Japanese flower arrangement/Introduction
INTRODUCTION
AFTER long travel through India, Ceylon, and China I was more deeply impressed than ever that flowers are a greater factor in the life of the Japanese than in that of any other nation.
When I returned to Japan, my study of the art of flower arrangement for years convinced me that the Japanese held in this art knowledge of value to Western peoples. Following this art from youth has given the Japanese an idea of proportion, taught them the power of concentration, and one might almost say imbued them with many of their finest traits of character. Aside from the gain of beauty in the results of these floral arrangements and the advantage of prolonging the life of flowers so arranged, I am sure that all who may be led into trying this system for themselves will be amply repaid for any amount of time they may devote to its practise.
I am confident that a recognition of the beauty of a few flowers naturally arranged will bring flowers more into general use by those who have hitherto felt that quantity was necessary to produce any pleasing effect. If we would but profit by what the Japanese have to teach us, no one who loves and longs for flowers need be without one or two to give suggestion of nature's wealth of beauty. Even one spray of green can suggest the freshness of growing things which is so often shut out from our city lives; while our masses of roses and violets suggest only the hothouse and are out of the reach of many who could have a few flowers.
Mr. Josiah Conder, in his comprehensive and wonderfully instructive work on the subject, "The Flowers of Japan and the Art of Japanese Floral Arrangement," has given us great enlightenment. No other foreigner has had such opportunities, none has shown such keen appreciation of the flower art's symbolism and beauty. All lovers of the art owe Mr. Conder endless gratitude for the information he has given us. But while Enshiu-Ryu, the school Mr. Conder has selected to describe, is the most striking of them all and has impressed its influence on all later schools, it is too unnatural in its lines to appeal to Western taste.
The lover of flowers in their natural state is startled rather than pleased by Enshiu-Ryu. In following the history of Ike-bana you will see that Enshiu-Ryu was created in a period when all art ran to decoration, so that it is more for design than for actual arrangements of flowers that Enshiu-Ryu is valuable. Its principles are so strong and clear that they have been followed by most of the other schools, but they became exaggerated to such an extent that the natural growth of the plant was lost sight of in extreme and unnatural curves. Mr. Conder as a scholar took up this school, as he himself states, for the reason that its principles adapt themselves the most readily to purposes of explanation. But as a practical follower of the art, my experience in many years' teaching has been that the simpler schools are more adapted to Western needs.
Like most foreigners, I commenced my study of Ike-bana with Enshiu-Ryu, but soon wearied of its artificialities, and through the kindness of a Japanese friend was led into Koshin-Ryu, a more simple and natural school. The pleasure and benefit I have derived from a long study of this style cannot be estimated. Not only in the grace and beauty of the lines achieved and in the strengthening of sense of proportion, but also in the quickening of observation of the natural growth of all plants and trees, and in the simplifying and improving of taste in all directions, I have gained so much that it makes me long to pass on to others what I have found so helpful.
After following for years the school of Koshin-Ryu I found great benefit in learning something of the others. All these schools, with but one exception, Kyo-fu, differ only in the non-essentials, the principles are the same throughout. Each school, however, has different names for the principles and places the flowers in the vases in a different order. The kubari or support, which holds the flowers in place in the vase, is also made and placed differently by each school, and there are other slight differences, but the main principles are the same in all.
Ike-bana, the Japanese word for flower arrangements, means living flowers and explains by its derivation the fundamental principles of the grouping. Without some knowledge of its history it does not seem possible to get into the proper spirit for working out the true beauty of these arrangements, so in these pages is given a concise history of the different schools and their dates; as age counts for so much in Japan that the followers of the more modern schools are looked down upon with scorn by the adepts of the old schools.In Ike-bana the Japanese have given us a scientific arrangement of flowers which excels all others in beauty of line and brings into our homes the refreshment derived from growing plants—a quite different sensation from that given by other arrangements of cut flowers.
By the aid of the following pages, I sincerely hope that a simple but beautiful arrangement of flowers may be easily attained by all who have felt the desire for something less confused in flower arrangement than has yet been reached by Western people.
