Core Kyoto S2014E04 - Ikebana: Revealing the Full Potential of Flowers

Ikebana is the traditional art of flower arranging. Developed in Kyoto it merges Asian naturalism with the floral offerings to Buddhist altars. The Ikenobo headmaster upholds the school's 550-year-old tradition. A potter imagines vases as extensions of the flowers they hold. A practitioner creates progressive arrangements steeped in tradition. Plants are not mere ornaments. Practitioners impose their lives on that of the flowers. Ikebana's quintessence is in the representation of life as beauty.