THEORY OF FLOWER ARRANGEMENT 



classifications as Heaven, Man, and Earth; 

 Earth, Air, and Water; Father, Mother, 

 and Child. The idea of applying a distinc- 

 tion of sex to inanimate objects enters as 

 largely into flower arrangement as it does 

 into all Japanese landscape gardening; but 

 of that we will treat more fully in the prac- 

 tical part of this book. 



Consideration of the vase as being some- 

 thing more than a mere holder of the flowers 

 is purely Japanese. They think of the sur- 

 face of the water, which they always expose, 

 as the surface of earth from which the group 

 springs. This aids in working out the effect 

 of representing a complete plant growing as 

 nearly as possible in its natural conditions. 



The vase always represents to them the 

 points of the compass; thus: 



South 



r»»t 



***»» 



M«rt1\ 



[57] 



