Introduction to Japanese Flower Arrangement (Ikebana)

Tokyo: [1948?]. Orange and blue pictorial wraps bound with ribbon; 41 pages: illustrations; 25 cm About good to good (+); wraps show some shelfwear and binding has been repaired with tape; faint foxing and cup rings on back of wraps; pages are clean and unmarked. Please see photos. Hole punch.

Scarce. In Japanese. Illustrations and photographs show and describe the design principles and philosophy behind the ancient art of ikebana. Oshikawa Josui (押川如水, 1892–1966), born Oshikawa Masako in Fukuoka Prefecture, was a leading Japanese ikebana master and author who headed the Matsukaze-ryū school of flower arrangement from 1916. She played a pivotal role in modernizing and internationalizing the art of kadō, writing influential manuals such as Ikebana Dō-hon and Kado, and co-authoring the English-language Manual of Japanese Flower Arrangement with Hazel H. Gorham. Her work emphasized the formal aesthetic structure of ikebana—particularly the “ten-chi-jin” (heaven-man-earth) triangular composition—making traditional Japanese floral art accessible to global audiences and securing her place among the twentieth century’s foremost transmitters of Japan’s aesthetic heritage.