FLOWER ARRANGEMENT AS A FINE ART 



EDWARD A. WHITE 



Professor of Floriculture, Cornell University 



An Analysis of the Much-talked-of Yet Little Understood "Japanese 

 Pv4ethod " — Genuine Understanding of Plants and Their Habits a 

 Prime Essential — Getting Down to First Principles and Explaining 

 Their Application to the Every-day Flowers of Our Own Gardens 



Editors' Note: Popular interest in the indoor use of flowers swings high, and eagerness to achieve something really "artistic" has led to rather undiscriminating 

 imitation of this fine art of Japan without equivalent understanding of its underlying significance. For this reason we are glad to be able to present an intelligent 

 and authoritative interpretation of a subject so alluring to gardener and garden club alike (The Garden Club of America made a special feature of "Japanese Arrange- 

 ments" at this season's International Flower Show held in New York; for prize winning exhibits see page 189, May Garden Magazine) — an interpretation which may 

 help us in future to make floral arrangement a distinctively American expression without any sacrifice of Japanese simplicity and grace. 



1 LOWERS mean more to us to-day than ever before. We 

 are growing them more understandingly and are be- 

 ginning to use them more understandingly, too. The 

 subtle cheer of a few well-chosen Roses, Sweet-peas, or 

 what-you-will on the dining table; the radiant welcome to home- 

 coming master and incoming guest of a tall jar of Hollyhocks or 

 some fragrant, favorite Lily in the hallway — we appreciate the 

 beautiful importance of these sentient bits of color and know how 

 they bring the dullest room on the dullest day brightly to life. 



And though the innate beauty of flowers is such that it is 

 never squeezed to nothingness in even the tightest of nosegays, 

 it needs a sympathetic touch for fullest revelation. Thus we 

 turn to the Japanese, so finely in tune with nature that they 

 seem instinctively to see and present her decorative shapes — 

 in this lies their secret, which is indeed no secret at all, but 

 open sesame to any and every gardener on genuinely friendly 

 terms with his plants. 



FLOWER arrangement as practised in Japan has characters 

 so definite and so pronounced that it seems necessary to 

 discuss the governing principles in order that we may, to a 



certain extent, follow the principles if not the methods of Japan 

 in arranging the flowers of America. 



Josiah Conder (for many years Professor of Architecture and 

 Architect to the Imperial Japanese Government) wrote a very 

 valuable book, "The Flowers of Japan and the Art of Floral 

 Arrangement." This book and the lectures given at Cornell by 

 Miss Kichi Harada, lecturer on Japanese Art at Columbia 

 University, form the basis of the thought here presented. 



Miss Harada tells us that: "the art of floral arrangement in 

 Japan has developed through centuries. It started out with 

 devotions to the Goddess of the Sun. At first just green 

 branches from tiny trees were brought before the goddess and 

 offered up with a prayer, without any idea of artistic arrange- 

 ment. Tradition was followed without principles or a back- 

 ground. The use of flowers was extended to other gods and 

 goddesses, and the flowers and their beauty pleased them. The 

 courtesy then came to be extended to our parents, next to our 

 friends. The art of flower arrangement came to be studied, 

 and in the 15th century, when all arts in Japan reached their 

 golden age, flower arrangement reached its height of perfection. 

 Flowers are now intimately associated with the daily life of my 



Principal KE. 



TrunklineNE 



Jub. principal E. 

 Suppor t Central 



deline. W 

 Secondary S. 



7 



Tertiary S.W 



A SEVEN-LINE JAPANESE ARRANGEMENT 



Daffodils arranged with reference to points of the compass; this gives shape bal- 

 ance to the composition while the varied lengths of stem give shape rhythm 



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