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introduction

The art of ikebana is to listen to the spirit of flowers and plants. It is how to make the voice or sentiment of the flower a visual combination with your feelings. Ikebana allows the heart of the arranger to touch the heart of the viewer, and this brings peace and tranquility. I hope that you will enjoy ikebana.

—Kasen Yoshimura,

Grandmaster of the Ryusei School of Ikebana,

Tokyo, Japan

Flowers, in their freshness and beauty, send a message to people. The presentation of flowers depends upon the occasion and culture. In the West, bouquets are offered to people on many occasions. The Japanese have a distinct way of arranging flowers and call it ikebana. Because it is a unique art form, people around the world study and take classes in the art of ikebana. To understand the Japanese way of arranging flowers, one must go back in history to see how it developed.

The History of Ikebana

In A.D. 538 King Song, the ruler of the Paekche kingdom in Korea, sent to the Japanese mikado (today, known as the emperor) a bronze statue of the Buddha gilded with gold. He also sent sacred Buddhist teaching manuals and a number of priests. This is how Buddhism was first introduced to Japan. The Buddhist figure was placed at the center of an altar and was surrounded by gold and bronze decorations. Offerings of flowers or flower petals, placed in a shallow bronze bowl filled with water, were placed in front of the Buddha.

As the teaching of Buddhism spread, the temples became larger, and the figures of the Buddha and all the related ornaments became larger, too, so that the followers could see them from a distance. The offerings of flowers were also made taller, to complement the larger altar. Flowers with stems and leaves arranged in narrow, tall-necked vases were placed on a stand to increase the height of the offering. One of the duties of the attendant Buddhist monk was to replace the vase with fresh flowers every day. Later, instead of a single blossom, the monks began to combine several blossoms, which included a tight bud, a half-opened bud, and a fully opened flower. The explanation for the people was that the tight bud represented the future, the half-opened bud represented the present, and the fully opened bud represented the past. The Buddhist teachings went on to inform followers that we are young and healthy today, but eventually all living things become old and move on to the land of the Buddha. These basic laws of nature were conveyed through flower arrangements.

Over the years, some of the dedicated Buddhist monks who arranged the offerings of flowers became experts in creating the overall design of the altars for various occasions. These talented Buddhist monks started to work outside of the temples and were hired by men of power who ruled the government to decorate their audience halls. Using today's equivalents, the monk's job was to be an art director—he would select the proper paintings and decorations and then create large flower arrangements for these audience and reception halls. Many of these artistically talented monks, with their great sense of judgment and sensitivity to various types of beauty, also became well known as black ink painters, calligraphers, and haiku poets. During those early days, the general category of professional artists did not exist.

The form of ikebana that the Buddhist monks created became known as rikka. Using their role as specialists in arranging flowers, the monks began to incorporate Buddhist teaching in their rikka arrangements, and tried to symbolically recreate the Buddhist nirvana, an idealized sacred land, within the arrangement itself.

We've seen that flower arrangements first started from flower petals simply floating on surface of the water as an offering, and then flowers with stems leaning in tall vases for height were used with the larger altars. The rikka-style ikebana began with one central plant, and then gradually other flowers and branches of the season were combined to complete a single arrangement.

As rikka arrangements became larger in size, three flower vases were used to form one composition. The central vase represented Amida Buddha, and the left and right vases represented the attending Bodhisattvas (enlightened compassionate beings). This arrangement was an important first step, as it laid the foundation for ikebana. Later you will see how seika and moribana also follow these patterns.

This creative experimentation with ikebana eventually led to another kind of ikebana art. By the fourteenth century, these arrangements were being created from wonderful twisted branches and colorful flowers of the season, and became an art form on its own, called tatebana. (In Japanese, tate means "stand," and bana or hana means "flower." In Chinese, the same character is read as ritsu and ka, which is where the name rikka comes from.)

By the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, tatebana was called rikka, which means "a resplendent standing flower arrangement." Many variations were developed, and the rikka became stronger. The specialists or creators of rikka, who were hired by different rulers of the region, eventually started to compete with each other in their style of arrangements. Rikka flower arrangements began to appear in the residences of the nobility, and the symbols from Buddhism were disregarded. When the three-piece arrangements were on display in a palace or government building, a space almost thirty-three feet wide was required. Each of the arrangements was six and one-half feet high and spaces were needed between them. Imagine the scene during that period, of rulers sitting in front of these splendid flower arrangements as they met to negotiate with emissaries. Rather than the display of weaponry such as swords, spears, rifles, and suits of armor, the symbol for the wealth and power of the rule was the magnificence of tatebana beauty.

To be unique and unconventional, yet retain the grand spectacle, became the rikka artists' creative focus, and they moved away from the innate beauty of nature.

By the seventeenth century, the long period of internal struggle for power ended and Japan was at peace. People were able to appreciate art in general and new artistic forms such as the Noh drama, kabuki, tea ceremony, and haiku poetry were being created again. Originally, rikka arrangements were used as religious offerings and gradually, after a long period of growth and development, they became a perfected art that was enjoyed by only the privileged classes. Eventually, exhibitions of rikka were opened to the public.