The Art of Arranging Flowers
IKEBANA. THE ART OF ARRANGING FLOWERS. FIRST SHOWING OF A NEW VISUAL THEME FOR IDEA AT DOVER STREET MARKET. AND WITH IT A SUPERBOOK. ALWAYS A SUPERBOOK! AND THIS ONE AS WONDERFUL AS ANY BEFORE.
It is so green! And deeply, brilliantly beautiful. First published in 1968. Printed and bound in Japan. As large as it looks. The spine spans two inches and the book weighs in at almost half a stone. A heavyweight book with the lightest touch.
The author is Shozo Sato. Born in 1933 in Kobe City, Japan. Now 83 he lives in America where for many years he has worked a theatre director, adapting western classics in Kabuki style and acting as professor emeritus of Art and Design at the University of Illinois.
Red tulips, and lilac blossoms. A left-hand arrangement in the third variation in the informal style. As Sato writes 'the rich red of the tulips draws the eye back to the center.' This image on Instagram: just the 4000 likes.
The colour illustrations in the book are all charmingly tipped-in. The black and white pages are gravure printed. They share a great sense of drama with their creator. The sgraffito design on the vase is reflected in the stripped branches of edgeworthia that have been cut and glued back together to make such intricate patterns.
And that's just ALL OF LIFE! A kabu-wake arrangement comprising male and female elements. The branch is the male grouping and the irises are the female. The taller iris is the dō, the short one tai-mikomi. It is important that the dō is taller than the tai-za. The instruction for making this arrangement runs over three pages! There is a lot to learn! And no time to lose!
There are two copies at IDEA at Dover Street Market London ready for the reopening of the store with all new collections and spaces tomorrow morning. 11am.
And there are two more copies here with us now, ready to ship, to whoever hits the button below fast enough to make them theirs.