I cannot be sure, but this sounds to me like a reference to the actual Schools of Ikebana, in which case, “school” is in the sense of both a place of study and school of thought, or more like style. From what I understand, the schools of Ikebana are both physical places where you can formally learn Ikebana, and thusly, also ways to describe differences in styles of arranging. Each school has a headmaster who can trace the school’s history back to the founder. I don’t know for sure if this indicates that the displays above are from true Schools of Ikebana headmasters or the heads of particular chapters of a school.

This is because a school name when referencing a place of study does not necessarily describe just a single location; there can be chapters of different schools all over the world. We have both Ikebana and tea ceremony school chapters here in Philadelphia (http://www.ikebana-philadelphia.org/ and http://www.phillytea.org/). It is the same concept as Japanese tea ceremony schools – there are three main schools (san-Senke) in Japan, each with a few differences in technique, and you can find chapters and variations of those schools all over the world. Depeding on which school you go to, you are said to practice that type or style of tea ceremony/Ikebana (i.e. the “Urasenke school of tea ceremony” or “Sogetsu school of ikebana”). However, despite a global outreach, a particular school’s technique should be identical at every chapter where it is taught (“should be” being key words here).

I know I said “just a note” at the beginning of this comment, but this is turning into a full-blown intro course. My apologies. I tend to ramble about Japanese tea ceremony and Ikebana. Thank you for posting some wonderful photos of Ikebana being done in Japan!

ikebanaofrichmond.org

“Friendship through Flowers”
Come browse our forum or look at the photographs

Let me know what you think…

By the way, in case anyone thinks that’s not a witchhazel (mansaku), they’re right. Mansaku is Japanese witchhazel, Hamamelis japonica, but I believe this is Disanthus cercidifolius (maruba-no-ki or beni-mansaku). It’s a lovely and unusual shrub in Western gardens, related to the witchhazels (same family, different genus). Apart from the very different leaf-shape it has maroon flowers with 5 petals in late autumn, rather than the 4-petalled yellow to orange early-spring flowers of Japanese and Chinese witchhazels.

Having seen (seldom enjoyed!) a lot of competitive flower-arrangement exhibitions in the UK, e.g. at Chelsea Flower Show, I have to say that this ikebana exhibition blows them out of the water for style and presentation: wonderful! Thanks for another fascinating post.