Rokansai (1890-1958), also using the name of Yuseki 友石, was born Yanosuke 弥之助 as the sixth son of Hosai I.
Rokansai in his workroom. In the tokonoma alcove behind him, the painting is "Mt. Fuji" by Taikan Yokoyama.
He started to study under his father when he was 12 years old, and developed his talent as a bamboo craftsman.
By the time he was 20 years old, because of Rokansai's amazing talent, he was producing bamboo works under the name of his elder brother, Hosai II.
Rokansai was a strong-spirited person and as a teenager, he desired to become a painter, going to school to learn painting, however, his skills working with bamboo were too good to ignore and he was moved to start bamboo craft in earnest. As part of his education as an artist, he studied a variety of traditional Japanese art forms such as calligraphy, Sinology, haiku, and poetry. Much of his personal style, and the wide variations in body of work are based on his wide-ranging studies.
As an artist, Rokansai adopted the concept of three states of Shin (真), Gyou (行), and Sou (草) into his works, and he gave his pieces elegant titles showing natural phenomena.
Rokansai introduced and developed important techniques, such as embroidered plaiting Sashiami 刺編, bundled plaiting Tabaneami 束編, smashed bamboo Tsubushi, Noshitake のし竹, Hirachiku (平竹) and the use of Shira sabi take 白錆竹.
In 1922, his flower basket titled “Buddhist Altar Zushi 厨子” received the Silver Prize in the Peace Memorial Tokyo Exposition. Thereafter, he received numerous awards for his work. He raised bamboo craft art from having a reputation as the lowest among crafts to being recognized as top drawer category of Japanese craft art.
In 1933, architect Bruno Taut visited Rokansai when he was in Japan and afterwards, Rokansai and Taut kept in touch for several years.
Bruno Taut admired Rokansai saying, “In Japan, there is Tanabe Chikuunsai in the west, and Iizuka Rokansai in the East” and he proclaimed Rokansai's works as 'modern.'
Rokansai remained in contact with a wide variety of other well-known artists such as Matsuda Gonroku (松田権六) in lacquer art, and Itaya Hazan (板谷波山) who specialized in ceramic arts, and other calligraphers. Rokansai distinguished himself in a wide variety of the intellectual artistic pursuits such as calligraphy, drawings and painting, and haiku, and a body of that work remains.
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