Japanese Works : Ikenobō rikka no zu

Japanese Works

<p style='text-align: justify;'>The Ikenobō school is considered the oldest surviving line of Japanese flower arrangement (ikebana). This seventeenth or eighteenth century manuscript album, <i>Ikenobō rikka no zu</i> (池坊立華図), represents masterworks of the Ikenobō school with a series of fifty hand-painted illustrations in vivid colour. The artists responsible for the arrangements are identified, but otherwise, there are few words. The main emphasis is on the plants -- <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(12);return false;'>flowers</a>, <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(26);return false;'>leaves</a>, and <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(28);return false;'>branches</a>. However, the vases are also differentiated, with some featuring <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(31);return false;'>butterflies</a> or <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(34);return false;'>lions</a> or <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(25);return false;'>wide openings</a>.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The title given here is a description used in cataloguing and may be roughly translated as 'Pictures of Ikenobō ikebana'. The book itself is not titled. The volume once belonged to Sir Ernest Mason Satow, whose <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(5);return false;'>ex libris seal</a> appears inside, but the book came to Cambridge University Library in 1911 from the collection of William George Aston, as indicated by the library's <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(7);return false;'>accession stamp</a>.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Nozomu Hayashi and Peter Kornicki include the following note for this item, which is number 2223 in <i>Early Japanese books in Cambridge University Library</i>: 池坊専好・専養・専存並に門弟の立花五十瓶。鳥ノ子紙極彩色。</p>