Japanese Ikebana’s Beauty Lies in its Simple and Assessible Philosophy
Two simple but important life lessons from flower arrangement
Several years ago at the Asian Arts Museum in San Francisco, I spent a charming afternoon learning about Ikebana (the Japanese art of arranging flowers) with the President of the Wafu School of Ikebana in the California chapter, Fusako Hoyrup Sensei.
The word Ikebana means “live flowers in a container”; it allows us to enjoy indoors the charm and beauty of nature — landscapes, the seashore, or the lakeside. The practice dates back to the 6th or 7th century in Japan as simple offerings on Buddhist altars but has now become an art form in everyday life in Japan. There are now about 3,000+ schools of Ikebana in Japan.
Ikebana means “live flowers in a container”; it allows us to enjoy indoors the charm and beauty of nature.
The Wafu School, founded in the early 20th century, emphasizes complete harmony among the flowers, vases, and the environment. Wafu style brings out the “natural beauty”, respecting the flowers and plants in their natural state.
The fundamental way of arranging the flowers is to create a trigonal pyramid (or more accurately an inverted…
