Rare Japanese Handled Bamboo Basket for Chado Hayakawa Shokosai I Tomobako

A finely woven bamboo basket in rectangular from with articulated handles woven by Hayakawa Shokosai I (1815-1897) in the year of 1885. This rare full assemble with a removable tray, brocaded interior wall and original signed tomobako (clothes and tie retained as well) is of museum quality and an important example of the work by the artist, who is considered as the founding father of Japanese modern bamboo art and the first ever signed his own work thus elevating bamboo weaving from a craft into an art form. The container-form basket was traditionally used during Sencha tea ceremony for storing and transporting tea wares and utensils (known as Chakago or Teiran). The main body was woven in a tight twill plaiting, with the handles enhanced by circular plaiting. The insert tray was constructed in square plating. The interior of the basket is lined with a golden brocade. The two articulate handles were covered in rattan weaves and attached to the side of the baskets via artistically branch-embedment. There is a small bronze locker plate to secure the closure of the basket. The basket was signed on the base "Made by Shokosai at the old age of 70", dating the piece to precisely to 1885. The original tomobako bears the ink calligraphy: "Handled basket; Made by Hayakawa Shokosai I as well as the maker of the box "XinHua" as well as an old paper label with collection number.
For a highly comparable Sencha basket, see Object Number: 2019.424.4a–c in the collection of Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.
Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, The Avery Brundage Collection. Object Number: B60M405.a-.c.
Compare this basket to two other related examples of baskets for chado illustrated on page 106 (figure 016 and 019) in the book "Baskets Masterpieces of Japanese Bamboo Art 1850-2015".