Ikebana

Hello! This week I thought I'd tell you about the ikebana class I'm taking. It's part of the traditional arts programmes available to foreign students, the same as the ceramics course from last term.

(It's a lot harder than the ceramics course from last term).

"Ikebana" is Japanese flower arranging. It's linked to Buddhism (like calligraphy and tea ceremony) but it's used in a secular way too. Kind of like the UK, actually - there's a lot of flower arranging in churches but you don't need to believe in God to buy a bouquet. Our teacher explained the most common place for ikebana arrangements are in the alcove (tokonoma) of a traditional Japanese room. But he has also participated in live shows where he might create an arrangement on stage as traditional Japanese music plays, for example.

By the way, our teacher is a really interesting guy. You can check out the homepage for the school here. He's the third generation head of this pretty successful school of ikebana, and through the live shows and some collaborations with other successors to Kyoto's traditional arts has apparently done a lot to keep the arts here going. You could see how inspired he feels about this stuff when he was talking about it in our first class.

So here are a few of my attempts at ikebana. The school we're learning with takes a geometric approach to how the flowers should be laid out. So when you're trying to work out why your arrangement doesn't look quite right, then you move one flower sideways by an inch - suddenly the angles all line up and it's really very satisying. I also like playing with the flowers (the roses were a little less fun...).

 The first week. I was so happy to take the flowers home with me that I set them up just like this in my room. By midnight my nose was streaming and I remembered my hayfever. The flowers were promptly removed to the kitchen, where all subsequent arrangements now live.

 This was an interesting one. Unlike traditional Western flower aranging, which tends to go for a flourishing, in-bloom feel, ikebana is about the entire life of the flower. I really liked using the buds as part of the design. Our homework that week was to watch them open and then die.
(Mine died prematurely because I couldn't get them to water in time...)

This is my favourite! I really like sunflowers, so I was hoping to be able to use them, but thought that they probably weren't the right kind of plant for ikebana or something. Very happy to be wrong!

I'm going to try to update this blog much more regularly from now on - in fact, I'm aiming for every Monday, but don't expect toooo much.

So, fingers crossed, I'll write again next Monday!