AUSTRALIAN FLORA  Ikebana

• 131 p. : col. illus. ; 26 cm. SCARCE (Some shelf wear to dust jacket edges)
• Bibliography : p.123. #141024 First Edition
• Flower arrangement, Japanese
• Wild flowers — Australia
• In 1949 Sparnon began lessons in flower arrangement with Kobayashi of the Eishin school, and then with Hako Terai of the modern Sōgetsu school in Mita, where Sōfū Teshigahara was the iemoto (grand master). He was also taught at the traditional Ikenobō school, where Tadao Yamamoto was iemoto. In 1950 he first showed his work, at the Hibiya Park pavilion, and he went on to take part in more exhibitions than anyone from a Western country before him had done, including the All-Japan Ikebana Art exhibition and the One-Hundred Man exhibition; he also held a solo exhibition. He reached the most senior rank as a teacher of both Sōgetsu and Ikenobō. After he retired from SCAP in 1957 he attended classes with Yuchiku Fujiwara at Ikenobō, and often visited Teshigahara. He published his first book, Japanese Flower Arrangement Classical and Modern, in 1960.

  Between 1958 and 1960 Norman and Mary Sparnon had travelled in Europe and the United States. Arriving in Sydney in 1961, they settled at Darling Point. As the director of the Sōgetsu school, he founded eight groups in Australian cities and four in New Zealand. He also demonstrated and exhibited in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. President of the Ikenobō Society in Australia, he was also an honorary advisor to Ikebana International. He revisited Japan several times, and wrote books and articles aimed at inspiring and instructing Australian flower arrangers in using local plants.

  The first book in Sparnon’s three-volume series, Creative Ideas for Japanese Flower Arrangement, was The Beauty of Australia’s Wildflowers (1967). With E. G. Waterhouse, he then co-authored The Magic of Camellias (1968). The third was The Poetry of Leaves (1970). He also published A Guide to Japanese Flower Arrangement (1969), Ikebana With Roses (1974), and Creative Japanese Flower Arrangement (1982); translated Fujiwara’s Rikka: The Soul of Japanese Flower Arrangement (1976); and wrote entries about ikebana for Encyclopaedia Britannica and the English-language edition of Encyclopedia Japonica. Awarded an OAM in 1979, he was appointed to the fifth class of the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun in 1982 and received the Sōfū Teshigahara memorial award in 1991.