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Intro: The important aspect of Ikebana is its history. It is the way this simple custom of offering flowers developed into a systematized art of Ikebana. It is the way different schools of thought appeared as time passed. This evolution of various styles is very interesting. In centuries that have passed, thousands of schools of Ikebana have come up. Following is a brief history of the three leading Schools of Ikebana in Japan, the Ikenobo School, the Ohara School and the Sogetsu school. Obviously ancient China influenced Japan strongly. The early ideas travelled to Japan with Chinese monks but the formalization of the Art occurred through many generations of devoted Japanese Masters. They developed progressive new forms from basic principles that had been set. Schools were set up to pass on the heritage to new generations and these became the workshops where the art was distilled to its essence.
The Ikenobo School Ikenobo School is a "Flower Dynasty" of noble birth. The two persons credited with its origin are Prince Shotoku, son of Emperor Yomei, Crown Prince and Regent and Ono No Imoko, a descendant of Emperor Koshu. The Ikenobo form of Ikebana has endured and evolved with changing life styles and times. Ikebana originated with Ikenobo. Ikenobo's long history encompasses both traditional and modern styles. In the 6th Century, Ono no Imoko paid three official vists to the imperial court of China. After his retirement he was appointed guardian of Rokkaku-do, a Buddhist temple in Kyoto. There he became abbot, changed his name to Semmu and lived in a small house known as the ike-no-bo or the "hut by the pond". Ikenobo was thus born in the Rokkakudo temple. Legend has it that Prince Shotuku founded the temple. In China Ono no Imoko had studied arranging flowers as religious offerings, and in retirement he continued to develop his study of the way of the flowers. From this has developed Japan's oldest school of Ikebana. The Ikenobo school has a written history based on scrolls and documents which date back to 1462 as its heritage. The priests of the family of Shotuku who served the temple, have been hereditary masters of Ikenobo. The teachings of the headmasters of that time, Ikenobo Senkei and Ikenobo Senno, contributed to a fundamental awareness of the meaning of Ikebana. The traditions, the written history, the progressive development of structure, form, shapes and styles of Ikebana established by Ikenobo and then in parallel developed by other major more modern shools, has established Ikebana as a major global art form, that is in every way as valuable as painting, sculpture and ceramics in its essence. It is an art form that is essentially undiscovered and little understood by most Western art establishment. It has long been the providence of the Japanese Royalty and Samurai Families with teaching particularly being controlled by the hierarchical Monks of the major Temples in Japan.
The Ohara School Unshin Ohara is the founder of the Ohara school of Ikebana. It is said that the Ohara School was the first to standardize the curriculum for teaching Ikebana and made it available all over the world. Houn Ohara, the third Headmaster, during his long tenure innovated numerous new styles, which made Ohara Ikebana interesting and popular. The Ohara School of Ikebana was started way back in the Meiji Period (1867-1912). Unshin Ohara who gave birth to this art form arrived in Osaka with the dream of becoming a sculptor. But he did not make much headway in this owing to poor health. Thanks to his early training in the Ikenobo style he started practicing flower arrangements. The Ikenobo School seemed too rigid and formal to him. Also flowers from other parts of the world were beginning to appear in Japan. These flowers greatly impressed him and he decided to use them in his flower arrangements. He designed a flat tray called 'suiban' in which he made his flower arrangements. This new container greatly changed natural scenery in the container by a landscape arrangement and using multi-coloured flowers of the western world. He started the Moribana style of Flower arrangement using the flowers from other regions, which shocked the classical teachers of his time. The appearance of Moribana created a great sensation in the world of Ikebana. Since then Moribana has become the main trend of Ikebana and contributed enormously to its popularity. After the death of Unshin in 1916, the second headmaster Houn Ohara broadened the structure of the Ohara School and worked to popularize Moribana. Besides inheriting an artistic skill, he had the added advantage of being a good organizer who worked in a systematic manner. Among the innovations he set up were the basic principles that are used today. These include: 1. Determining the length of the Subject stem (shu), Secondary (fuku) and Object (kyaku) 2. Explaining the method of arrangement by use of step-to-step illustrations 3. Changing the system of lessons- from going out for individual or small group lessons to a lecture-demonstration system for large groups, with the new idea of using black boards for explanations. Houn was a great achiever in terms of modernizing Ikebana. He took advantage of the mass media by using the newspaper to carry a series of lessons in their issues. Today, it is rather common to hold flower exhibitions at public halls, but in his day, it was a revolutionary change from exhibitions in temples. Unshin's Moribana was a great refreshing relief to flower enthusiasts, for when he arrived on the scene, Ikebana had become a pastime of priests and persons who had reached high technical skill, but their works reflected craftsmanship rather than art.
The Sogetsu School Sogetsu (also spelled Soghetsu ) is one of major Ikebana schools cultivated by the course of Japanese art history, that goes back to the origin of Zen culture. Sogetsu, through a set of rules and restrictions, allows relatively more room for one's creativity compare to some other schools tracing back to the same period. Those who follow the Sogetsu school of thought believe that Ikebana has no limits. They believe that anything can be used as material. The Sogetsu Ikebana derives from Japanese tradition but is booming all over the globe. The late Iemoto Sofu Teshigahara (1900-1979) established the Sogetsu School in 1927. He believed that Ikebana should be both enjoyable and creative. He believed that Ikebana is a way of creative expression. This makes the Sogetsu School of Ikebana very modern. Sogetsu's "Ikebana" can be installed anywhere, such as outdoor fields, shopping windows, stations, halls, public spaces as well as in traditional Japanese houses. The kakeiho method that Sofu developed was a systematic approach through several styles. By this means Sofu spread the art throughout the world, and also staged exhibitions of his own Ikebana-based sculptures. Other practitioners of Sogetsu who added to its fame include Kasumi, daughter and successor of Sofu in the eighties and Hiroshi Teshigahara who promoted Ikebana by introducing Sogetsu Ikebana to foreign countries. Modern schools such as Sogetsu started by Sofu Teshigahara were particularly instrumental in incorporating foreigners in their schools, particularly after World War II , when the support by the visitors was particularly welcome in re-establishing interest and financial assistance to maintain the art traditions during extremely difficult times. Sofu recognized the importance of globalising the art to maintain its long term development as well as to support its heritage. Other major schools are Ichiyo, Ikenobo, Kado-kai, Ogasawara-Ryu, Ohara, Saga, Seifu-Heika, to name a few.
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