Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1893 — Japanese Love of Flowers. [ARTICLE]

Japanese Love of Flowers.

The term /tana, used by the Japanese, includes the blossom-clad stems and branches of flowering plnnts and trees, and even the stumps and branches of flowcrless trees and shrubs. The blossom is regarded as but one detail of the composition, of little artistic value disassociated from the parent stem and from the lines of growth which impart to it its character. The branches of certain evergreens and other flowerless trees and plants hold the highest rank, for example, as the pine, the cedar, the fir and the maple. The flower sellers in Japan invariably carry more bunches of greenery than of flowers, and the tiny vases placed before the innumerable Buddhas, in wayside shrines, have seldom bright blossoms, but always sprigs of cryptomeria, maple or shrub branches; and it is astonishing how pretty and artistic a Japanese gardener will make a bunch of green that we would scorn. An artistic gentleman who has been in Japan some time said that, at first, he often thought he could improve the appearance of a basket or a vase of flowers after the gardener had brought them in, so he would add a touch of color, or take away a bit of green; but he invariably found he bungled, for the first arrangement was better, and he soon learned not to alter it. In going up the mountains or along the level rice-fields, the bright coolies quickly see if their jinrikisha occupant is fond of flowers, and in a very careless and haphazard way, apparently, will pluck a blossom here and there, and soon present an artistic bouquet. The love for flowers and their arrangement seem to be natural characteristics of the entire Japanese nation. Tiny children, who can scarcely toddle about on their wooden clogs, have, in nine cases out of ten, a bunch of flowers or greenery clutched tightly in their small and they find beauty in the commonest wayside weed.—[Demorest’s Monthly.