Bamboo baskets

Maggie Oster's book explores the making of Japanese bamboo baskets, along with two arts that grew up alongside them: ikebana, the art of flower arranging, and the tea ceremony. Because little had been written in English about these baskets for decades after the Second World War, the book aims to fill a gap for readers and makers.

The author links the Japanese philosophy of art to bamboo as a material, to ikebana, to the tea ceremony, and to the tokonoma, the recessed alcove in a traditional Japanese room where arrangements are displayed. Readers learn how to choose and prepare raw bamboo, how basket forms, shapes and wrapping methods differ, and where to find fine examples.

The book also covers how to look after finished baskets. An introduction by Marilyn Marinaccio opens the volume, and Yi-an Chou contributes the ikebana arrangements that illustrate the text.