Do you know shiki ita (敷板)?

It is a flat wooden (usually lacquered) base platform used by ikebana practitioners to create and extend space that otherwise could not be fully expressed by the flower container alone.

Normally it is a supporting actor to the usual main characters of flowers/branches and container. Sometimes, it can also provided necessary contrast against backgrounds that have similar hue with the flower container.

In this arrangement, we flip the usual roles and use the shiki ita as “main character”. There is no flower container in the usual sense to steal the show!

Notice also that instead of the shiki ita delineating the boundaries, the arrangement extends its space outside of it.

Here is the whole arrangement.

I hope you like it. —Miyako