A Tour Around the Ichijō Ekan Sansō

Constructed in Nishigamo, Kyoto, in the Kan’ei era (1624-1645) and relocated to Kamakura in 1959.

The handles on the fusuma sliding door panels are customized with different designs for each room.

Here, the most cultured men of the time gathered and deepened their friendships through a mutual appreciation of beauty. A 17th-century pair of Rikka “Standing Flowers” paintings on a set of cedar doors at the villa provides evidence of one such exchange. Ichijō Ekan invited the second-generation grand master of the Ikenobō School of Ikebana flower arrangement, Ikenobō 







Senkō (1575-1658), to arrange some flowers there and had someone paint the resulting arrangements.

The foundation of Japanese ikebana flower arrangement was established in the 14th century in the Muromachi period. At the time, it was used as a form of decoration that was displayed in conjunction with various formal functions that were rooted in daily life.

Rikka is a mode of expressing an entire natural landscape in a single vase. Intended for display in an alcove, the arrangements are meant to be viewed from a single direction from a seated position on the floor in front of them.