The flower arranger Teshigahara Sofu was born on December 17, 1900, and passed away on September 5, 1979. The eldest son of the flower arranger Teshigahara Hisatsugu, he devoted himself to studying ikebana from a young age. Eventually, he began to question classical ikebana, but Hisatsugu did not approve of his views. Consequently, Sofu left his family home in 1927, rented a house in Aoyama, Tokyo, and established his own school, the Sogetsu School, under the banner of "Professor of Ikebana and Moribana." In 1928, Sofu held a solo exhibition at Ginza Sembikiya, where his light, modern works garnered considerable attention. He continued to promote the Sogetsu School, giving ikebana lectures on NHK radio and publishing books such as "A New Way to Improve Your Ikebana Skills." Even during the war, he continued to teach ikebana in Gunma, where he had evacuated. In 1945, he held the first postwar ikebana exhibition, "Teshigahara Sofu and Ohara Houn," in Tokyo, which had been reduced to ashes. It served as a symbol of reconstruction and provided emotional support for the people.

Also, around this time, Sofu's works began to show unique, experimental designs that ushered in a new era of ikebana. At the first Japanese Ikebana Exhibition, invited by the Minister of Education in 1949, he established a style of expression that emphasized volume, called "massu," in his work "Ode to Reconstruction." In 1951, he exhibited works in which he covered plants with plaster and applied color, drawing widespread attention and calling them "object ikebana." In 1956, he presented "Life," a monumental work weighing a total of three tons, using 1,000-year-old wisteria vines. In 1958, he dedicated the monumental works "Maten" and "Dance of the Sacred Tree" to the Ise Grand Shrine Exposition.

Meanwhile, he held solo exhibitions in New York in 1952 and Paris in 1955, and was dubbed the "Picasso of Flowers" by Time magazine. In 1968, he visited the Soviet Union, and held solo exhibitions at art museums around the country, attracting widespread media coverage as the "flowers of friendship." In recognition of these activities, he was awarded the French Order of Arts and Letters in 1960, the Légion d'Honneur in 1961, and the Encouragement Prize for Fine Arts in 1962. In 1963, he exhibited not only flower arrangements but also calligraphy and sculptures at the International Exhibition of Contemporary Art in Paris, demonstrating his vigorous creative drive even in his later years.