Iizuka Shōkansai

Iizuka Shōkansai (飯塚 小玕斎, 1919–2004) was a Japanese artist specialising in Japanese bamboo weaving.

Biography

Shōkansai's father was the bamboo artist Iizuka Rōkansai. Originally Shōkansai's older brother Iizuka Mikio was intended to inherit the family art, and Shōkansai instead studied oil painting at the Tokyo University of Art, under Fujishima Takeji. However, Mikio's death in 1942 left Rōkansai without an heir to continue the family tradition of bamboo art, and so Shōkansai began studying under his father.[1][2][3] His father was a strict teacher; Shōkansai's first decade of instruction was devoted to the proper cutting of bamboo,[4] which he now considers an indispensable part of the craft.[5]

By the late 1940s Shōkansai was regularly submitting pieces to the Nitten exhibition held by the Japan Art Academy, and won a number of prizes in competition (including the Grand Prize (1954) and the Chrysanthemum Award (1960));[6] his work was present in over 20 incarnations of the exhibition.[3] He was eventually made a full member of the Nitten group in 1967.[1] By this time, he had already founded his own art group, the Nihon Chikujinkai, with a group of other artists.[1] In the mid-1970s, he started contributing to the Traditional Crafts Exhibition (Nihon Dentō Kōgei Ten), expanding his repertoire to cover vases, boxes and other containers;[3] he won the Minister of Education Award at his first showing and two years later was invited to be a judge of the competition.[1] His work was exhibited in the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art and the San Francisco Asian Art Museum, and he was invited to Taiwan and other countries to teach his basket-weaving technique.[1][2][7] Between 1979 and 1981, he was employed by the Office of the Imperial Household to catalogue and research bamboo artefacts held in the Shōsōin Imperial Teasure House.[6]

In 1982 he was recognised as a Living National Treasure by the Japan Craft Arts Association and the Agency for Cultural Affairs.[8]

References
  1. "Post-War Basketry KJA0955". Basketry Archives. Kagedo. Archived from the original on 17 March 2012. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
  2. Iizuka, Mari. "Shokansai". Rokando. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
  3. Japanese Studio Crafts: Tradition and the Avant-garde. University of Pennsylvania Press. 1995. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-8122-3335-3. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
  4. Neumeyer, Peter F. "Sounds of life, sightings of excellence". The Boston Globe. Highbeam Research (subscription required). Archived from the original on 7 March 2016. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
  5. The East. East Publications, Incorporated. 1965. p. 48. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
  6. "Textile Arts". Tai Gallery. Archived from the original on 30 June 2013. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
  7. Claremont Quarterly. The Claremont Colleges. 1963. p. 68. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
  8. Diaz, Michelle. "Basketry: Japan's Bamboo Art". Lost Art. Illanois State University College of Arts. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
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