Ikebana: The Art and Beauty of Flower Arranging

This beautifully illustrated volume celebrates the Japanese art of arranging flowers with reproductions of classical seventeenth-century artworks from the New York Public Library’s Spencer Collection.

Meticulous reproductions of sublime paintings showcase rikka, the oldest and most traditional form of flower arranging, which is linked to the Ikenobō school, Japan’s first and largest school of ikebana. The images presented here perfectly illustrate the main principles of ikebana--harmonious juxtaposition of flowers, balance between foliage (leaves, fronds, reeds, etc.) and branches, and naturalistic compositions for display.

Several schools and styles of ikebana have evolved over the centuries. The rikka style is characterized by the use of erect branches and flowers to display a marked verticality in order to express the beauty of a natural landscape in a single vase. The floral arrangements in this collection date back to the Ikenobō Grand Master of Kyoto’s Rokkakudō Temple and his disciples from the Ashikaga Shogunate (1336-1573). These flower arrangements were officially documented by Igai Sansaemon in 1673 in artworks printed xylographically and then hand-colored using the gansai watercolor technique. The reproductions are accompanied by authoritative text by one of the world’s leading authorities on Japanese art.

Today, ikebana remains one of Japan’s most popular art forms, and it is increasingly embraced by flower arrangers around the world. It is a wonderfully meditative and contemplative form of creative and personal expression, allowing practitioners to flee their daily cares into a world of balance, order, serenity, and beauty.

Frédéric Girard is director of studies emeritus at the École française d’Extrême-Orient, specializing in classical Japanese studies.