Living: Japan's Picasso of the Flowers

Blue Wind blows new life into an ancient art

"There are many beautiful things," Sofu Teshigahara has written. "The silent beauty of a flower surpasses them all. Among beautiful women there are said to be silent beautiful women, but none can compare with the silent flower." Sofu (the name means Blue Wind) is revered for such views in a land where a beautiful blossom is a benison. Round, gnome-like Teshigahara, 77, is Japan's most innovative and successful master of the ancient art of ikebana, which bears about the same relationship to flower arranging as...

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