【Outline of Ikebana】

Ikebana is the traditional Japanese art of arranging flowers. It is said that in its earlier stages of development, it was closely related to the tea ceremony, being used as a special technique for decorating the tearoom; as a means to display wild flowers in the tea ceremony room.
“Ikebana” literally comes from Japanese “ikeru” which means to keep alive and “hana” meaning “flowers”. So, translations would be “giving life to flowers” and “arranging flowers”.

The art is also referred to as kado (“the way of flowers”), having more than 600 years history. There are more than 20 schools of ikebana, all differing in their stylistic rules and methods of presentation, and most have their own instruction, such as arranging in a way that they look as if they were in the wild; or paying attention to precision of shape, line and form, going as far as to prescribe rules that dictate the angles that the branches should make.

You can enjoy the beauty of ikebana in various places such as hotels, department stores and the lobbies of public buildings.

Unlike the western flower arrangement or gardening, Ikebana does not stick to symmetrical shape. A needlepoint holder called “kenzan” is sometimes used to hold into which flowers are inserted to be fixed firmly for the Ikebana arrangement. If you want to try Ikebana, why don’t you join the tour below?