Studio: international art (9.1897)

Japanese Flower Arrangement

uses, all concern regarding their previous
growth, their disposal on stem or branch, the
leafage peculiar to them, and their character-
istic locality, or surroundings in natural landscape,
ceases; their individual or collective beauty of
shape and colour, their softness and fragrance, alone
receive attention. Even the exquisiteness of their
delicate shapes is often lost by the practice of closely
massing them together, and they become simply
a chaos of soft colour. The greenery introduced
to enhance the colour effect has rarely any connec-
tion with the blossoms employed, being selected
for its own grace of outline or richness of verdure.

The Japanese proceeds in an entirely different
manner. To him it is more difficult to dissociate
the charm that he finds in flowers from their rela-
tion to stem and leafage, from their functions in
landscape, from all, in short, that contributes to
their vitality, growth, and attractiveness when
blooming in a natural state. He is, perhaps, a
closer observer of Nature and of the details of
natural scenery ; but however this may be, a blossom
to him is a mere fragment, a morsel of beautiful
plumage, unless he can associate it in his mind
with the vegetation to which it belongs. The
gnarled trunk and straight shoots of the plum-tree,
the arched sweep of the kerria sprays, or the stiff
blades of the iris, are all to him essential to the
enjoyment of these particular flowers. Influenced
by these proclivities, the designer with flowers seeks
first to convey a suggestion of natural growth ; his
composition must, above all things, possess an
appearance of vitality,

With this object, the cuttings employed are on a
larger and more comprehensive scale than those
used for the European bouquet. They consist of
long leaf or flower-clad stems and sprays, and often
of thick branches. They are yet, strictly speaking,
but fragments of larger and more intricate growths ;
and, as such, they cannot present without treat-
ment the true characteristics of the complete plant
or tree which it is the purpose of the designer to
portray in his compositions. The twigs, sprays, and
lateral branches of a tree will have qualities of line
and form distinct from those of the main trunk, and
it is mostly by means of the former members that
the impression of the parent growth is to be con-
veyed. It is here that art comes to his aid, and,
though the expression may seem somewhat para-
doxical, by its artificial treatment of natural
material, aims at making it appear more natural, or,
rather, at making it suggestive of more complete
Nature.

Amid the redundancy and apparent confusion of

vegetable growth, the artist perceives certain pre-
vailing laws of line, of ramification, and of group-
ing ; and it is upon his interpretation of these that
he bases the conventional rules of his art. He
carefully discards certain forms which, though
abounding in Nature, are, to his discriminating
observation, indicative of accident or deformity.
For, whereas Nature, in her abundance, provides
compensation for such vagaries, he perceives that
in his abbreviated and impressionist productions
such failings would stand out uncondoned.

The arranger of flowers, therefore, takes certain
lines which to him briefly express the power, beauty,
and balance of growth. To some extent his
analysis resembles that which our own mediaeval
designers have applied to the decoration of archi-
tecture. The sweeping curves, ramifications, and
spirals of the arabesque show the same powerful
radial lines and the same balance of inequalities,
opposed to geometric symmetry, that are discover-
able in the "radicals" of the Japanese flower
arrangement.

Three, five, seven, nine, or more lines—generally
odd in number—form the basis of floral composi-
tions, and these in most cases ramify from a
common point of origin below. The surface of
water in the flower receptacle is technically sup-

■EVEN-UNED ARRA\GtMLM FIVE-LINED *. P. RANti EM E '-'T

LINEAL COMPOSITION (FIGURE I)

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