General Info

Drouart, a French professor at Rivier College, has opened Ikebana Flower at 95 West Pearl St. in Nashua, where she teaches classes on Japanese flower arrangement and sells vases and unusual flowers such as protea.Ikebana, which means "living flowers, " is the ancient Japanese art of arranging flowers that encourages expression and harmony and provides a soothing experience."Less is more, " explained Drouart, a certified Ikebana "sensei, " or teacher, who trained for five years at the Sogetsu School of Ikebana, a popular Ikebana flower-arrangement school in Japan.Ikebana started with the Buddist monks in China as a religious offering to their gods and was later brought over to Japan, Drouart said. The first teachers were men.By the 17th century, Ikebana started being used in tea ceremonies. There, a flower arrangement that fit the particular season was placed on a reed-mat floor in an alcove decorated with a hanging scroll.