Mirei Shigemori and Sofu Teshigahara felt ikebana was so important as an artform they created the New Ikebana Declaration.
“New ikebana rejects nostalgic feelings.
We can’t find a vivid world in anything nostalgic.
There is nothing but calmly sleeping beauty in the nostalgic world.
New ikebana rejects formal fixation. Creation alway brings forth a fresh form.
Fixed form is like a gravestone.”
Shigemori went off to to do his wonderful garden work and Sofu became a number one believer in ikebana as an art form.
He calls this first example “Moku” meaning sublime silence or great silence.
| Sofu Teshigahara, Moku, 1950s |
“The more strictly we observe, the more beautiful the flower becomes in Nature, with their graceful lines of branches and masses of flowers, and also we can find in them endless varieties.”
| Sofu Teshigahara, Lines of willow branches and mimosa-acacia flowers, 1950s |
And… “The triangles shape is most beautiful and most fitted to the form of plants.” And what a beautiful Caledon porcelain vase.
| Sofu Teshigahara, Carnations and Pine branches, 1950s |
Julia Ritson
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