A Traditional Japanese Culture That Reflects on the Life of Flowers and Brings Life to Them
—Kado (Ikebana)—

When ikebana is understood as a “do” (way), like sado (tea ceremony) or kodo (the way of incense), it is called “kado.” Simply put, kado (ikebana) is one of Japan’s traditional performing arts, in which a work is created by arranging several plants and flowers in a vessel. Yet it also carries a spiritual dimension connected to the distinctly Japanese sense of wabi-sabi. Rather than simply admiring beautiful flowers, it sees a bud as something that will bloom in the future, and a withered flower as something that has lived through its own process. To reflect on life, and to bring life to it. Finding beauty in the changing 모습 of plants and trees from moment to moment, that is the spirit of kado.
In 2024, kado was registered as an Intangible Cultural Property of Japan, meaning something of high historical or artistic value to the country.

Shiunzan Chohoji Temple, commonly known as “Rokkakudo,” is located in central Kyoto.

It is said to have been founded in 587 by Prince Shotoku, and Ono no Imoko, who traveled to the Chinese mainland as an envoy to the Sui dynasty, is believed to have become its first chief priest. Successive chief priests built their living quarters by a pond where Prince Shotoku is said to have bathed, and this is said to be how they came to be called “Ikenobo.” At the time, monks offered flowers before the Buddha every morning and evening. This is thought to have been the beginning of ikebana.
Then, in the Muromachi period, as architectural styles changed, flowers developed as decorations for zashiki reception rooms. Ikenobo Senno, who was active during this period, established the philosophy of kado: that enlightenment can be attained through arranging flowers, and this marked the beginning of “kado.” In other words, ikebana began with Ikenobo, and that path of ikebana is still carried on today by the Ikenobo Head School of Kado.

There are many schools of “kado” in Japan, but the one that established the philosophy of kado and has passed it down continuously to the present day is the Ikenobo Head School of Kado.
Ikenobo has branches not only across Japan but also in 120 locations around the world, where students devote themselves daily to ikebana.
The Ikenobo Head School of Kado is adjacent to Rokkakudo, the birthplace of ikebana. Inside the building are the Ikenobo Headquarters, the Ikenobo Society of Floral Art Foundation, Nihon Kadosha Co., Ltd., and classrooms of the Ikenobo Central Training Institute.

Since ancient times, flowers were offered to gods and Buddhas, giving rise to an ikebana form called “tatehana,” composed of shin (main stem) and shitagusa (lower grasses). Later, tatehana came to be used in places for entertaining guests, such as chanoyu tea gatherings, and in the late Muromachi period it developed into “rikka.”
Using a wide variety of plants, it expresses landscapes of great nature, and follows the teaching to understand the charm of plants and trees, show their natural 모습 in fields, mountains, and watersides, and value the expressions of flowers and leaves.

Traditional rikka, known as “Rikka Shofutai,” has nine yakueda, or structural branches, and each has a designated role and insertion point.

In 1999, the current iemoto, Senei Ikenobo, introduced “Rikka Shimputai,” a form of rikka suited to modern spaces, composed freely without being bound by set forms and making use of the movement of plants.

Whereas Rikka Shofutai pursued the beauty of fixed form, this is a new style of rikka that places emphasis on expressive content. While naturally valuing traditional aesthetics and structure as its foundation, it also possesses the suppleness, freshness, and brilliance of floral materials. By using a variety of materials and combining them in unexpected or contrasting ways, it expresses beauty such as brightness, sharpness, and striking presence.

While rikka was used in public spaces such as large tatami rooms, the “ikehana” and “nageirebana” arranged in private settings were simple flowers without fixed forms. However, as smaller reception rooms became more common, flowers with dignity suitable even for small tokonoma alcoves came to be desired. As a result, shoka was established in the mid-Edo period.
The floral materials used are one to three kinds. It expresses the姿 of plants living with roots in the earth. While “rikka” seeks beauty in the harmony of plants, “shoka” focuses on the beauty of shussho, the manifestation of the life of plants. Shussho refers to the characteristics each plant possesses. In other words, it is the individuality of the plant, and shussho-bi is the beauty found in the many ways plants live earnestly. Based on this beauty of shussho, shoka is a style that seeks to express the life of plants with dignity in a single arrangement.

Shoka includes the traditional “Shoka Shofutai,” which has a fixed form, and “Shoka Shimputai,” which has no established form.

Shoka Shofutai is a style established in the Meiji period. Its feature is that it is a small-scale form of ikebana suited to the tokonoma alcove of a small tatami room. With only a few branches, it is arranged with emphasis on the life that breathes within plants. Shoka Shofutai is composed of three yakueda called shin, soe, and tai, modeled after the sansai of heaven, earth, and humanity, which were considered since ancient times to be the basis of all things. These three branches respond to one another. In the way they rise smoothly from the water’s edge, one can see the beauty of shussho inherent in plants.
Meanwhile, “Shoka Shimputai,” a new form of shoka adapted to modern life, was introduced in 1977 by the current iemoto, Senei Ikenobo.

