Belly dancers, disco lights give sparkle to flower arrangement show

Video footage shows belly dancers, disco lights and machine-made fog adding contemporary pizzazz to a flower arrangement performance at the Maharaja Roppongi night club in Tokyo. The show in February featured Yuika Kato, 33, a member of a male "ikebana" flower arrangement artist group formed to liven up the image of the ancient art among the young. He belongs to the largest ikebana school of Ikenobo, and his seven-member group is known as Ikenoboys. The oldest record on flower arrangement dates back to 1462. In 2016, just under two million people 15 or older participated in flower arrangement at least once, a 56 percent drop from 20 years before, according to a government survey.