HOUSE AND GARDEN 
July. 
i 9 i 1 
an 1 ending with the fall flowers which have hardly ceased putting forth in 
December. Nature and convention dictate the flowers which may be used at any 
season. An overblown rose or orchid from the greenhouse would be regarded as 
a monstrosity by the conservative and serious-minded members of a samurai fam¬ 
ily. Equally rational are the customs of handling the flowers taken from garden, 
field or roadside. Nothing is more abhorrent to the far Eastern mind than the 
so-called bouquet of culled flowers from whose stem the foliage, in whole or in 
part, has been removed. It is always remembered in Japan that flowers cut in the 
early morning last longest; that the character of the lotus and other water plants 
is best preserved by tying a string around the stem and cutting below the cincture; 
that rain water is always preferable to spring or well water for keeping the fresh¬ 
ness of flowers. 
To preserve indoors a suggestion of the relations of the individual flower to 
■ther flowers in nature is part of the Japanese convention. Grass flowers and tree 
flowers may be mixed, but only as they would occur out-of-doors. Both kinds, 
indeed, may be used in the vase, but one 
above the other. A perspective arrange¬ 
ment is held highly desirable, as with 
marsh flowers in front,mountain flowers 
behind. The reverse arrangement would 
lie in bad taste. It is against the canons to 
combine three kinds of tree flowers or 
three kinds of grass flowers ; but they 
may be brought together in the propor¬ 
tion of two and one or three and two. In 
certain circumstances four tree flowers 
and one grass flower, or vice versa, may 
be displayed together. Most often in the 
choice of flowers for a room, the single 
wall painting or kakemono is consid¬ 
ered. It would be inadmissible to intro¬ 
duce a real flower which would com¬ 
pete with the same flower as depicted 
Flowers of the woods and of the mead¬ 
ows grouped in accordance with ac¬ 
cepted principles of flower arrangement 
The famous ten-jin-chi, or triangular 
arrangement symbolizing earth, man 
and heaven 
by an artist. Should the kakemono con¬ 
tain pine trees a pine bough must not 
be displayed in the room. A plum 
blossom in the picture precludes the 
use of plum blossoms in vases unless 
in some unobjectionable way. The 
tokonoma, or alcove, which contains 
the picture of the day, is incomplete 
without its incense burner and flowers. 
The vogue of Japanese arts in 
American cities has made most peo¬ 
ple in this country more or less famil¬ 
iar with the receptacles for flowers 
which are used in Nippon land. The 
vases are of bronze, pottery or bamboo. 
Hanging receptacles are employed, 
either swung from the ceiling or at- 
to spring from the 
wooden crotch, of 
It is a rule that a flower shall not seem 
Accordingly a little transverse Y-shaped 
boys in this country in making sling-shots, is often inserted 
An example of bad ikebana —one of the “seven dis¬ 
eases of flower arrangement.” It is regarded as 
an artistic crime to utilize two stems of prac¬ 
tically the same height and width 
tached to a post, 
centre of a vase, 
the kind used by 
and the stem of the flower confined to the apex of the Y bv a thin piece of bamboo. 
While flowers are welcome in the Japanese house, a profusion of them would be 
held barbaric. In ikebana, as in all else, simplicity is a prime consideration. Of 
the old-time dictator, Hideyoshi, it is told that while enjoying the peaceful life 
of the ancient capital of the Empire about 1580, he one morning visited Rikiu. 
master of the tea ceremony and disciple of the originator of flower arrangement. 
The artist's garden, as Hideyoshi noticed admiringly, was aglow with morning- 
glories. The ruler accordingly said: “Good sir, 1 should be delighted if you 
would invite me some morning to a display of your arrangement of these ex¬ 
quisite flowers. Call it your morning-glory tea party." 
Rikiu gladly made his preparations for this event. On the appointed day 
Hideyoshi arrived, fully expecting to feast his eyes as before on a brilliant mass 
of flowers the while he enjoyed the tea for which Rikiu was celebrated. On 
(Continued on page 50.) 
