A Fine Bouquet Ikebana Blends Nature And Humanity In A Beautiful Living Art Form

In ikebana, simplicity is key.

No bold colors. No gaudy designs.

Just blossoms and branches - as if they were still attached to a tree.

“We are bringing flowers from their habitat so we have an obligation to keep it as natural as possible,” says Ellen Krehbiel, a “sensei” or teacher who practices this ancient Japanese art of flower-arranging.

Ikebana isn’t about throwing plants together.

It’s a highly disciplined craft - one that was restricted for centuries to just priests and the nobility.

It requires both intellect and intuition, knowing formulas and rules but having enough creativity to explore space and design.

It’s also at least 600 years old - a tradition that blends nature and humanity in a living art form.

Every week, Krehbiel teaches ikebana to a group of women at the Gilted Lily, a flower shop in north Spokane.

With slow, nimble fingers, she carefully cuts flower stems and places them in a flat bowl. Her design, she says, mimics nature - it is imperfect, asymmetrical, simplistic.

“In Oriental philosophy, less is more,” explains Krehbiel, who’s also a music teacher at Brentwood Elementary.

Surrounded by bunches of wild yellow roses with branches from a cherry tree at their feet, the women at the Gilted Lily spend hours exploring space, arranging flowers in what they perceive is their natural order.

“I like the simplicity,” said Vi Nagley of Spokane, one of the women who come regularly to Krehbiel’s classes. “I like the idea of using a few flowers instead of everything bunched together.”

Ikebana, which means “way of the flowers” in Japanese, isn’t new in Spokane, a city with a large Japanese-American population.

Worldwide, there are more than 1,100 ikebana flower schools. Spokane’s Ikebana International Club has 20 members and celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.

As an art form, ikebana developed from the Buddhist tea ceremony and the ritual of offering flowers to the spirits of the dead.

Ikebana also has many “schools” or varieties, which include the classical Ohara School to the more modern, avant garde Sogetsu.

In Spokane, Krehbiel and other members of Ikebana International focus on Sensho Ikenobo, a more modern ikebana style born in 1928.

Unlike Western flower-arranging, ikebana practitioners say their art form helps them center themselves.

Rooted in Zen philosophy, ikebana is spiritual, Krehbiel says.

“It creates a respect in the person that is studying ikebana,” says Krehbiel, 48. “When you build respect for the plant material, you learn to be respectful toward people, too.”

By doing ikebana, practitioners say they achieve balance, Zen, a place where both the right and left brains work simultaneously.

“It is an oasis of quiet,” said Joyce Jesperson of Spokane, a member of the local Ikebana International Club. “It gives me this feeling of peace.”

Krehbiel discovered ikebana 15 years ago in Okinawa, Japan.

Her teacher was Keiko Robbins, a 60-something woman who was considered a renegade.

Robbins came from a conservative family in Hokkaido, one of the northern Japanese islands. When she married an American, her family refused to speak to her.

From Robbins, Krehbiel acquired a love and appreciation for ikebana’s simplicity. Like many Eastern disciplines, she spent several years copying her sensei’s work before trying her own ideas.

“I followed my teacher around,” she recalls. “Slowly, I learned that your mind has to be focused. I began to feel, to get inside the arrangement, to understand the why.”

Beauty, ikebana fans say, results from graceful lines, natural shapes and color combinations.

For Krehbiel, beauty is serendipitous - “it just happens,” she says.

There are formulas, however.

The basis of the arrangement lies in three branches: Heaven, symbolized on paper by a square; Earth, represented by a circle; and Humankind, a triangle.

At first glance, the rules seem easy: Like nature, Heaven always hovers above Earth and humankind stays close to the bottom.

But there are other details that make ikebana complicated.

First, there’s the math. Heaven must be the tallest branch. Earth should be two-thirds the height of Heaven and Humankind must only be half the size.

“If you’re starting from zero, it’s like stabbing in the dark,” Krehbiel says.

Then there’s the asymmetry. Krehbiel emphasizes that Japanese arrangements must be in a triangle because “nature is not symmetrical.” Empty space, she says, is also important because the void makes the eyes go to the point of interest.

The asymmetry and empty space together create movement, balance, depth.

“I love having ikebana arrangements in my house,” Krehbiel says. “It gives me a feeling of peace and calm no matter how wild things are.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Ikebana classas Ikebana classes will be offered at the Gilted Lily, 2218 N. Monroe, in July on Tuesdays from 7 to 9 p.m. Classes are $5 per session plus cost of materials. For more information, call 326-4511.