Abstract
This paper aims to make clear how the arranger pulls the ikebana flower out of
the vase. If life of an organism can be defined, as Hans Jonas [1994] points out, by
metabolism, the flower keeps its life even after being cut off the root. But it is brought
to death through the arranger’s act before it stops metabolism; they do so to keep its
beauty.
I argue two aspects of touching are involved in this act. In arranging the flower, the
arranger takes an interactive or cooperative action of fureru (to feel), which Sakabe
Megumi [1983, 1989] distinguishes from a one-way action of sawaru (to touch). They
perceive to what arrangement the flower is inclined by feeling it. But in pulling it out,
they take a sawaru action, which includes, as Ito Asa [2020] observes, getting in contact
with a taboo or the inviolable such as death. By putting the flower to death, they save it
from a disgraceful appearance and give it a definite, beautiful form.
