IKEBANA INTERNATIONAL (I.I.) is a non-profit cultural organization dedicated to the promotion and appreciation of IKEBANA, the Japanese art of flower arrangement. When the late Ellen Gordon Allen founded the organization in 1956, her dream was to create an organization uniting the peoples of the world through their mutual love of nature and enjoyment of IKEBANA. That dream has now spread to over 60 countries/area, with 165 chapters and membership of approximately 8,500 persons.

IKEBANA INTERNATIONAL does not teach any single type of IKEBANA. Rather, it is an interest group made up of people of many nationalities who enjoy IKEBANA and other arts of Japan. Many of the members have studied IKEBANA; some have not.

Those who have studied IKEBANA have learned from many different schools. Some schools of IKEBANA stress classic styles; other focus on contemporary forms, and some blend the two. Each of the hundreds of schools of IKEBANA takes its own approach to arranging flowers. At I.I. meetings, students and teachers share openly their own schools' inspirations, styles, philosophy, history, and techniques.

A unique feature of IKEBANA INTERNATIONAL is that the organization was founded by and is still administered by volunteers, assisted by only a small professional office staff in the INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS in Tokyo.