Japanese Flower Arrangement SchoolsJapanese flower arrangement, or Ikebana, schools each have their own way of displaying flowers. Various schools throughout the ages have developed their own principles and beliefs about how this living art should be displayed.My name is Satomi Smith and I have learned the Ikenobo style of flower arrangement since I was a child in Fukui, Japan. From 2011 I am looking forward to sharing this traditional art on Grand Island NY, to anyone in the area who is interested in learning. More than three hundred ikebana schools are registered with the Nihon Ikebana Art Association, and each school has its own style, principle, and spirituality. I cannot talk about all three hundred, but I will little by little introduce the main schools (please check back from time-to-time as this page will forever be a work in progress!). To begin with, the largest Japanese flower arrangement schools are the Ikenobo School, the Sogetsu School, and the Ohara School. Ikenobo School: Ikenobo is the oldest school of Ikebana with more than 500 hundred years of history, and its base is in Kyoto, Japan. Ikenobo is the largest spread school both in Japan and throughout the world. My mother is the licensed teacher of the Ikenobo School, and I have studied Ikenobo style Ikebana since I was a child, so I am most familiar with this style. The following picture is from our teacher Yukimi Yoshida in Fukui pref. She won the 1st place "Iemoto Award" in the Ikenobo flower competition with this display.
I like the Ikenobo style because of its modest, natural, traditional, and progressive approach. Ikenobo has the oldest history and they highly value its traditional style, yet they are also broad-minded for change and they have created a free style to cope with the modern living and housing settings. A tradition would not survive it was too rigid to adapt. I believe many of their techniques can be applied to the modern western home as well. Sogetsu School: The Sogetsu school is a modern Japanese flower arrangement school that was founded in 1972. They created a new school because they did not believe in ikebana having established forms, but they recognized ikebana as a creative art.
The Sogetsu style of flower arrangement is often displayed in hotel lobbies or banquet halls, so in a way it is closer to western flower arrangement.They are usually quite colorful, extravagant, and unique. Ohara School: The Ohara school was founded in the late 19th century with the influence of Western culture. The Ohara school values the qualities of nature; the seasons, natural growth and the environment.
They encourage students to observe nature. Their signature style is called Moribana (upright-style) displayed in a shallow vase with needlepoint holders. I hope you enjoyed this display of the various Ikebana schools and I hope you were able to see the similarities and differences between. Stay tuned for more examples of the many styles of flower arrangement and ideas you can use to create your own display.
|
FREE Serene Gardens Newsletter
Our E-zine keeps you up-to-date with the latest news and helps you create your own serene space.