MINOURA Chikuho
(b. 1934)
"Bamboo has a certain tenderness, a breathing quality," Minoura has said.
"When you weave it and pattern it, light passes through it; it is
transparent and solid at the same time. It also retains the qualities it
has in nature - flexibility and strength."
Minoura, who was selected by the city of Sasayama as an Intangible Cultural
Asset in 1985, began studying bamboo at 16 with the great master Sakaguchi
Sounsai. In 1958 he had a traditional apprenticeship with Tanabe Chikuunsai
II; that same year, his work was admitted to the Japan Modern Arts and
Crafts Exhibition where he won the Yomiuri Television Broadcast Award. His
work has been accepted numerous times in Nitten and Shin Kogei exhibitions.
Since then he has had numerous solo shows, most recently at the Sasayama
City Museum of History and Arts, and won the Superior Award at the Kyoto
Craft Arts Exhibition. Minoura's baskets are represented in the permanent
collection of the Denver Art Museum and San Francisco Asian Art Museum.
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