Ikebana

This is the art of flower arranging but doesn't always use bright, exotic flowers and spectacular volumes and changes of scale. At times understatement is what is important. Attempting to make something look unforced and natural is harder than it looks. It seems a contradiction to have artful artlessness but this is the riddle or paradox inherent in many Japanese traditional cultural customs. 

The suffix do in Japanese, as in Korean, indicates that an activity can be a path or way of life to follow. The word judo or kendo are martial arts examples.

If you go to Kew Gardens in London you can on occasions see Ikebana displays inside their Japanese farmhouse, called a minka in Japanese.

The photo of the minka  below was taken from Kew Garden's website. And the black and white image is of Constance Spry (courtesy of the Telegraph newspaper).