Iizuka Shōkansai

Iizuka Shōkansai ( Japanese 飯 塚 小 玕 斎 , real name: Iizuka Shigetoshi ( 飯 塚 成年 ); * May 6, 1919 in the Hongō district (today: Bunkyō ) in Tokyo Prefecture ; † September 4, 2004 ) was a Japanese artisan who Works made from bamboo. It was declared on June 6, 1982 as a living national treasure for the important intangible cultural asset “handicrafts made from bamboo”.

Shōkansai was born as the second eldest son of Iizuka Rōkansai in a district of Tokyo. He studied painting at the Tōkyō Bijutsu Gakkō (today: Tokyo University of the Arts ) with Fujishima Takeji . After the death of his older brother, he learned the craft of weaving baskets from bamboo from his father Iizuka Rōkansai in order to continue the family tradition. In 1947 he took part for the first time in the important exhibition of the Japanese Academy of the Arts , the "Nitten", at which he exhibited for another twenty years. In 1953 he was awarded the Hokutō Prize ( 日 展 北斗 賞 ) of the Nitten. In 1974 he received the Minister of Culture's Prize for Education and Teaching. Shōkansai traveled to America and Taiwan, among others, to present the art of basket weaving from bamboo material and to make it known. From 1979 to 1981 he sighted and examined for the Imperial Court Office the bamboo-made cultural assets of the Shōsōin , the treasure house of the Tōdai-ji .

In 1982 Shōkansai was named after Shōno Shōunsai as the second artisan in the bamboo category to the Living National Treasure. Shōkansai died of pneumonia in September 2004 at the age of 85.

Remarks

1. ↑ The prize should not be confused with the prize of the same name at the Obihiro racecourse for Ban'ei races or the poetry prize of the same name for haiku .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 飯 塚 小 玕 斎 . In: デ ジ タ ル 版 日本人 名 大 辞典 + Plus at kotobank.jp. Retrieved March 15, 2015 (Japanese). 
2. ↑ Iizuka Mari: Shokansai. Rokando, accessed March 15, 2015 . 

Web links

• 飯 塚 小 玕 斎 . In:日本 美術 年鑑 平 成 17 年 版 . Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Goods, December 12, 2014,pp. 354–355,accessed March 15, 2015(Japanese). 
• Micelle Diaz: Basketry: Japan's Bamboo Art. In: Lost Art. Illinois State University College of Arts, accessed March 15, 2015 . 

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Iizuka is the family name, Shōkansai the first name.