Japanese Wagumi Handled Bamboo Basket Ikebana

Bold, rustic and with an earthy free spirit, this wagumi style flower basket with twisted handle (ikebana) was designed and woven to evoke a sense of serenity an humbleness during the tea ceremony. With a large and solid barrel shape that evokes a visual sense of weight and mass, the basket was woven with a tight twill plaiting for the interior layer, more natural and rustic bamboo strips were then woven with a loose and slightly irregular hexagonal plaiting to form an exterior veins-like layer, extending from the reinforced secondary top rim. Bundles of bamboo strips were twisted into ropes-like handle and inserted into the body, giving the whole piece a robust vitality. The base was woven in a tight hexagonal mat plaiting. Although not signed, this basket conveys a beauty achieved through a fine balance between free-spirit and constrains, certainly from the hands of a basketry master.
The wagumi style was found popular and specifically Japanese at the turn of the 20th century, a departure in style from the formal and finely woven Chinese styles. The basket was lacquered in a deep brown color. Sooted bamboo was used as the residues of smokes can be discerned. It retains the inner container for water made out of a bamboo trunk. Circa 1920s. Not signed.