HISTORY OF IKE-BANA
the art. Finally a most valuable book was written by Ikenobu, called Kandensho. This was carefully written and very instructive, with rules and principles freely given.
In the Kenei Age Rikkwa was simple and natural, with no extreme curves, but in Genroku the lines of the arrangement became complicated and the forms pattern-like. This was an age of utmost elegance. All the fine arts were highly developed, above all pattern-printing for fabrics and decoration. In the later part of the seventeenth century Korin, the famous lacquer artist and essentially a creator of exquisite designs, strongly influenced Ike-bana. At this period the combination of a pattern or design in flower arrangement, with lines which followed the natural growth of the plant, produced the most pleasing and graceful results.
It was in this later part of the seventeenth century that Ike-bana was most practised and reached its highest degree of perfection as an art. Still there were occasional back-slidings into unnatural curves and into arti-
