Moon Flask–Shaped Flower Basket (Henko-gata hanakago)
Tanabe Chikuunsai II Japanese
Not on view
Tanabe Chikuunsai II excelled in light openwork, thousand-line construction, and sophisticated coarse-weave works of smoked bamboo. This unusual flower basket (following his father’s similar composition) was inspired by Chinese moon flasks, a type of porcelain vessel produced beginning in the fifteenth century. The basket’s flattened circular body has a narrow, cylindrical neck, a flat base, and two arched side handles. The front and back of the body were made with circular plaiting, resulting in a bull’s-eye pattern typically seen on a basket’s base.
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