Ikebana is the Japanese tradition of artfully arranging flowers. Practicing ikebana involves learning to create a beautiful, simple composition using blossoms and branches.
Ikebana comes from the Japanese ikeru, "arrange" or "keep alive," and hana, "flower." It's defined as both "flower arranging" and "living flowers," and an important part of ikebana is trying to make the flowers look the way they do in nature. This includes using fewer stems than in a traditional Western flower arrangement. In ikebana, the space between the flowers is an important part of their beauty.