Dried Flowers

The Chinese were the first ones to put flowers in water, instead of simply making garlands or braiding them. Considering it irreverent to place flowers carelessly before the Buddha, Chinese priests began arranging them into symbolic representations in bronze ceremonial vases. They even mastered the art of drying flowers and using dried blossoms to do away with the wilting of fresh flowers before the Buddha.

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Later, in the 6th Century, the ruling prince of Japan sent envoys to bring back information about the Chinese culture and religion. The emissaries returned with the knowledge about the Chinese floral arrangements and use of dried flowers, among other things. The practice of using water for preserving fresh flowers was also welcomed in Japan. The next ruling prince, Ono-no-Imoko gave up his royal lifestyle to become a priest and devoted his life to arranging flowers for worship. He took up the name Ikenobo, and also established the first school of floral art in Japan.

The Ikenobo school flourished and the art of arranging flowers spread from temples to the homes of the nobility in Japan. Various students from this school later formed their own establishments and different philosophies were born, held at the base by the tenets expounded by Ikenobo. The popularized name Ikebana, meaning “giving life to flowers” was also born around this time.

The most important among these philosophies were religious symbolism, preservation of life and appreciation of beauty. Used both dried and fresh, the pine symbolized the longevity of life. Many such symbols were intertwined in the floral arrangements of the Japanese, and the rules for combining plants and flowers were rather rigid.

The Japanese did not use large masses of flower in their designs. Instead they preferred to use asymmetrical line designs using few flowers, all of which could be appreciated individually. Lines symbolized specific relationships, though the symbolism varied in every school. The most common form was the 3-line design representing heaven, man and earth. Heaven (Shin) is the line that towers over the rest. At the base is the earth line (Tai or Hikae). In between the two, as in between heaven and earth was the Man (Soe) line. Triangular outlines were built based on these three lines, and could be expanded to more odd numbers of lines. Odd numbers represented luck, and were considered more natural; hence even number lines were rarely used, if at all.

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The original temple arrangements were large (6 to 15 feet tall) and usually represented a landscape. This was the Rikka style of floral arrangement. The Shin was the background view of trees, the Soe was the middle view of shrubs before trees, and the Tai was the nearest view of flowers. But this arrangement was too formal and elaborate and needed heavy brass containers. Therefore the style could later spread only to the homes of the nobility who could afford to have such elaborate designs in expensive bronze and brass containers.

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The 15th century ruling Shogun of Japan greatly promoted the tea ceremony along with the arrangement of flowers. Homes now had a special alcove called the tokonama, which held flower arrangements. The floral arrangements used in this case were from the Shoka school of Japanese floral arrangements. Ikenobo Senjyo established the Shoka style of arrangements. He wrote “Soka Hyakki” (”Hundred principles of Flower Arrangement”) to serve as the basic guide for this school. This continued the design elements of heaven, man and earth in triangular arrangements, but the rules for lengths and directions were rather rigid, though the choices of plant materials used varied greatly.

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During the Meiji period the Ikebono style of floral arrangement began to be considered too formal and conservative. A more modern look was sought as masters of various schools tried to do away with the limiting conservatism of floral arrangements. This formed the new style of arrangement called Nageire which literally meant “thrown in”. In this the flowers were strewn in a seemingly artless but extremely subtle and skillful manner in curves that were more suited to everyday life rather than the formal appearance of rigid lines. These arrangements are usually intended to be viewed above eye-level and are therefore mostly seen in hanging containers.

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Developed in 1890 from the Ikenobo school, the Moribana style of floral arrangements are more naturalistic and do not contain religious symbolism. These are low arrangements that have adopted the Rikka triad in depicting miniature landscapes and flower groups.

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After the World War II Japanese floral arrangements began to place greater emphasis on form and texture of plant materials rather than natural scenes, and formed the Jiyu-Bana school of free style floral arrangements

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