Pronunciation: WAV or RealAudio

ikebana (ee-ke-BAH-nah, ik-uh-) noun

The Japanese art of formal flower arrangement with special regard shown to balance, harmony, and form.

[Japanese : ikeru, to arrange + hana, flower.]

"For Alice Tuan, a casual glance at an ikebana, or flower arrangement, book blossomed into her latest play, aptly titled Ikebana. `Flowers get cut off from their roots and are put into a new container,' said the Los Angeles-based Tuan, who is currently a graduate student at Brown University in Rhode Island. `There's something about that metaphor that spoke to me on an immigration level. People are cut from their natural roots of their homeland and are put into a new container that is their new country.'" Sam Chu Lin, Immigrant Arrangements, AsianWeek, 19 Dec 1996.

X-Bonus