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The 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries were an age of strife when the
feudal lords fought for their supremacy and survival. During such chaotic times, people
needed to forget harsh realities, even for a short while. To do so, many people began to
take an interest in various artistic activities. Flower arrangement was one of them.
Feudal lords employed special artists to decorate their rooms with flower arrangements.
Those artists developed a certain formula for arranging flowers called tatebana.
The object of tatebana was to create a symbolic representation of the cosmos
using plant materials. |
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This style became more and more elaborate and stylized.
It was renamed rikka in the beginning of the 17th century. It consists of
centering the sacred mountain and dividing the other parts into seven features: the
mountain peak, a waterfall, adjacent mountains, the foot of the mountain, and towns and
villages. Then, the scene as a whole is divided into the sunlit area, yang in Chinese
astrology, and the shaded area of yin. |
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Along with the development of rikka,
the simple naturalistic flower arrangement, nageire, remained popular. Toward the
end of the 16th century, when Tea Ceremony became accepted as one of the great art forms,
an extremely simple and austere nageire was introduced in order to decorate a tea
room. This style, often consisting of only a single flower, is known as chabana
or tea flower.
At the close of the 17th century, economic power began to shift from
the military rulers to the merchants. A demand arose for smaller and more simplified ikebana
forms, ones suitable for domestic display rather than ornate, large arrangements. This led
to the emergence of shoka, a style which combined the simple naturalistic style
of nageire and the stylized form of rikka. |
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Shoka means 'living flower' and the shoka
arrangement illustrates the process of plant growth; a seed is planted, it sprouts, it
grows toward the sun, it is affected by the weather, and it eventually wilts and dies. In shoka
style, there are three main branches, and they are called shin, soe, and
tai. The shin is the primary branch, the tallest of the three; the soe
the secondary branch, of intermediate height; the tai the tertiary or
supplementary branch, the shortest of the three. |
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Another style evolved when Western culture was introduced to Japan
at the end of the 19th century. The style was named moribana, and calls for less
stringent rules than the classical rikka and shoka styles. In the early
20th century, an even freer style, jiyuka, developed from moribana. In jiyuka,
ikebana arrangements are created to express an artist's idea or emotional
reaction. This is in contrast to other forms of ikebana, in which the artist's
main concern is how to grasp and present natural beauty. |
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Ikebana has passed through many
phases since its inception over one thousand years ago. Any form of ikebana from
any period can be studied and practiced. Today, ikebana continues to evolve as
all living art should. |
