This is an arrangement devised for the tokonoma of a three-and-three-quarter-mat, intimate Tea room, and is therefore small in scale. The receptacle is stamped with the Chinese era-name (read in Japanese as) 'Sentoku'; its pair of delicate handles suggests in miniature the large and full-lobed ears iconographically assigned to the Chinese God of Felicity, and yet generates an atmosphere of uncluttered refinement. Accordingly, as the ornamental board upon which the receptacle stands, rather than selecting the normal, rather severe, grooved-edged type, I have used one that is shaped according to the motif of interlinked ovals that has been favored by generation after generation of Grand Masters of the Enshu school, this design affording a rather more gentle impression.

Through the contrast between the white of the camellia and the red of the apricot, I have intended to express the atmosphere of the old (Chinese) New Year . I myself feel that, in choosing elements from flowering trees for use in this sort of receptacle, one gains a better effect by selecting not robust branches but slender twigs.