Ikebana

Ikebana is the art of arranging flowers, blossoms, branches, leaves and stems in Japan.

This historic art is thought to date back either from practices of the Shinto religion or traditions of floral offerings in Buddhism from China in the 6th century. Like structures, Ikebana takes into consideration colours, lines and form when completing these formations. When developing arrangements, Ikebana ties in symbolism and seasonality, with the chosen native flowers holding symbolic meaning. Bamboo grass is used all year round. Pine and Japanese plum branches are used within the New Year, Peach Branches during March, Narcissus and Japanese iris during the spring, Cow lily during summer and the beloved Chrysanthemum during autumn. This helps to build a basis for floral arrangements depending on the season.

The flowers and branches are arranged at specific angles to represent heaven, earth and man. The way the flowers are placed represents the strength and delicacy of living flowers. This meaning that some arrangements can have a slanting style or an upright style based on the angles of the flowers. In comparison to western flower arrangements where we place flowers vertically into a vase in mass, ikebana has a greater emphasis on minimalism and structure, which is more carefully arranged.

Ikebana uses a 30/70 ratio rather than 50/50, leading to tall branches coming out of arrangements, giving an asymmetrical design which is unusual in western culture. This links to the Yin and Yang culture, with opposites complimenting each other with some tall branches and other shorter ones. 

Space is used very importantly, it’s important that not all of the space is filled and instead that everything is carefully placed. While a bud is often included to represent the promise of hope, in Western Flower Arrangements, only fully bloomed flowers would be used. This takes in an appreciation of new life and the beauty of all stages within a flowers life.

Ikebana is not just about the end result, but about the joy and therapeutic aspect that can be found when practising and creating beautiful arrangements like this. It is believed Ikebana should be done in silence to allow the creator to meditate and appreciate the natural beauty from the art of flower arranging. This is a way to express yourself and is an art where there is not right and wrong.

Have you tried Ikebana before? We’ve loved learning about this historic practise and finding tons of inspiration on Pinterest for our next floral arrangement.

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