PROVENANCE:
Private Collection, Taiwan

The staff is made out of a whole piece of bamboo root, which is rarely seen. It is skillfully carved in the round to simulate a gnarled bamboo shoot with protruding nodes. Description for this bamboo staff is part of a set of proverbs starting with the famous saying “greatness lies in the capacity of the mind”. This staff was made by Ishida Baigan (October 12, 1685 - October 29, 1744) when he was 40 years old. Ishida was a Japanese lecturer and philosopher of Edo period who founded the Shingaku movement (heart learning) which advocated all education include teachings in ethics and morality. This intellectual movement absorbed Neo-Confucianism of Song and Ming dynasties, Zen, and Bushido (“the way of the samurai”), raising the idea that people should all learn from samurais. This set of doctrines was especially popular during Edo period but declined after Meiji Restoration.