Ikebana arranged as to express peace. All gifts of flowers must be in bud, so that the person to whom they are sent may have the pleasure of seeing them openquite a contrast to the present Western idea of everything being forced to perfection before leaving the florist. The spiritual aspect of "kadō" is considered very important to its practitioners. Some practitioners feel silence is needed while making "ikebana" while others feel this is not necessary. It is a time to appreciate things in nature that people often overlook because of their busy lives. It is believed that one becomes more
Ikebana in a vase. The flowers in the vase were arranged in the earliest style called "tatebana" or "tatehana" (立花, "standing flowers"), and were composed of "shin (motoki)" and "shitakusa". Recent historical research now indicates that the practice of "tatebana" derived from a combination of belief systems, including Buddhist, and the Shinto "yorishiro" belief is most likely the origin of the Japanese practice of "ikebana" that we know today. Together they form the basis for the original purely Japanese derivation of the practice of "ikebana". The art developed very slowly, and the many schools did not come into existence until the