Sofu Teshigahara

Sōfū Teshigahara (勅使河原 蒼風 Teshigahara Sōfū, 17 December 1900 – 5 September 1979) was the founder of the Sōgetsu-ryū school of ikebana flower arranging.

Biography He was born in Tokyo. He learned flower arranging from his father, who had studied many styles of different schools. In 1927 he started the Sōgetsu School. His son is the Japanese film director Hiroshi Teshigahara. His daughter-in-law is the actress Toshiko Kobayashi.

He believed that ikebana is an art and that the difference between the Sōgetsu School and Ikebana lies in the belief that once all the rules are learned and the techniques mastered, an unbounded field remains for freer personal expression using varied materials, not just flowers.

In 1929 he held the first Sogetsu exhibition at Ginza,