the exhibition include Kiyohara Yukinobu (1643-1682), Otagaki Rengetsu (1791– 1875), and Okuhara Seiko


SHOJI HAMADA


How a young potter’s visit to a tiny village in East Sussex shaped the course of the craft movement in both Britain and Japan is the theme of this exhibition. In 1921, Shoji Hamada (1894-1978), a key figure in the Mingei Japanese folk-art movement, travelled with his friend Bernard Leach (1887-1979) to the village of Ditchling from St Ives in Cornwall. It focuses on the cultural exchange between the East and the West at this key moment in the emergence of the studio pottery movement. On display are over 70


ceramics ranging from traditional British slipware to rich tenmoku-glazed jugs, iron-brush decorated plates and sgraffito etched jars, including 25 pieces by Hamada. Hamada spent three years living in England and a major theme of the exhibition will be his experience of the village of Ditchling and its resulting impact on his life and work. It begins with early works


ASIAN ART | NOVEMBER 2022 |


Earthenware bottle with four lug handles, circa 1920-23, engobe and transparent glaze, by Shōji Hamada. Courtesy of The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent


created by Leach as a result of his stay in Japan between 1909 and 1920. It was here Leach met Hamada and pottery became his focus. Leach studied religiously under mentor Ogata Kenzan VI for two years, in the artist colony of Abiko, learning traditional techniques that had been passed down for centuries. Kenzan’s work is represented in the exhibition by a pot with black-and-white sgraffito decoration, featuring a pattern typical of his work, derived from 12th-century traditions in Korea and Japan. In 1920, Hamada and


Leach moved to St Ives, where they set up their pioneering pottery studio. Collaborative works from this period, including a raku dish with a brushed decoration of a ship in iron oxide, will be displayed alongside solo works by Leach. Tese showcase Leach’s passion for Japanese traditions, including a plate decorated with cherry blossoms and mountains.


#AsianArtPaper | asianartnewspaper | Te Leach Pottery is


known for having the first traditional Japanese climbing kiln in the West. Te original blueprint for the three-chambered kiln, built by potter Tsurunoske Matsubayashi, is displayed alongside Leach’s own sketch for a second, unrealised kiln. Contemporary works by


• Shoji Hamada: A Japanese Potter in Ditchling, until 16 April, 2023, Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, near Brighton, East Sussex, ditchlingmuseumartcraft.org.uk


Shoji Hamada’s grandson Tomo Hamada, that show Hamada’s continued legacy on both Eastern and Western ceramic tradition, will also be on display. Tomo Hamada’s work uses clay from Mashiko and is decorated with the ancestral glazes his grandfather was fond of, reddish brown kaki, creamy nuka, cobalt blue and green seiji.


asianartnewspaper | Asian Art Newspaper


(1837-1913) as well as relatively unknown yet equally remarkable artists like Oishi Junkyo (1888- 1968), Yamamoto Shoto (1757–1831) and Kato Seiko (fl. 1800s). An introduction space


presents the two major themes of the exhibition:


artists’ pathways to art, and art as agency. Each gallery evokes a different cultural context, within and through which artists pursued their art. Whether being born into a family of professional artists or becoming a nun for the freedom to produce art, the groupings do not


pigeonhole the artists as identities. Instead, they highlight how women navigated their personal journeys as artists. In the exhibition, many of the artists can and do appear in more than one section, shuttling through these spheres, despite the strict


limitations imposed on them by the time’s gender roles and class hierarchies.


• Her Brush: Japanese Women Artists from the Fong-Johnstone Collection, from 13 November to 13 May, 2023, Denver Art Museum, denverartmuseum.org


Dawn, no date (1926-89), by Higashi, Takesonosai (1915-2003), madake, 13.25 x 7.6875 x 7.6875 in, collection of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation © Artist or artist estate, courtesy of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation. Photo: TAI Gallery


Untitled, no date by Maeda, Chikubosai II (1917-2003), madake, rattan, 11.5 x 7.5 x 7.5 in, collection of Carl & Marilynn Thoma, © Artist or artist estate, courtesy of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation. Photo: Textile Arts


Shoji Hamada, date unknown, by kind permission of the Hamada estate


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