Hand Tinted Albumen of Ikebana Flower Arranging | Antique Japanese Photograph

Antique hand-tinted albumen photo of two women practicing Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging. Included is a caption sheet with a brief explanation about flower arrangement written by the Japanese. Albumen prints like this one were taken in black and white, with color added later by hand dyeing specific photo sections.

This image is taken from a "Brinkley Book" with a caption written by "Japanese Scholars".

[The arrangement of flowers is both an art and science in Japan. The guiding principle is not contrast of color but linear effect, and a certain symmetry without regularity. Traditional rules established by the various "flower schools" have prevailed since the 16th century. The subject, which is intricate and difficult, cannot be fully appreciated by a foreigner, but those who have studied it carefully assert that it is "immeasurably superior to the barbaric massing of colors that constitutes the whole of the corresponding art of the West."]

• Hand-tinted albumen print
• Meiji Period (1868-1912)
• Image dimensions: 10.5" x 13" (length, width)
• SKU: P-Ikebana2