Ikebana

The ancient art of flower arrangement, ikebana is one of the foundations of Japanese culture, along with the art of the tea ceremony. The custom of placing flowers on temple altars began in 538 AD, when Chinese monks introduced Buddhism to Japan. Originally practised by men - for centuries held in high esteem by the samurai - the art of floral arrangements reached its apogee in the sixteenth and especially the sixteenth centuries.

This book reproduces a superb set of 98 rikka-style flower arrangements compiled and edited by Igai Sansaemon in Kyoto in 1673, and now in the New York Public Library. This treatise illustrates the teaching of ikebana, the technique of harmoniously combining plant parts (various types of foliage, reeds, grasses, etc.), plants, flowers, branches and stumps in vase compositions.