A robust basket made of high quality black bamboo, signature material of the second Waichisai, one of the most influential bamboo artists of the Kansai (Osaka/Kyoto) region. He was a founding member of the Bamboo Artists' Association of Osaka established in 1919 to promote appreciation of bamboo art. This novel association included all of the 'old masters' of the Kansai region, such as Hayakawa Shokosai III, Tanabe Chikuunsai I, Maeda Chikubosai I, and Yamamoto Chikuryusai (Shoen), whose works set the curve for the generations to follow. 

This basket reflects the early generation's explorations of fully Japanese basket forms, even if they were still working for an audience still steeped (so in Chinese sencha tea culture. Such roughly-woven baskets can appear to permit any shape or pattern, but the most satisfying baskets of this kind 'stand up' with with a clear sense of form. The rough weave is not an excuse for complete randomness, but instead for creation of variations within a theme. Here variations in the surface pattern--a relatively simple cross-weave--are created as the bunched vertical lengths descend from the rim and handle and angle across the body with a constrained dynamism.