Five sweets baskets

Hayakawa Shokosai I was the first Japanese bamboo artist to sign his work and a leader of his day.

Many of Shokosai I's works were made for use in the practice of sencha, a type of tea ceremony that was especially popular in Osaka in the 1800s. In sencha, roasted green tea leaves are steeped in a small teapot. The infusion is then drunk from tiny cups. Shokosai's elegant miniature baskets, each executed with a different technique in the intricate Chinese mode, would have been the perfect dishes for presenting delicate tea sweets to accompany this beverage.

The Way of Sencha is somewhat different from the better-known Way of Tea called chanoyu, which uses powdered green tea whipped in large teabowls.