Page:Japanese flower arrangement.djvu/201



HE Japanese are fond of applying a distinction of sex to inanimate things. They distinguish between male and female rocks and stones, male and female waterfalls, etc., and this same distinction is carried out in flower arrangement. All flowers and grasses in general belong to the in—female sex—while the trees belong to the yo or male. These distinctions are also applied between different forms of flowers. The buds are female; fully opened and perfect flowers are male; and the overblown and withered again return to female. They even distinguish between the front and the back of leaves, though it is merely a contrast of color. The front of a leaf is male and the back female. If two leaves grow together, as shown in the cut, the [195]