Ikebana
生け花 / 15th century– / Style / Garden Styles
Japan's art of the flower: space composed from plant line and emptiness. From Ikenobō's rikka to free styles, the craft of letting flowers live remains a textbook of asymmetry and negative space.
At a glance
Visual cues
- Composition by line
- Asymmetric balance
- Designed emptiness
- Season and decay accepted
Best used for
- Changing the air at a shop or entrance with one branch and a few stems
- Building a quiet composition for a shoot where emptiness leads
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Dictionary entry
- Type
- Choose the leading branch line first, let everything answer it
- Composition
- Three points offset in height and depth, balanced while asymmetric
- Material
- The vase mouth decides the fixing, water and cut end left visible
- Caution
- Adding flowers to fill the gaps makes the lines cancel each other, the emptiness goes, and the work becomes just a bouquet.
- Further study
- the Ikenobō Sen'ō Kuden / Sōgetsu and avant-garde ikebana / the contrast with Western floristry
Related entries
- Bonsai (盆栽)Same Garden Styles lineage.Compare Ikebana and Bonsai
- Mingei (民藝)Shared effects: Calm / Intimacy.Compare Ikebana and Mingei
More from Garden Styles
Continue through styles in the same Garden Styles family, prioritised by shared effects.
- Roji (Tea Garden) (露地)Shared effects: Calm / Intimacy / Luxury.
- Karesansui (枯山水)Shared effects: Calm / Luxury.
- Kaiyū Strolling Garden (回遊式庭園)Shared effects: Calm / Luxury.
Browse all Garden Styles entries
Cite this entry
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- https://indexstyle.org/styles/ikebana
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