Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/33

Rh and so perennially beautiful and harmonious; but without special study of the ike-bana cult it could not be inferred that there is an exact list of proper combinations and improper combinations, and that the flowers appropriate for occasions of congratulation in each month of the year as well as for all ceremonials, social, religious, sad, or joyful, are exactly catalogued. Another consideration governing combinations was that "strong" sprays (trees) must not be placed on either side of "weak" (plants), or vice versâ, because, in the first place, such compositions would show mathematical symmetry, and, in the second, they would violate the true principles of natural balance. A still more important law was that of lineal distribution. It has been well said that "the floral decorations of Japan are synthetic designs in line, in which every individual stem, flower, and leaf stands out distinctly silhouetted. Appreciation of lineal grace seems, indeed, to be a specially developed faculty among the Japanese. Evidences of it are displayed in every branch of their art, and it found expression from the first in the ike-bana science. Three-lined, five-lined, and seven-lined compositions were designed, forming what may be called the skeletons of all arrangements. The directions and interrelations of their curves were carefully mapped out; their relative lengths were approximately