Flower Basket (hanakago) with Two Lug Handles

This modern Japanese flower basket has a circular rim and base, but its sides billow out cross-sectionally like a six-petaled blossom. The main plaiting technique used for the body is variously known as “thousand-line construction” (sensuji-gumi), comb plaiting (kushime-ami), or “parallel construction” (kumi). The vertical strips of bamboo are aligned parallel to each other and then fastened at the top and bottom. The strips are supplemented by decorative horizontal plaited bands. These bands of embroidered plaiting (sashi-ami or takesashi-ami) are made from thin, pliable strands of finely split young Kuril bamboo (Sasa kurilensis; nemagari-dake) worked into the rigid openwork foundation of parallel vertical strips.