The characteristic of Shoka Shimputai is that, against the backdrop of Ikenobo’s traditional aesthetic sense, it looks at plants from many angles, including color, form, texture, the伸びやかさ of leaves, and the liveliness of branches, discovering many kinds of beauty. It expresses forms of shussho-bi that cannot be contained within the conventional form of Shoka Shofutai.

In response to changing architectural styles, Ikenobo had continued to create various forms. But when Western-style architecture spread from the Taisho to Showa periods, ikebana placed at entrances and on tables, such as nageire and moribana, became popular in place of rikka and shoka displayed in tokonoma alcoves. This eventually developed into “jiyuka,” which has no fixed form.

In other words, jiyuka is the newest form of ikebana, born in the modern era. In recent years, ikebana has come to be used not only for enjoyment in living spaces, but also as display art to decorate event venues, stages, and show windows. The feature of jiyuka is that it discovers the beauty of plants from various perspectives and, true to its name, is a formless style arranged freely.
In fact, the materials used in jiyuka are also flexible. The main material is living plants, but the materials combined with them do not have to be plants. Non-living materials are broadly divided into two types: different materials and processed materials. Different materials are non-plant materials such as iron, paper, glass, and plastic, used for their inorganic texture. Processed materials, on the other hand, are plant materials that have been dried, colored, or bleached, and using them can make living plants appear fresher. In either case, an important point is to use them according to the intended expression, and to remember that using different or processed materials is not the goal in itself.

In this way, jiyuka, which allows for free forms without being bound by conventions, can express a wide range from classical ikebana expressions to contemporary artistic expressions unconstrained by previous concepts of ikebana, making it the most approachable of the three styles. It has no fixed form, and because it is a style arranged literally freely while also paying attention to the shapes and textures of plants, it allows for broad expression. For that reason, it has expanded its role as a new kind of ikebana for decorating spaces and situations different from the tokonoma traditionally assumed by rikka and shoka. The ikebana experience available to tourists at the Ikenobo Head School of Kado is also in this jiyuka style.

For Japanese people, who have long lived in tune with nature and sensed the transience of life in the changing seasons, evergreen trees, always green, held special meaning and were worshiped as yorishiro, dwelling places of the gods.
Then, in 538, Buddhism was introduced, and the custom of offering flowers before the Buddha became widespread. Lotus flowers, common in India where Buddhism originated, were often chosen as offerings, but in Japan flowers suited to each season came to be selected.
Japan’s four distinct seasons also meant beautiful flowers in every season, and people had refined their sensitivity to appreciating flowers since long ago. This is shown by the Manyoshu, the oldest existing anthology of Japanese poetry, and the Kokin Wakashu, Japan’s first imperially commissioned waka anthology, both of which contain many poems about flowers.
In 587, Prince Shotoku founded Rokkakudo, the birthplace of ikebana.

In the early Muromachi period, many Chinese paintings and vessels known as “karamono” were brought to Japan. In response, the architectural style known as shoin-zukuri was established to display them, and a culture of displaying objects was born.
Shoin-zukuri is a Japanese architectural style that developed as a residential style for samurai. It is characterized by placing a study, or shoin, at the center of the building, laying tatami mats, dividing rooms with shoji and fusuma, and including a tokonoma alcove. Displayed in that alcove were the “mitsugusoku,” the three ritual implements of flowers, candles, and incense.
Amid this, in 1462, Ikenobo Senkei, a monk of Rokkakudo, was invited by a samurai to arrange flowers, and his work became renowned throughout Kyoto. The flowers of Ikenobo Senkei went beyond earlier frameworks such as Buddhist flower offerings and yorishiro for the gods. Here, the uniquely Japanese culture of ikebana was established.

In the first half of the 16th century, Ikenobo Senno arranged flowers at the imperial court and monzeki temples and was praised as a master of flowers. Around this time, based on the accumulation of knowledge since Senkei, he compiled “ikebana theory” and began passing flower manuals down to his disciples. The teaching was not simply to admire beautiful flowers as in conventional arrangements, but to understand the charm of plants and trees and express the 모습 of nature above the vessel, sometimes even using withered branches. This spirit remains important to the Ikenobo Head School of Kado today, and the spirit of “kado” from this time has been continuously handed down to the present.

Later, in the flower manual of Ikenobo Sen’ei, who succeeded Senno, a structural diagram was drawn of a flower form composed of seven yakueda, which would later be called “rikka.” It can be said that the basic form of rikka was established here.

Sen’ei also turned his attention not only to flowers that “stand” but also to flowers that are “arranged,” teaching that the姿 of a plant’s shussho is essential. At the time, chanoyu tea culture was flourishing alongside ikebana, and it is thought that he was strongly conscious of flowers arranged for tea gatherings. In other words, flowers were being arranged to entertain guests.

During the Azuchi-Momoyama period, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified the country, tokonoma alcoves were installed in castles and samurai residences, and Ikenobo was asked to provide the flowers displayed there. In 1594, Ikenobo Senko created a large suna-no-mono arrangement in the four-bay tokonoma at Maeda Toshiie’s residence to welcome Hideyoshi, and it was highly praised, leading to more requests from samurai families.

