Hollywood films and Western historical novels tend to depict only the warlike confrontations that marked the centuries when the samurai flourished – but at the heart of this time of social and political upheaval, there resonate a practice and a message that could enhance our stress-driven lives in the 21st century.

This is the ancient Japanese art of ikebana, a minimal and meditative form of flower arranging developed in Japan but today practised by enthusiasts across the world. Recently, Australian Vogue even pinpointed ikebana as the hot new trend for wedding flowers and bouquets, noting: “The world of florals is taking a breather . . . think simplicity, elegance, understatement.

The perfect antidote to fussy arrangements for the laid-back bride.”That might sound rather remote from the samurai, the elite warriors of pre-modern Japan who, by the early 17th century after Japan reunited, had transformed into its highest social class. As the Japanese economy developed and flourished, so did culture.

Theatre forms such as kabuki became very popular and ikebana spread out of the Buddhist monasteries and aristocracy to be taken up as a fashionable and fulfilling leisure art. It was practised by samurai, wealthy merchants and others, both men and women.Like us, they sought out a still, quiet centre in life.

They found it in creating and contemplating ikebana. This was an extension of the Buddhist custom of making floral offerings, kuge. The creativity and focus needed for ikebana is seen as a form of meditation, just as the Japanese martial arts emerge from a core of mental focus. 

Ikebana arrangements are appreciated for their intrinsic beauty and the artistry of their design rather than being competitive. In that, it could be likened to the contemporary trend for colouring-in that has swept the world, giving access to the joy of colour, shape and texture while drawing the mind and the creative spirit into the “zone”.

In ikebana’s use of natural materials and allusions to natural shapes and settings, it aims to focus the mind on the passage of the seasons, time and change. Similar yearnings in our busy, urban lives today prompted Pantone to name “Greenery” its 2017 colour of the year. Greenery can help make our urban interiors and natural exteriors one again, balancing spirituality, banishing anxiety and so making us more effective.

This embracing attitude to plants was captured in ikebana, which uses freshly cut branches, vines, leaves, grasses, berries and fruit as well as flowers. In fact, it showcases plants at every stage, from seeds to wilted and dried plants. These are complemented by glass, metal or plastic containers – their size, shape, texture, volume and colour are also key decisions for the ikebana practitioner.

Ikebana then was part status symbol, part a symbolic language of flowers. Understanding the symbolism is like a code to appreciating the layers of spiritual and aesthetic meaning in ikebana. Even the placement of ikebana in a room or the occasion it marks are important factors reflected in homes throughout Japan.

In early March each year, for example, the Doll Festival, or Girls’ Festival, means that flowering peach branches are decorated with traditional dolls. Boys have their turn in May when Japanese irises are used to symbolise male strength.Bamboo features in decorations for the Star Festival in July, while September’s autumn moon is welcomed with ikebana displays of seasonal Japanese pampas grass.

Good wishes for the New Year are conveyed by using plants such as evergreen pine, symbolising eternity, and flowering apricot branches for venerable old age.Over the centuries since it was first developed, ikebana has developed several approaches or schools. There are three main ones today: ikenobo, ohara and sogetsu.The largest and oldest is ikenobo, based on the rikka (standing) techniques used by Buddhist monks in the 17th century.

This traditionally used tall bronze vases, with a carefully selected branch arching centrally through the arrangement and symbolising heaven or truth. Other branches were arranged around this for both decorative and symbolic purposes. Alongside this, the contrasting nageire developed, a very different style that evoked spontaneity in its name – meaning to “throw in” – but in fact used just one or two flowers or branches very subtly and simply to depict natural beauty.

Instead of tall vases, ohara, founded in the late 19th century, uses wide, shallow containers to allow the flowers to appear artfully strewn in moribana – literally “piled up”. The surface of the water itself becomes part of the landscape evoked by the arrangement. Sogetsu, founded in the 1920s, made this naturalistic approach more freeform and creative and newer schools have added more avant garde and abstract approaches.

Each of the three main schools has more than a million practising members in Japan alone, the most devoted striving to reach the rank of master. As ikebana now transcends cultural boundaries, Ikebana International was founded in Tokyo six decades ago. Today the ikebana motto is “Friendship through Flowers” as it has become a global decorative art with a heritage of half a millennium of practice. Ikebana followers in South Africa benefit from workshops by visiting Japanese masters, including special presentations arranged by the Embassy of Japan in Pretoria. These usually occur once a year.

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