Page:Japanese flower arrangement.djvu/43

 classifications as Heaven, Man, and Earth; Earth, Air, and Water; Father, Mother, and Child. The idea of applying a distinction of sex to inanimate objects enters as largely into flower arrangement as it does into all Japanese landscape gardening; but of that we will treat more fully in the practical part of this book.

Consideration of the vase as being something more than a mere holder of the flowers is purely Japanese. They think of the surface of the water, which they always expose, as the surface of earth from which the group springs. This aids in working out the effect of representing a complete plant growing as nearly as possible in its natural conditions.

The vase always represents to them the points of the compass; thus: [37]