Ikebana Unbound

A Modern Approach to the Ancient Japanese Art of Flower Arranging

The book is organized around five central tenets of ikebana: unity with nature, movement and direction, balance and imbalance, rhythm and repetition, and simplicity. Every chapter includes an essay explaining the key tenet followed by a series of representative seasonal arrangements. For each one, Luu and Matsuba discuss the design’s connection to ikebana philosophy and then offer readers step-by-step instructions for re-creating the arrangement, with photos showing the mechanics of building the piece (foliage manipulation, working with floral frogs, etc.).

With hundreds of beautiful photographs and the authors’ expert intel, Ikebana Unbound is at once a primer on contemporary ikebana design and an inspiration for readers to create their own exceptional arrangements.

About the Authors
Amanda Luu and Ivanka Matsuba are the team behind Studio Mondine, a floral design studio based in San Francisco, California, which seeks to balance the simplicity of Japanese ikebana with the abundance of Western-style flower-arranging. Their work has been featured in the New York Times, Vogue, Real Simple, Martha Stewart Weddings, and Architectural Digest, and they have created arrangements for Everlane, Google, Parachute Home, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and more.