CHAPTER TEN
ARRANGEMENT OF BRANCHES
NO more satisfactory effects or more charming results can be had than in working out Japanese rules with branches of trees. Here, as in all other arrangements, the Japanese prefer to follow nature. We, not so much from ignorance as lack of thought and time, take branches from trees where they have been growing in a horizontal position and place them in a vase in a perpendicular one, with the leaves standing up and facing to the front instead of flat and spreading as they grew. The Japanese have, of necessity, to let the main stick stand upright. In this position it forms the trunk of the tree, and the smaller twigs are twisted into the form of its branches, thus making a small branch of the tree appear as a whole diminutive tree.
