Page:Japanese flower arrangement.djvu/34

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JAPANESE FLOWER ARRANGEMENT

(1477-1561), and Shugetsu of the sixteenth century, we will find them all lovers of nature, so that Ike-bana advanced in this period a step farther than temple and room decoration and commenced in a crude way to consider natural beauty in floral arrangement. At this time Ike-bana was known as Rikkwa.

This same age conceived another form of Ike-bana called Nageire. Rikkwa and Nageire are the two branches into which Ike-bana has been divided. National favor has vacillated between these two for centuries. In the beginning Rikkwa was stiff, formal, and the more decorative; whereas Nageire was simple and nearer to nature.

Although Nageire began to come into favor in the Higashiyama Age, Rikkwa was still preferred, and Nageire did not truly gain popularity until the Momoyama Age, about one hundred years after Yoshimasa. It was at this period that Cha-no-yu, the Tea Ceremony, reached its highest development and strongly influenced the flower art: an adept

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