If your idea of ikebana is something like this, you'd better read something else right away. Too much in the world of high art has been pawed over by impatient and indifferent hands. Geisha, origami, sumo, ninja... Often we ourselves don't understand what lies behind seemingly familiar images. Let's try to figure out at least ikebana.
Misleading ideas about the ease and accessibility of ikebana, unfortunately, often lead to its becoming, outside Japan, essentially a pseudo-art. In the West, ikebana is sometimes seen as a light and pleasant pastime for leisure – a hobby for housewives. In Japan, ikebana is a complex and inspired creative work, a long and laborious training, the mastering of a sacred ritual. Incidentally, traditional Japanese ikebana schools do not accept people over the age of 40 – they say it's too late to learn, true mastery cannot be attained...
The Japanese have three key concepts related to the aesthetic awareness of the world: hanami (flower viewing), tsukimi (moon viewing), and yukimi (snow viewing). The difference between ikebana as an object of contemplation (hanami) and the other two objects of aesthetic contemplation is that it is the result of man's active role. The creator of ikebana, like nature itself, creates an artistic reality. In a certain sense, ikebana compositions are an image of the confrontation between life and death. Cutting flowers, a person brings them death, and in an ikebana arrangement, as it were, resurrects them, revealing their inner, secret beauty. That is why ikebana does not reproduce a naturalistic picture of the life of flowers on earth, but constructs their most perfect form, which in everyday life is usually not revealed.
"I have heard that flowers have been placed in vases since ancient times. Flowers were admired only for their external beauty, without understanding their natural essence... By tradition, we use branches and flowers to create an ideal image of the inner beauty of a plant..." said Senno, the founder of the Ikenobo School (1542).
Ikebana (literally) is "flowers that live." We Europeans are accustomed to displaying beautiful bouquets as a demonstration of the skill of the person who created it. We express in a bouquet our tastes and predilections, our individuality. The creator of ikebana has a more sublime task – he seeks to reveal in it the natural essence of the plants presented in the arrangement, the deep meaning of their combinations and placement. A European bouquet is a symbol of our vanity. Ikebana is a low bow before the perfection of living nature. A European bouquet is splendor, elegance, wealth. The world of ikebana is strict and ascetic – two or three branches, simple and modest plants. One flower can say more than a whole armful.
An ancient Japanese parable tells of Master Rikyu, whose garden was famous throughout the country for its morning glory flowers. One day one of Japan's rulers decided to look at them. Arriving at the garden at the appointed time, he saw that all the flowers had been cut. The enraged ruler entered the room and saw an ikebana made from a single stem of morning glory. Master Rikyu had sacrificed all the flowers of his garden to emphasize their beauty in one, the very best...
This art form entered Japan together with Buddhism from China, where it played the role of a ritual of offering symbolically significant flowers to Buddha. In Japan, ikebana gradually became a separate art form, gradually penetrating all strata of the population and the most varied spheres of public life. For many Japanese, ikebana is not only a necessary element of the national cultural tradition, but also a perfect model of the universe.
The philosophy of ikebana, like all Japanese art, is based on the eternal and unchanging comparison of three foundations – Earth, Water and Man. Sometimes they are equal and equivalent. Sometimes they are not. In this, and only in this, can the creator express his attitude to life. The basis of the composition is cut living flowers. Ikebana lives as long as its flowers live. The flowers can be any – the best are considered to be those that grow at that time of year in the garden, near a lake, in the field. Love of line and space is another distinctive feature of Japanese art in general and ikebana in particular. The composition is based on plant branches. There are few of them – usually two or three, in especially complex compositions up to nine. Simplicity as a sign of originality, and the singular as a sign of the whole – such is the credo of true ikebana artists.
Those long familiar with the art of ikebana can "read" a flower arrangement: form, components, colors – everything has its hidden meaning. For example, green is the embodiment of spring; red and yellow (golden) are the colors of summer, its peak and decline. White symbolizes autumn – the time of ripening of snow-white rice. The darkest, most lifeless time of year – winter – is associated with black.
The sense of time, of transience and eternity, of dawn and sunset, must also be expressed in ikebana. The past is embodied by fully bloomed flowers, seedpods, dried leaves; the present is personified by flowers just beginning to open and fresh green shoots; the future – by buds and swelling buds.
The flowers, grasses and trees themselves, their combinations in ikebana, form a complex poetic language. Thus, pine and rose are eternal youth and longevity; pine and peony, youth and prosperity; peony and bamboo, prosperity and peace. Branches of bamboo, pine and plum are often grouped together, and they represent longevity, since all these plants remain green even in the cold season.
The chrysanthemum is a symbol of Japan. Naturally, these flowers are a frequent motif in ikebana: the art of composing arrangements from chrysanthemums has been devised by Japanese masters with special care. Chrysanthemums are likened to solitary peaks with their sense of dignity and tranquility; they are like noble people with their sense of duty. Such plants are unique—they rise above vulgarity and embody the essence of autumn. A branch of the apricot tree serves as a symbol of a woman's beauty and elegance. A flowering apple branch expresses a wish for peace in the family, which is established through the virtue of the wife and mother. Jasmine embodies the sweetness of the enjoyment of life, its fullness and tart aroma.
The following twelve plants, assembled in one composition, embody the fullness of life, its rhythm, and represent the twelve months of the year: plum, peach, peony, cherry, magnolia, pomegranate, lotus, pear, mallow, chrysanthemum, hydrangea, and poppy. The four seasons are most often expressed in compositions of peonies (spring), lotuses (summer), chrysanthemums (autumn), and plum branches (winter).
Japanese theorists of the art of ikebana have developed seven basic parameters by which the works of masters of this art are analyzed. These are the relationships between plants and the vessel, vessel and stand, flowers and background, flowers among themselves, the shape of flowers and the shape of the vessel, color relations in the composition, and the relative position of plants in ikebana. But what is striking is that with all the canonical strictness of ikebana, it must always retain a certain improvisational uncertainty, irrationality, unpredictability...
The structure of ikebana is determined by its style, school, and form of composition. The history of the art of ikebana begins with the creation of a magnificent ceremonial style called rikka (literally, "standing flowers"). Flowers and branches directed upward, and the use of pine, cedar, and bamboo in compositions, give this style grandeur and significance.
The nageire style is based on the simplest principle of arranging plants, when they are casually, as if haphazardly, placed in a vase. Its goal is to show the beauty of any natural material.
The simple and refined seika style arose under the influence of Zen Buddhism. It is especially characterized by asymmetry; all components seem to be directed toward a source of light, as is the case in nature itself.
In the 19th century, under the influence of contacts with the West, the moribana style appeared, combining the formality of rikka and the naturalness of nageire. This style is characterized by such an arrangement of plants that they never touch the edges of the vessel but rise directly above the water. Flowers are placed in a low flat vase. To create compositions in the moribana style, a kenzan is used—a heavy metal stand with protruding needles, between which branches, large leaves, and stems are fixed. This makes it possible to create intricate bends, as if causing the composition to hover in the air.
Ikebana is short-lived. A day or two—and the flowers fade, the master's creation ends its life. One must learn the art of a single day throughout one's life. So say the Japanese. Because life is short, and art is eternal. So said the ancient Greeks.