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Evoke a Japanese Tearoom's Beauty With a 'Chabana' Flower Arrangement
Set the stage for serenity in any room with floral and decorating ideas borrowed from an ancient Japanese tradition
The Japanese art of chabana, which literally translates to “tea flowers,” is an ancient style of flower arranging used in traditional Japanese tea ceremonies. It’s a dazzling form of floral display with roots in the more recognizable form of ikebana. It's simple to learn and easy to individualize, and it ultimately creates an indelible, bold impression. Japan’s tradition of tea ceremonies dates back to the ninth century and is the country’s oldest hospitality custom. Traditional tearooms have a standard design aesthetic (tatami mats, low ceilings etc.), but a tea ceremony can be conducted in any room of any modern home.
Here are some tips to create a tearoom-inspired space complete with your own chabana flower arrangements.
Here are some tips to create a tearoom-inspired space complete with your own chabana flower arrangements.
Unlike in most Western flower arrangements, each flower in a chabana arrangement is styled outward—facing forward to welcome guests. The focus is always on the visitor, so every colorful blossom should open up toward the center of the room.
Chabana, far less formal and rigid than ikebana, employs shorter blooms, branches and other irregular offshoots deemed kinka or “forbidden flowers,” not used in ikebana arrangements. As long as the flowers are seasonal to your local area or region, consider them fair game.
An arrangement can consist of a mere two branches or flowers (sometimes the most memorable representations are the most minimal), but if you’d like to add more, you must do so in odd numbers — three, five, seven etc. Orient the largest blossoms in any arrangement closer to the rim of the vase.
Varying (although not clashing) heights, textures and colors are encouraged to add character to an arrangement. Tearoom interiors are typified by a very minimalist design, so intriguing shapes and colors are encouraged in chabana displays. Taller flowers and branches can reach up to 1 1/2 times the height of the vase, which can also be any shape or size. When you're trimming branches, cut diagonally and cut a tiny slice on the bottoms to maximize hydration. And be sure to trim excess leaves and branches below the rim of the vase.
During a tea ceremony, guests are usually seated on cushions or a tatami mat in an otherwise stark room. Design elements like tables and artwork are oriented at a much lower height and accented with little more than sliding, shoji screen partitions and views of an outdoor garden or courtyard.
Tearooms also feature a small, raised and recessed space — the tokonoma, or “place of beauty,” which serves as a design altar of sorts, showcasing a tearoom’s chabana arrangement along with a decorative scroll. The tokonoma is a centuries-old design element, but it’s still a perfect platform on which to display the traditional Eastern floral arrangement alongside a modern, personal design element, like a Western photograph or painting, to represent your home’s unique style.
The colorful display of the flowers in conjunction with a tearoom’s stark interior evokes an introspective mood throughout a tea ceremony, wherein matcha (a powdered, highly caffeinated green tea) is served to a small group of intimate guests in handmade decorative lacquerware. Tea is traditionally enjoyed in three long sips, and it is customary to slurp the last drink.
Guests are encouraged to slowly take in the caffeinated beverage and focus their mounting energy in and around themselves, with the chabana arrangement providing a simple representation of the natural world just outside the walls. Just like flowers, the tea and presentation can be personalized and modernized to your taste. The art of the ritual is the ability to make everyone as comfortable, and aesthetically pleased, as possible.