When Ikebana was first developed, there was only one way of arranging flowers: Ikenobo. Hence Ikenobo is called “the origin of Ikebana.” There was only one “school” to start with.
In the course of the history of over 550 years, however, some ikebana teachers under Ikenobo branched out from the main stream to establish their own styles. Each branched-out group has its own identity as a “school.”
Although they are under the umbrella of ikebana, different schools have different instruction and emphasis. Some say there are more than a thousand different schools!
Some schools, such as Ikenobo, are huge with millions of members worldwide. Some schools are tiny organizations that exist in only certain city or region of Japan.
Ikebana International website lists the following nine schools. I assume they are among the largest.
(in alphabetical order)
Chiko
Ichiyo
Ikenobo
Misho
Ohara
Ryuseiha
Saga Goryu
Shinpa Seizan
Sogetsu
How many of them have you heard before?