Ikebana: Step by Step Japanese Flower Arrangement

Rating:
Summary: Decent how to, but lacks explanation of why
Review: I got this book to go with Origami Flowers by Hiromi Hayashi. Reiko Takenaka does a good job explaining how to make an arrangement that looks like the pictures, with step by step instructions and clear diagrams. Some of the containers seem to clash with the flowers, and some of the special occasions arrangements are lost in translation for someone not intimately familiar with Japanese culture like me. My only real criticism, however, is that the book does not really explain any principles about why and how and what looks good - it's more a menu to find an arrangement that looks nice in the picture and repeat it.

Rating:
Summary: Modern Ikebana
Review: Many ikebana books shows a very traditional way of arranging flower. This book, however, shows a simpler and more modern way arrangement with the result of nice and unusual looks of flower arrangement. The step-by-step is helpful and quite detailed. The book shows lots of different variations for cool vases or containers as well.

Rating:
Summary: definitely not the best book on ikebana
Review: The problem with this book is that most of the shown arrangements are plainly not beautiful. They don't look balanced as real ikebana should look, containers don't seem suitable for flowers, color combinations are not always harmonious, and in many cases it is not clear why this is called ikebana at all. There are some pieces of useful information such as diagrams, tools, and tips, but I don't think it reasonable to buy the book for those 10 pages (like I did).
There is a really great book on ikebana: "The art of arranging flowers; a complete guide to Japanese ikebana" by Shozo Sato, but it is out of print I am afraid. For examples of good ikebana look at these sites: http://www.nihonkoryu.org/, http://homepages.stmartin.edu/fac_staff/elias/index.htm, http://www.ikebanahq.org/

Rating:
Summary: definitely not the best book on ikebana
Review: The problem with this book is that most of the shown arrangements are plainly not beautiful. They don't look balanced as real ikebana should look, containers don't seem suitable for flowers, color combinations are not always harmonious, and in many cases it is not clear why this is called ikebana at all. There are some pieces of useful information such as diagrams, tools, and tips, but I don't think it reasonable to buy the book for those 10 pages (like I did).
There is a really great book on ikebana: "The art of arranging flowers; a complete guide to Japanese ikebana" by Shozo Sato, but it is out of print I am afraid. For examples of good ikebana look at these sites: http://www.nihonkoryu.org/, http://homepages.stmartin.edu/fac_staff/elias/index.htm, http://www.ikebanahq.org/

Rating:
Summary: great book for those who need English explanation of basics
Review: This is a clearly written, well thought out explanation of the basics of Ikebana. The photographs demonstrating the combinations of materials, and their height relative to each other, are great as examples for beginners. Many ikebana teachers don't speak English well, so this book is useful for a cross reference for something you were taught in class. One problem - there are many schools of ikebana so the book has to be quite generic in its explanations, which is not necessarily how your particular school may approach a certain principle. But again, as a study supplement to a class, it works well.