Water Seeping Through Rocks

Katsushiro Soho comes from a farming family and learned to make utilitarian baskets from his father, later apprenticed with another farmer, Kikuchi Yoshii, and after that studied with Yagisawa Keizo. His last teacher, Saito Bunseki, encouraged him to make bamboo art. Bestowed with numerous prestigious awards during his long career, over the last three decades his works have appeared in numerous juried exhibitions. In 2005 he was honored with the highest official recognition for an artist: being designated a Living National Treasure. He continues to live on his family farm and draws his inspiration from nature. “Because I am a farmer, I understand the ‘smell’ of nature. I have a keen sense of the seasons. Observing nature I obtain new themes for my baskets…The beauty of bamboo, to me, is the way it reveals a dynamic line in space. I honor traditional techniques, but I think the development of new techniques is also very important.”