FLOWER ARRANGING in Japan is an old art of com posing natural flowers, foliage or fruit-bearing branches in a vessel for the decoration of a room. Its important position in the home was established in the middle of the 15th century, when the tea-ceremony (q.v.) became a fashion, and so popular did it grow that it soon became independent of the tea-room to be taught by flower-masters. By the 17th century there arose many schools or styles which held competitive exhibitions of their art. Such exhibitions are still being held and there are more than Ioo styles, the number still increasing. Private lessons are given by numerous flower-masters and a course on flower arranging, or to use the Japanese term, ikebana, is included in the curriculum of nearly all the girls' schools in Japan.
Common to practically all the styles is the principle guiding the fundamentals. There is to he a tall spray representing the "leading principle," Heaven. Another branch should be kept low down to denote the "subordinate principle," Earth. And there is to be another branch between the two which stands for the "reconciling principle," Man. Thus an effort is made, besides aiming at a beautiful form, to indicate man's relation to the universe. There should always be these three prominent features, however many other branches of minor significance may be added, the joining of these principal points forming a triangle. However, the rikka (standing flowers), a special art of the Ikenobo school, may be considered an exception : it denotes the universe with actual suggestions of landscapes by the branches and flowers. In each style the highest artistic value of a vase of flowers is brought out in its relation to the season, the occasion, and the other objects of ornament, chief among which is the kakemono, the banging picture. As the arranged flowers are to be placed on the tokonoma (an alcove in the guest room) they are so composed as to be best seen from the front. Now that there are so many foreign styled rooms in the Japanese houses, it has become neces nary to have flowers so arranged as to be appreciated from all sides, and there is a tendency to develop a style to meet this requirement.