JAPANESE FLORAL ART. 



25 



to acclimatise the desirable plants for beauty and 

 for use from every source, and to enrich our horti- 

 cultural art with new results of plant sports and 

 cross-fertilizations. 



When the great valleys are divided up into ten 

 and twenty acre farms, each farm with its garden, 

 and when the hill slopes, the richest portion of Cali- 

 fornia for horticultural uses, are all likewise culti- 

 vated, the range and variety of growth here will be 



the greatest known to any region on the continent. 

 On the slopes of Mount Lassen, hardy Russian 

 apples and the most iron-clad American grapes are 

 grown : in Colusa county the date palm bears heav- 

 ily, and would be a profitable tree to plant exten- 

 sively. Such is the range of climate. It remains 

 for the future to show whether or not the people of 

 California will utilize and develop these unique hor- 

 ticultural advantages. Chas. Howard Shinn. 



JAPANESE FLORAL ART. 



'N NO other country is the ar- 

 tistic use of flowers so well 

 understood or the art prac- 

 ticed in such perfection as in 

 Japan. This old art is to 

 become a new one in America 

 and Europe. It is old in 

 Japan, but new to western 

 nations. Only recently has 

 the art been reduced to form 

 and theory. A few months ago, however, Mr. 

 Gordon, an architect in the employ of the Japanese 

 government, who has formulated the principles of 

 the art, expounded the system before an audience of 

 foreigners in Tokio, the capital of Japan. We 

 make some extracts from the London Times report 

 of the lecture, which are well worthy the attention 

 of all who love plant life. 



In America and Europe floral art consists almost ex- 

 clusively of the use of tlie blossoms, wfiich are crowded 

 together in rich masses of color with little attention to 

 individual form and often with total disregard of the 

 lines of stems, branches, and of the character of 

 growth ; in Japan, on the contrary, the basis of all 

 flower designs is a series of harmonizing lines in wliich 

 the stems and branches play the most important part. 

 This instinctive perception of the beauty of harmoni- 

 ous lines is everywhere noticeable in the arts of Japan. 



The art of flower arrangement, like all other arts in 

 Japan, has a long history and has its various schools. 

 At first it appears to have been mainly connected with 

 Buddhism : then indigenous schools arose, instructed 

 by some men of more than usual originality and mental 

 vigor. In fact, its history appears to have taken very 

 much the same course as that of the pictorial arts. 



The most popular school of the present day is the 

 Enshiu. According to the doctrines of this sect ur 

 school, all flower arrangements were built about an im- 

 aginary skeleton formed of lines of balanced curves. 

 Symmetry, the most elementary kind of balance in 

 composition, is eschewed, but a more subtile harmony 

 was obtained, far more in conformity with the princi- 

 ples of beauty as discoverable in natural forms. The 



ordinary flower arrangements are two, three, five or 

 seven-lined, and a somewhat different character is 

 bestowed upon these lines according as they are applied 

 to standing or to hanging arrangements. 



Intimately connected with the character of flower 

 compositions is the form of the vessels employed, of 

 which there are several kinds adapted for standing, 

 resting against the wall or a pillar, or suspending. 

 .\mong these are certani curious vases made of bamboo 

 cylinders, with several side openings intended for the 

 arrangement of flowers in several stages. In these com- 

 positions, which contain several kinds of plants or 

 trees in combination, the locality of growth and special 

 character are never lost sight of, a distinction being al- 

 ways preserved between trees, land plants, and water 

 plants. 



In selecting and arranging flowers the appropriate 

 season and, in the case of plants common to several 

 seasons, the peculiar character of the particular sea- 

 son, are never lost sight of. Used in combination, 

 some hold higher rank than others, and with different 

 varieties of the same species the colors have a certain 

 order of precedence. White blossoms as a rule rank 

 first, but there are several exceptions to this rule. The 

 idea of sex is applied in several ways to the character of 

 leaves, stems, and blossoms in combination, the leading 

 idea of such distinctions being to produce a pleasing va- 

 riety and to avoid redundancy. Many curious fancies 

 exist with regard to the selection of trees and plants. 

 Those having poisonous properties in stem, root or 

 flower, and some suggestive of ominous associations, 

 either on account of their names or owing to accidental 

 tradition, came under the ban of ill-luck and are studi- 

 ously avoided. 



A good deal of ceremonial is mixed up with the prac- 

 tice of arranging flowers. Flower gatherings are often 

 held, at which it is usual for the guests to make flower 

 compositions, in which case certain etiquette is to be 

 followed both by visitors and by host. Special occa- 

 sions, such as weddings, comings of age, house-warm- 

 ings, welcomings, farewell gatherings, and anniversaries 

 all have appropriate flowers and appropriate methods of 

 designing. 



Harmony is required between the flower groups and 

 wall fixtures in front of which they were placed. This 



