Page:Through the torii (IA throughtorii00noguiala).pdf/175



own attitude towards the flowers is the attitude of the so-called flower-master, or, to speak more exactly, that of the tea-master, because the former is now troubled by the theories which originally came to exist as a proof of adoration as if a dew from the burst of dawn. And the latter is the art of accident, though it may sound rather arbitrary, born from the proper setting, When I call the flower-arrangement of the tea-master the natural, I mean to emphasise the point of formalism in those of the flower-master for which the word “decorative” is merely an excuse. As you and I know well, the flowers are sufficiently decorative in nature without adding any emphasis; I think that “decorative ” is one of those two or three words wrongly used in the West when applied to our Japanese art; and it is my own opinion that the true decorativeness will never be gained in any art of East or West through the point of emphasis. The real decorativeness of, for instance, Korin or Hoitsu lies, at least to our Rh