Preliminary Research Findings: Worlding with Plants

The traditional anthropological study of Kadō (Japanese floral art) has often prioritized the symbolic meaning of arrangements or the rigid transmission of school-specific lineages (ryūha).   However, by shifting the analytical lens toward Tim Ingold’s concept of making, this research re-situates Kadō as a process of "growing" rather than "building."   According to Ingold, making is not the imposition of a preconceived form upon passive matter (the hylomorphic model), but a process of correspondence—a rhythmic, bodily interaction between the practitioner and the living material.

In Kadō, the "skill" is not a static mastery over a branch, but a generative capacity to respond to the plant’s unique inclinations.   The practitioner’s body and the plant’s morphology enter into a state of co-becoming.   This bodily interaction is where the "worlding" occurs: the practitioner does not simply "arrange" a flower;   they navigate a field of forces where the tension of a willow branch or the fragility of a camellia petal dictates the movement of the shears and the hands.

By applying this generative path, we can reconceptualize the "Dō" (the Way) in Kadō not as a fixed destination or a set of ancient rules, but as a continuous trajectory of change and development.   The "Way" is formed through the repetition of these encounters, where the practitioner’s sensory perception becomes increasingly fine-tuned to the "life-pulse" of the material.   Consequently, the development of Kadō is understood here as an ongoing rhythmanalysis of human-plant entanglement.   The "Way" is not a path already laid out, but a trail blazed through the persistent, improvisational dialogue between the human hand and the floral form.   This perspective allows us to see Kadō as a living practice of world-making that evolves with every cut, bend, and placement.