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T'i Kong at Chooi Bee Kiong,
Tanjong Tokong
 

THIS book is enlightening. It is Japanese, it is on Japanese culture but it is published in Penang by Asia Centre. It is supported by a group of Penang enthusiasts whose names can be found in the book and who have brought us  into the threshold of cross cultures we find ourselves in as we are introduced into the philosophy of ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement. For, as we read it, we cannot escape the realisation of how close Indian,  Chinese and Japanese are and how much they influence one another and how we are related cross culturally to them all. Like most Japanese cultures, we see the influence in their beginnings of Chinese and Buddhist philosophies.

However, as with most Japanese art, Machiko shows how it has been very much refined, as only Japan can. So much so that, in its esoteric and symbolic nature, it has become so refined and pure as to have become Japanese art; that to understand its abstract symbolic nature we should and can only understand its form only  through Japanese eyes.

For it is not so representational as symbolic in its meaning.  So much so that one can only understand it through its abstract and symbolic nature, requiring knowledge about its philosophy  without the confusion of personal subjectivism required in most western art. This can be seen even in the majority of Japanese physical arts in such as  kendo, aikido or even another floral art as  bonzai where one can discern the influence of the spirit of  zen. Since zen stems from the Chinese art of meditation which in turn draws its inspiration from the Indian meditation, we can see how much influence the Indo-Chinese culture has in our civilisation.

Strange it may seem, but true. For, as she points out,  the original idea of the seven branch stem of ikebana came from the sword, known as the Chisichi - to, now a national treasure of Japan, was presented by Korea to the Emperor of Japan and was, according to the inscriptions found on the sword, supposed to have protective powers. 

And herein comes the abstract philosophy that connects it to Penang. The Shichishi-to is seven branched because that symbolised the seven stars of the Big  Dipper in the northern heaven  where it was believed the Jade God of Heaven, dwells. The Jade God was supposed to be the king of heaven and the universe, and the sword thus was supposed to have protective virtues. Since the Emperor of Japan was supposed to have had  a heavenly ancestor and his name Tenno in Chinese has the same meaning as the King of heaven; thus the gift was appropriate and a link suggested.

Now, this King of Heaven lives where the Big Dipper is, because the Big Dipper points to the North star and was therefore of great importance. It was supposed to be a Taoist legend. There is an Indian belief that the King of Heaven was named Sakka, the king of the devas. According to the Buddhist belief, he was a heavenly deva  who had reached the second enlightenment where he is still sexually impure and therefore had five hundred wives. Accepting all this, we see a connection between Japan's culture to that of China and India and the importance to the world of our Indo-China culture. Well, that is all legend. But it does not detract the symbolic and abstract nature of the philosophy of the art or the philosophic content itself.

We have seen the the origin of the art form itself become so respectable? Well, in the first place, it is in the Isonokami shrine that the Shichisi-to is to be found. This place played the central role of the ancient politics, religion and culture. It was where ceremonial and military functions existed and the shrine itself is the storage of ancient military weapons. 

Without going into details which can be found in the book, connection can be found between the word in Japan to the Taoist texts of China portraying the Taoist alchemical practice in China. At that time, there was a great deal of contact between China and Japan. Hostility between the countries as we know it today did not exist. Everyone was interested in the development of the arts and the meaning of the universe and man. There was no god in the western sense and the  Big Dipper and the King of Heaven became matters of central importance.

The influence of the Tang dynasty was great and sometime in the 14th century, without going  into details which can be found in the book, the habit of having a niche, tokonoma, on the northern side of the home next to the entrance, was developed and into it was a bowl of flowers known as the Tatehana. It is believed that this was the origin of the ikebana.

The Tatehana is "a flower arrangement in which the focus is on a standing centre stem". This, according to the author,  is  Chisihchi-to inspired. She then connects this to Buddhist practice in China and the Buddhist influence on the arrangement and its use during the Nijo Emperor's ascension ceremony where the Tatehana arrangement was placed on the north side of a building in the palace during the ceremony. 

Of significance in the symbolic meaning of  7. It is a magical figure of great reverence in Japan. It relates to the seven rules of tea drinking and the seven utensils and is to be seen in the mounds of temples and even in the noh plays. Even when the ikebana form took to a looser and more elaborate form in the Tatehana and developed into the rikka, which she says was evolved from the Taoist practice, with its twin branch variety, the seven branch principle remain.

How then came the three branched form? The rikka  form, she points out, is the traditional Japanese flower arrangement. But, she points out, there are other forms such as the Chabana form used for the tea ceremony which evolved at about the same time. The Chabana was placed in the Tokonoma during the tea ceremony and consists of a single branch or flower or combination of these with no formal form to indicate that everyone in the room was equal and free, making the ikebana free of the bondage of form as well as structured and controlled as in the rikka form.

But then, the Japanese philosophy that in human art there has to be order and discipline came into this form. To be placed in the Tokonoma, one has to have some form. And the development into the Seika and heika evolved into the three branched Seik form. Though the form became free, as can be seen from the photos of her own arrangement to be found on the front and rear covers of the book there was still the principle of some kind of form.

The book deals in the philosophy and does not deal with the arrangement of ikebana designs themselves which will be in her next book. For us, she demonstrates the importance of knowing the philosophy of the art, without which we cannot understand the deeper meaning of its form and how art does evolve and change but in accordance to its ritualistic and ceremonial nature.

For us, there is another interest. There is in Penang, at the foot of the Penang Hill railway, a temple dedicated to the Jade Emperor who is seen in a statue, holding his sceptre with seven studs to his bosom to symbolise the Big Dipper and the symbols of the sun and moon held in both respective hands to signify that he is in heaven.

The drawings on the statue in the Temple dedicated to him makes this plain. The influence of the arrangement with the seven stars of the Big Dipper connects him to the culture of ikebana. So though the idea of the totality of the Sun,  Moon and Earth of the three branch design is not present even if the God of Heaven holds the Sun and Moon in his hands, the main and basic idea of ikebana  is demonstrated.

Thus is Penang connected to ikebana, through the legend of the God of Heaven and the seven stars he holds in his sceptre and how ikebana came to be connected to China, Buddhism and Taoism. 

Machiko  now resides in Penang, There is no doubt that she is an authority of her art. The book is well written and clearly shows that art is subject to abstraction and formalisation, a mark of the development and level of civilisation from which the art was evolved. For, without the power of the intellect and its meditative abstraction, the deeper meaning of the art would not be discovered and displayed and we will be left with nothing more than a few lines, artfully balanced and skilfully arranged but not detached from the reality but remain earthbound.

And this is where the enthusiasts of Penang, known for their  individualistic attitudes, come in. They have adopted so many foreign cultures so happily, in spite of philosophies so foreign to us. So, let us hope that we will also absorb this book and adopt ikebana and turn it into one of their own arts, subject to their individualistic understanding and interpretation. 
 

-- Book Review by Lim Kean Siew