Ikebana (生け花: to keep flowers alive) or Kado (花道: The Way of Flowers), is the art of Japanese flower arrangement.

It's not difficult to start studying and practicing Ikebana as several schools have spread widely throughout the world since the end of WWII. An excellent introduction to Ikebana and the schools that teach this art form can be found at Ikebana International.

The original school of Ikebana is the Ikenobo School, which traces its roots back over 500 years. The first written record of Ikenobo Ikebana can be found in the 15th century diary of the monk Daikyoku, who wrote of the popularity of arrangements by Senkei Ikenobo.

Sen'ei Ikenobo, the current Headmaster, is the 45th generation descendent of the first headmaster, Senno Ikenobo, who wrote one of the first manuscripts on Ikebana, "Senno Kuden" in 1542. Headmaster Sen'ei Ikenobo is also the head priest of Choho-ji, a.k.a. Rokkakudo (The Six-sided Temple), around which the Ikenobo main campus is designed and built. The roots of Ikebana trace back to the temple's 6th century abbot, Semmu, who lived in the Ike-no-bo (hut by the pond), and arranged flowers for the altar, a practice he had studied and brought back from China. There are many interesting stories about Rokkakudo, which is the 18th temple on the Saigoku pilgrimage.

Ikebana's roots trace back to the traditional Buddhist altar offering of three elements: flowers, incense, and candle. The three elements later moved to the tokonoma, a small sacred alcove that appeared in the shoin style of architecture, during the post-13th century rise of the samurai class. This followed the earlier reintroduction of Zen (along with green tea) into the Japan. In fact, shoin, meaning library or study, originally referred to the abbot's quarters in a Zen temple. As the shoin style spread, the tokonoma and its contents evolved towards more aesthetic usage. Today's tokonoma typically contains a scroll and a flower arrangement or other art object. The arrangement style designed for a tokonoma, called shoka in the Ikenobo school, is considered classical.

The fundamental structure of an ikebana arrangement is in its yakueda (principle branches). In the Ikenobo school, the yakueda of the moribana and traditional shoka styles are called shin (真),soe (副) and tai (体). In traditional shoka, shin-soe-tai represent the cosmos, or present-past-future. Shin is the primary and strongest element. Shin is currently written with the kanji character meaning truth, although in the past the character for heart-mind (心) was also used. Soe is the secondary or accompanying element, set in the yo (陽: sunny) side of the arrangement. Tai is the tertiary element, set in the in (陰: shady) side of the arrangement. Ashirai, or helpers, are added to support the yakueda and the arrangement as a whole.