Ikebana with a samurai swagger

Regardless of scale, Kawana's designs restore a samurai-like muscularity to the delicacy of ikebana, giving the traditional art a powerful boost into the 21st century.

• Tetsunori Kawana's next installation can be viewed at the New York Botanical Garden during the exhibition, "Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Chrysanthemum," Oct. 20 to Nov. 18. Visit www.nybg.org for more information. Or visit Kawana's website: www.kawana-tetsunori.com

Ikebana: The pastime of monks and shoguns regains popularity

Ikebana in Japanese can be translated as "living flowers." Its origins hark back to the altar displays in Buddhist temples of centuries past: Scroll paintings from as early as AD 800 illustrate the use of flowers placed ceremoniously next to statues of Buddha. The first book on the subject was written in 1445, according to scholars.

The art of ikebana blossomed alongside the tea ceremony and other rituals promoted by Shogun Yoshimasa Ashikaga, a great patron of the arts in the late 15th century. Dozens of formal ikebana styles developed, each with its own set of rules. Flowers also became endowed with specific meaning. For example, the chrysanthemum is considered a symbol of immortality, while bamboo represents endurance.

As the practice of creating floral displays eventually trickled down to average Japanese homes, a dedicated space such as an alcove or niche, called the tokonoma, was used to display the family's hanging scroll, incense burner, statue of Buddha, and a flower arrangement.

Western-style flower arrangements typically emphasize masses of colorful blooms at their peak, but with ikebana, all kinds of natural objects at any stage of growth can be used in a composition: seedpods, fruit, dried stems, moss, vines, and flowering branches, as well as half-open blooms.

In ikebana, the structural elements are primary. As is true of sculpture, "empty" space is as important to the design as the space occupied by flowers.

Today, ikebana is seeing a surge in interest that parallels the popularity of gardening in many countries. Ikebana International, a nonprofit group in Japan dedicated to spreading the art, claims 165 chapters in 60 countries, with 30 states in the US having at least one chapter.

Probably the most popular school of ikebana is Sogetsu, which was founded in 1926 by Sofu Teshigahara and headed by succeeding members of his family.

While still grounded in classical ikebana, this style is more freewheeling and experimental, allowing it to dovetail more easily with contemporary art.

Sogetsu's flexibility gave rise to the ikebana-based sculptures begun by Teshigahara and continued by Tetsunori Kawana, an installation artist and master teacher of Sogetsu ikebana.

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