Even in the Edo period, requests from samurai families continued, and Ikenobo Senko II, who inherited the name of Senko I, went to Edo and created rikka in samurai residences. In Kyoto as well, Senko II was active as a teacher, and rikka gatherings attended by court nobles and monzeki priests were held at the imperial court.
Rikka, brought to completion by Senko, spread beyond the circles of monks, nobles, and warriors and came to be embraced by townspeople as well. As a result, the number of disciples also increased.

Rikka, perfected by Ikenobo Senko II, also influenced Genroku culture, which flourished mainly in the Kamigata region. Many rikka terms appear in the joruri plays of Chikamatsu Monzaemon, and since joruri was entertainment for townspeople at the time, this shows that rikka had become popular among them.
While rikka spread, lighter flowers “arranged” for small rooms and sukiya spaces also began to draw attention. These were called nageirebana, but by the middle of the 18th century they were refined into a more dignified form and came to be called shoka, marking its establishment.

By this time, the status of shoka was rising. Because shoka was a simpler floral form than rikka, it became hugely popular, and the number of disciples increased sharply. Women also began to participate in ikebana, which until then had been an art practiced mainly by men.

Ikenobo Sensho, the iemoto at the time, became a kado instructor at the Kyoto Prefectural Girls’ School in 1879 and devoted himself to ikebana education for women. As a result, the proportion of women among ikebana practitioners rose rapidly.

After World War II, the ikebana world began paying attention to arrangements guided by individual aesthetic sensibility and free from formal restrictions. By the 1960s, this had also become established within Ikenobo as jiyuka. It expanded the possibilities of ikebana in an age of changing living spaces, Westernization, the spread of Western flowers, and respect for individuality.

After the war, ikebana spread overseas, and people of all generations, regardless of gender, came to study it, helping pass the culture on to the next generation.
What began as something displayed inside the home is now exhibited in places beyond the home, including large facilities and stages. Ikebana also actively collaborates with other fields such as painting, video, music, and theater, and is even performed live as floral performance, with its possibilities continuing to expand.

The plants used in ikebana are classified not according to botany, but into three categories, woody plants, herbaceous plants, and general-use plants, in order to express natural vegetation in arrangement. Trees have charm when seen from a distance, while grasses look beautiful when placed nearby. Therefore, for example, when placing a tree material and a grass material in one vessel, the tree is placed in the back and the grass in the front. Their insertion points are not mixed; tree materials are grouped with tree materials, and grass materials with grass materials.

General-use plants refer to materials with intermediate characteristics that are difficult to classify as either tree or grass. Plants that look like trees but do not form annual rings, or look like grasses but do not wither in winter, are treated as general-use plants. Representative examples include bamboo, wisteria, peony, yamabuki, senryo, and hydrangea.

In addition to woody plants, herbaceous plants, and general-use plants, there is also a way of viewing materials by dividing them into land plants and water plants. Land plants are trees and grasses that grow on land, while water plants are flowers and grasses that grow by the water’s edge or in water. Representative water plants include rabbit-ear iris, soft rush, and yellow pond lily. Plants that grow both on land and near water are classified as both land-and-water plants, with representative examples including Japanese iris and reeds.

This classification appears in the “Five Principles” of shoka and records key points for arranging fruits, leaves, and vines beautifully.
Representative fruit-bearing plants include senryo, Japanese winterberry, and nandina. Arranging them expresses the beauty of their fruit. Since fruit eventually falls, they are not used for celebratory occasions.
Foliage plants are grasses and flowers with especially beautiful leaves. Examples include rabbit-ear iris, hosta, aspidistra, Japanese iris, and banana. Foliage plants are divided into broad-leaf foliage and long-leaf foliage.
Vines are arranged to highlight the impression of their tendency to twine around and grow on other things. Typical examples are morning glory, Oriental bittersweet, and wisteria.

Other classifications include hanging materials and streaming materials. In every case, they are categories meant to identify and bring out each material’s characteristics.

These are flower scissors used for cutting flowers. They are one of the essential tools. Since they are something you will use for a long time, it is best to hold them in your hand and see whether they feel comfortable, then choose a pair that is easy to use. Flower scissors made of steel are standard, but in recent years stainless steel types that resist rust have also become available.

A flower container for arranging flowers is also a necessary tool. There are many kinds, but at first it is best to choose a simple, standard round suiban-style container. If the shape has a strong design element, skill is also needed to make use of that design. Single-color containers in white, black, green, and other versatile colors are recommended because they are easy to match with any flowers. Also, if the container is too small, you will not be able to place many flowers in it, so one with a reasonable size is better.
In jiyuka as well, everyday household items suitable for the display space or highly designed tableware may sometimes be used as containers. A pasta plate or even a cut milk carton can sometimes become a flower container.

A flower holder is used to secure flowers in place. The kenzan, characterized by its shape like a bundle of needles, is the most common. Kenzan come in various sizes, and it is best to choose one that matches the size of the container. In some cases, straw may also be spread across the bottom of the container to serve as a flower holder.