RECESS OF FLOWERS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 178, 14 August 1937, Page 15

RECESS OF FLOWERS

The Real Japanese Home

« real Japanese home there are nejther tables nor ehairs, The Japanese sit on the fioer, which is made oi thich mata of rice-straw, tightly pressed and oovered with a hae deece. Th» walls are not papered. Feople uaed to the colQurful rooms of western houses are inclined fo dnd the Japanese rooqas rather bare; they -fail te se'e the charm of their neatness and siioplicity, TJnlike the people -of ihe west, the Japanese never deeorate their rooms with shatues, vases o t paintiags. The reason is that in the best room of every Japanese home there is a recess, ihe ,*tokonama,,* where a painting is exfcibited or a few Aowers arrapged in a vase. Jf the -walls were -covered with colouJred paper, the vase and the iSowers would not not attract attention. But the tokonama in the otherwise colourless room is the focus of the ' eye. Br'iefly, the elimiiiation of wall paper and decorations aims to mahe the gimple but arfcistic and reflned arrangement of flowers in the tohonama prominent, In western homes ihe fireplace is the fecus of the living room and at thc

sam© time Its prineipal ornament. Thc tokonama answers the same putpose in the Japanese home. As the guests sit and converse by the fireplace in the west, so they gather bofore the tokonama in the Japanese home to be entertained by the fiowers, The eomparison between ihe meaning and purpose of fireplace and tokonama might erroneously convey the impression that the Japanese are impractical people, who put good taste above all else. Thanks to the tokonama, the art of arranging flQwera is not only a xecreation but part of every day lifc, and this is why it has never been discarded, Actually the origiaal purpose of the tokonama was religious. It was the plaee for spiritunl exercise, ihe family aitar qn which stood ah image of Buddha, with offerings of fiowers and incense in front of-it. hlorcing and night the whole family joined before it in prayer. Gradually this religious usage was dropped and ihe tokonania became-an estheiic feature, But aoaiething of ihe old saeredness elqng io it fo? « long ti«ie and ihe people eea'tinued to adorn it wiih pictwres and fiowers.