INTRODUCTION 



something of the others. All these schools, 

 with but one exception, Kyo-fu, differ only 

 in the non-essentials, the principles are the 

 same throughout. Each school, however, 

 has different names for the principles and 

 places the flowers in the vases in a different 

 order. The kubari or support, which holds 

 the flowers in place in the vase, is also made 

 and placed differently by each school, and 

 there are other slight differences, but the 

 main principles are the same in all. 



Ike-bana, the Japanese word for flower 

 arrangements, means living flowers and ex- 

 plains by its derivation the fundamental 

 principles of the grouping. Without some 

 knowledge of its history it does not seem 

 possible to get into the proper spirit for work- 

 ing out the true beauty of these arrange- 

 ments, so in these pages is given a concise 

 history of the different schools and their 

 dates; as age counts for so much in Japan 

 that the followers of the more modern 

 schools are looked down upon with scorn 

 by the adepts of the old schools. 



[17] 



