Karamono-Style Flower Basket (Hanakago) 1890 - 1901

This Karamono-Style Flower Basket was made with bamboo by Wada Waichisai I, sometime near the end of the 19th century. It’s a striking piece, but it’s important to consider what something like a flower basket was doing in Japanese society at that time. Flower baskets were important accoutrements for tea ceremonies and other social events, and the style was very popular during the Meiji Period when Japan was opening up to the West. This basket is made in the karamono, or Chinese style, yet it was made in Japan. What does that tell us about the artist and the culture of the time? How was Japan seeing itself in relation to its neighbors, and how were the cultural traditions of other places being imported and adapted? Historians look at trade records, travel logs, and the writings of contemporary critics to find out more about the meaning of such objects. When we do this, we understand that art always exists within society.