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Examples of the Flower Arrangement (Meiji shinsen risshō senkashiki 明治新撰千花式)

1889 · Kyoto : Yamaguchi Ichitaro, 山口市太郎 · 18 pictures

This is a Japanese woodblock-printed manual of ikebana flower arrangement, published in Kyoto in 1889 by Yamaguchi Ichitaro for students and practitioners of the flower-arranging art. Its double-page spreads show individual arrangements of branches, pine, and grasses set in bronze vases or low trays, each captioned in Japanese with the names of the schools and arrangers. For a designer, the pictures offer clean, sparse line compositions where a few stems on an empty ground create balance, asymmetry, and negative space.

Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art · No known copyright restrictions · More from this library