A JAPANESE FLOWER SHOW.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1860, 26 February 1892, Page 4

A JAPANESE FLOWER SHOW.

In Lifcadio Hearn's piper in th 1 ? Atlantic —"Tha Chief City o c the Province of the God*" —he describes a Japanese fl)wer show. Eh writes : Ofteu in the streets at night, esp cially on the nights of sacred festivals, one's attention will be attracted to some small booth by the Bp >ctacle of an admiring and perfectly silent crowd pressing upon it. As soon as one can get a chance to look, one finds there is nothing to look at but a few vases con taining sprays of fnwers, or p>rhaps some light gracious branches fresh'y cut from a blossoming tree. It is simply a little flowar-shov, or more correctly, a free exhibition of master skill in the arrangement of flowers ; for the Japanese do not brutally chop off flower-heads to work them up into meaningless masses of colour, as we barbarians do. They love nature too well fop that. They know how much the natural chirm of the flower depends upon its setting and mounting, its relation to leaf and stem, and they select a si glo branch or spray just as nature mide it. At first you will not, as a Western stranger, comprehend such an exhibition at all. You are yet a savage in such matters compared with the commonest coolies abiut you. But even while 'you are still wondering at p pular interest in this simple show, the charm of it will begin to grow upon you, will become a revelation to you ; and despite your occidental idea of selfsuperiority, you will feel humbled by the discovery that all flower displays you have ever seen abroad were only monstrosities in compa ison with exquisite natural beauty of those few simple sprays. You wdl also observe how much the white or pale blue screen behind the flowers enhances the effect by lamp or lantern light; for the screen has been arranged with the special purpose of showing the rxquisiteness o'' plant shadows; and the sharp silhouettes of sprays and b'ossoms cast thereon are beautiful beyond the i nagining of any Western decorative artist.