Weaves of Japan: Kodo Arts Japanese Antiques hosts spring sale, show

Kodo Arts Japanese Antiques is pleased to re-open its Kodo Arts Warehouse for its spring in-person sale and show running from May 27 through June 6. Besides its vast Japanese antiques inventory, a special display will be presented of antique Japanese woven bamboo flower and farmer baskets plus indigo dyed Japanese Ikat textiles from the 1800s. Each item exemplifies the meticulous Japanese attention to detail through the intricate warp and weft “Weaves of Japan.”

Japanese bamboo flower baskets rose to an art form in the early 1900s with mind boggling weaves and knots and later free wheeling “wagumi,” or Japanese style weaves of wide swathes of bamboo mixed with rattan and wisteria vine inserts. Masters emerged signing their works and apprentices and guarded lineages appeared. Signed masterpieces by famous makers often fetch lofty prices at Japanese auctions. The bamboo itself used in the construction of the baskets offers a fascinating journey from its life in an old farmhouse to being split, plied and coaxed into a sculpture at the hands of a master craftsman.

Old Japanese farmhouses often had an “irori” or open hearth in the middle of the main tatami mat room where a long pole with a wood hook stabilized a large iron pot over the fire. Smoke from this fire would smoke and age the bamboo frame in the ceiling of the thatched roof. When periodic re-thatching of the roof took place, the bamboo would be changed out. This aged and smoked bamboo called “susudake” was prized by bamboo basket makers for their masterpieces.

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Another fabulous woven folk art that emerged among mostly farmers in the 1800s were indigo dyed textiles: cotton bed covers, fireman jackets and workwear including kimonos, pants and even diapers. Most have repeating geometrical designs that require weft and warp threads to have rice resist pastes applied before dyeing so that the white geometrical patterns didn’t take the deep blue dyes.

This collection along with Kodo Arts’ deep inventory of furniture, garden, home décor, kimonos, art, sculpture and the unusual will be on sale for 11 days from May 27 through June 6. The store is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily at the Kodo Arts Warehouse, 571 Searls Ave, Nevada City. The Kodo Arts warehouse is open to the public only twice a year.

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More info at Kodo-arts.com or call 530-478-0812. Masks required inside the warehouse.