Congratulations to Japanese bamboo artist Kibe Seiho and his representing gallery Tai Modern for receiveing the amazing Living National Treasure. With this announcement, Kibe Seiho becomes the first graduate of the Oita Prefectural Bamboo Craft and Training Center in Beppu to become a Living National Treasure.
About 70 years ago the Japanese government instituted a program to recognize traditional craft artists with a title we in America know as Living National Treasure. Only a handful of bamboo artists have been given this honor, and this summer Kibe Seiho became the eighth to join this exclusive company. This is the first time in history that there have been three Living National Treasures in bamboo art at the same time.
Kibe was born in 1951 in Oita Prefecture in Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost island.At the age of thirty-seven, while working as a gas station attendant, he resolved to live a more artistic life. His parents had expected him to take over the family farm and were not happy when Kibe enrolled at the Oita Prefectural Bamboo Craft and Training Center in Beppu. Kibe was a top student but graduated during Japan’s post-bubble economic stagnation. After years of struggling to make a living as a bamboo artist, he returned to working at the gas station again part time. However, in 2001, the founder of TAI Gallery, Robert Coffland, commissioned a major work which sold to an American client. The next several pieces sold as fast as the artist could ship them to the US, and this income allowed him to focus on his artwork alone. Over the next 20 years, Kibe’s baskets would win many major awards, and in 2014 he received the Purple Ribbon for lifetime achievement in the arts, presented to him by the Emperor of Japan.
