Unshin Ohara founded the Ohara School in the late nineteenth century, when Japan opened itself to the influence of Western culture. His departure from previous ikebana lay in the creation of a new form which he called the moribana style. This style later evolved into the school’s “landscape arrangement.” He also designed and produced the wide, shallow containers most suitable for works in the moribana style.
The Second Headmaster, Koun Ohara, established moribana as a formal style, and promoted Ohara ikebana throughout Japan. The Third Headmaster, Houn Ohara, imbued landscape works with strong literary and pictorial connotations, creating the styles called Bunjin and Rimpa.
The flower arrangement above with the beautiful glossy blue container is made with materials again from the artists home garden. It uses the shallow moribana type container that was developed by the founding first headmaster Unshin Ohara. Now this type of container is used by all ikebana schools.
The arrangement to the right is also an upright moribana arrangement, but using different materials again from the artist’s garden. Here we again have a shallow container as above only in a rectangular shape which is also an upright moribana arrangement.
Now this arrangement above, with Cornelian cherry branches and supermarket red roses is similar to the moribana upright arrangements, though the materials are different and one of the stems is positioned lower down. This arrangement is called a “Water Reflecting Style” due to the lowered branch. It has a very relaxing feel about it but with the bright colors also has a sense of energy and vitality at the same time.
Now this arrangement below also uses the same materials as the one above in the shallow blue container (suiban), but now they are used in a vase. This arrangement is called a Heika Slanting Style again using the Cornelian cherry branches and supermarket red roses. Even though the materials are the same as the arrangement above it has a different feel and attraction. It has a certain elegance for which vase arrangements are known.
This next arrangement above, is called a “Radial Form” with its long side branches giving the sense of an expansive flow much like the sun. This is a perfect arrangement for a wide piece of furniture such as a buffet, which would give a lasting impression to anyone coming in for a visit. It has purple callicarpa and zinnia from the artist’s garden. The flowers used for ikebana arrangements don’t have to be bought through florist shops, but can be everyday common flowers or one’s from one’s own yard.
This smaller arrangement below is called a “Free Expression” arrangement as it does not follow any particular rules or instructions regarding its creation. In ikebana, sometimes the arrangements only use one flower or type of flower and one branching material. This is expecially true of a particular form of ikebana (Chado) that was specifically created for the Japanese Tea Ceremony. This arrangement only uses one Xanadu leaf with spray carnations in a Truus Roest container.
This last arrangement below is also a Free Expression. It is not called a Free Style because an arrangement with a “Style” title implies fixed measurements and angles. Free Expression arrangements don’t have these restrictions. This arrangement was made during the winter. Ikebana arrangements usually reflect the present season or the next one. Even though this arrangement is not truly a seasonal arrangement, the evergreen material and the dried wood reflect the winter time of year.
