Tachibana Today Winter 2012

Japanese Aesthetics - Ma, by Kimiko Gunji [From Tachibana, No. 29, 1994, p. 32-34]
Spatiality and asymmetry are the two most striking characteristics of the Japanese flower arrangement when compared with its Western counterpart. These characteristic are responsible for the simplicity, yet brilliance, of the Japanese flower arrangement; for this there is a word, “ma.” According to one of the authoritative Japanese dictionaries the word ma means, in spatial terms, “the natural pause or interval between two or more things existing in continuity,” or in temporal terms, “the natural pause or interval between two or more phenomena occurring continuously.” Read more.....