Kashibachi - Setsuchiku, Snow and bamboo

Born in 1866, Kamisaka Sekka grew up during a period of rapid modernisation and international influence following the forced reopening of Japan to international trade after almost three centuries of self-imposed isolation. Although Sekka was interested in new materials and approaches and travelled to Europe to study industrial design principals, he also believed in reviving and preserving traditional Japanese craft traditions. Possibly made to hold fruit, the large Snow and bamboo bowl was produced in collaboration with the potter Takahashi Dōhachi VI who came from a renowned family of potters established in Kyoto in the 1750s.

With its simplified design of bamboo leaves and snow on both the exterior and interior, the bowl exemplifies Sekka’s 20th-century interpretation of the floral and foliate motifs used by Rinpa artists and expressed on the surfaces of tea bowls of Nin’ami Dohachi (Dohachi II,1783–1855) who was in turn inspired by the work of Ogata Kenzan (1663–1743) after whose brother, Ogata Kōrin, Rinpa painting is named.