ii RIVERSIDE LETTERS 13 



present as the predominant line in the com- 

 position, and the shortest, called Gio, is like- 

 wise never absent, though the character of 

 the curves varies a good deal according to 

 the number of the sprays employed. They 

 use small branches and sprays of blossoming 

 trees much more than we do, and select and 

 trim them according to the lines they are 

 intended to take in the composition. In 

 every case line is everything, our bunchy 

 haphazard bouquet method being quite un- 

 known to them or discarded as wanting in 

 taste. 



They generally support these sprays by 

 fixing them into little heaps of stones at the 

 bottom of pans or vases of water. The 

 significance which these lines are sometimes 

 made to take you may judge of by this 

 example, called De F^me, it is the line 

 arrangement of a spray fixed in a hanging 

 piece of bamboo and is meant to represent an 

 outward bound ship. Similarly they arrange 

 lines in such a piece of bamboo to figure 



