The Glocal Book:"The Book of Tea" by Okakura Kakuzou(Tenshin)-No.105

The Birth of the Art of Flowers Arrangement Seems to Be with That of Teasim

in the Fifteenth Century

『The birth of the Art of Flower Arrangement seems to be simultaneous with that of Teaism in the fifteenth century.

Our legends ascribe the first flower arrangement to those early Buddist saints who gathered the flowers strewn by the storm and, in their infinite solicitude for all living things, placed them in vessels of water.

It is said that Soami, the great painter and connoisseur of the cout of Ashikaga-Yoshimasa, was one of the earliest adepts at it.

Juko, the tea-master, was one of his pupils, as was also Senno, the founder of the house of Ikenobo, a family as illustrious in the annals of flowers as was that of the Kanos in painting.

With the perfecting of the tea-ritual under Rikiu, in the latter part of the sixteenth century, flower arrangement also attains its full growth.

Rikiu and his successors, the celerated Oda-Wuraku, Furuta-Oribe, Koyetsu, Kobori-Enshiu, Katagiri-Sekishiu, vied with each other in forming new combinations.

We must remember, however, that the flower worship of the tea-master formed only a part of their aesthetic ritual, and was not a distinct religion by itseff.

A flower arrangement, like the other works of art in the tea-room, was subordinated to the total scheme of decoration.

Thus Sekishiu ordained that white plum blossoms should not be made use of when snow lay in the garden.

"Noisy" flowers were relentlessly banished from the tea-room.

A flower arrangement by a tea-master loses its significance if removed from the palace for which it was originally intended, for its lines and proportions have specislly worked out with a view to its surroundings. 』
(From the Book of Tea-Flowers, pp.101-103, Charles E. Tuttle Co., Rutland, Vermont, Tokyo, Japan)

This section tells us about the history of the art of flower arrangement.

We now understand the flower arrangement in teaism has the different meanings from the flower arrangements in general means.

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