Page:Japanese flower arrangement.djvu/185

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

HOW TO ARRANGE FLOWERS IN A VASE OF MANY SECTIONS

TREES are all yo, or masculine, so when they are arranged with anything else they must be above, while grasses and flowers, being feminine, can be put down in the lower parts of the arrangement. But when your vase is a hanging one, a many-sectioned vase or a double bucket, you may arrange grasses high and trees low.

This is because such an arrangement is often supposed to look like a mountain, which has grass growing on its top and trees at its foot and in the valleys.

A poem comes to mind here which is very dear to all lovers of Ike-bana:

Musashi no ni
Kusa makura shite
Nagamure ba, Fuji yori takaki
Tokonatsu no hanna.
[179]