Facing the Winter Naked

Goat Willow and Japanese Beauty Berries in a ceramic container.

Abstract freestyle.

The days have turned cold - much colder than usual in November. Plants are withering. Flowers are gone. Still winter can be a good season for ikebana. The trees are bare and the branches have to face winter naked. On the bright side, all the straight and curved lines of the tree branches are clearly visible against the sky when there are no leaves to cover them. At last we can see them as they are, and in all their variety.

The founder of the Sogetsu school, Sofu Teshigahara has said this about branches and lines:

"Branches consist mainly of lines, both necessary and superfluous.

In order to emphasize the necessary lines,

you have to discard all the superfluous and conflicting ones."

"One should study how to contrast the sense of stillness with movement

using a combination of curved and straight lines."

Honeysuckle and Trumpet Lily in a lacquered wooden vase.

In the winter, when branches aren't that easy to bend, one will have to cooperate with the material and chose carefully what parts to use. The two arrangements in this post are variations on the theme "intertwining". In the first I have used Goat Willow branches, straight and slightly curved lines. The thin branches are fixed by sticking them through splits in the thicker ones (the intertwining). The second arrangement has a more naturalistic form and uses strongly curved lines. Vines of Honeysuckle are intertwined into a swirling three dimensional shape. The wooden vase has straight lines that contrast the curved ones.

Quotations from:

Kadensho: The book of flowers

by Sofu Teshigahara

Sogetsu Shuppan, Tokyo, 1979

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More Water

Many people have liked my clear water ikebana with four glass cube vases and an Amaryllis, that I posted earlier this month. So I thought it only fair to post the arrangement that was the inspiration behind it.

This Japanese maple arrangement is by the ikebana artist Naoki Sasaki. It's pictured in his latest book "Japanese Contemporary Floral Art" that can be bought from Amazon. It's a great book with many stunning designs, and the price has been reduced. This would make a wonderful Christmas gift for someone interested in flowers.

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Ikebana + Bass Performance

Have a look at this video - improvised bass music and ikebana creations in Japanese ceramics. Now that's an innovative and original concept! I love the way the clipping sound from the ikebana scissors becomes part of the music.

The live performance concept "Utsurawa-ba", consisting of ikebana artist So-sen Imai and bass player Koyu, has become a monthly happening in trendy Tokyo bars. The vessels by contemporary Japanese artists are selected by Kenshin Sato of the Utsuwa Kenshin gallery - a new artist is featured in each performance.

The focus on vessels as starting point of the arrangements is typical of traditional ikebana philosophy. There must always be a sense of harmony between vase, flower materials and surrounding. So-sen Imai is an ikebana master of the Ryusei-ha school, who have made collaborative live ikebana performances with DJs, dancers and musicians his trademark. You can follow him on his blog or at Myspace, and he also has a website in English.

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Stylized Gestures

One thing that fascinates me about traditional Japanese culture is the thoroughness - the focus on the details. I've been writing in earlier posts about practicing ikebana as a flower ceremony with a set of rules for how to move. It's similar to tea ceremony in the movements and is still practiced by some traditional ikebana schools.

I found this video on YouTube and decided to post it on the blog because of the gestures of the kadoka, the ikebana artist, as she creates a traditional Seika arrangement in what looks like a bamboo vase. The school is Saga Goryu, an ikebana school that goes back to the Emperor Saga in the 9th century and the style of flower arrangement that is said to have been created by him.

The motto of Saga Goryu is "to unite flowers and religion". The students practices a ceremony of floral tribute to Buddah. Notice the stylized gestures and movements of the ikebana artist in the video as she takes out her fan from the kimono belt, bows, and dries off the vase. Since this is a demonstration in front of a public the branches are prepaired, cut and bended in advance. Fortunately you can see some of the bending in the video as well. At the end the assistant also bows, takes her fan out, and carries the ikebana vase to the tokonoma alcove.

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Water: Reflecting Heaven

Clear water arrangement with Amaryllis.

Abstract freestyle.

Water is refreshing and calming. The surface reflects the sky in all its changes.

Clear water arrangements are cooling an full of life. The dark bottom arrangement creates a mystic darkness - the eyes are drawn towards the bottom of a deep pond. The arrangement with bridge is a special style that invites you to leave your safe surroundings and walk across the water into a mysterious world.

Dark bottom water arrangement. Bergenia leaf, yellow rose and black sand.

Naturalistic freestyle.

Arrangement with bridge. Abstract freestyle.

Iris leaves and Amaryllis.

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Flowing Energy

Climbing Hydrangea and Ornamental Cabbage in a hand made ceramic vase.

The flowing lines of vines are like raked circles in the gravel of a Japanese rock garden. The drifting circles in the sand surrounds a solid rock. In the centre there is nothing but calmness - flowers coming to life.

Sand and stone garden, Portland Japanese Garden.

Hop vines and Ornamental Cabbage in an oval-shaped ceramic suiban.

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Day 7 - Simple Living

Simple is often best. Our days are full of impressions - all the time we have to process a lot of information. I guess that's why nothing is more refreshing than a single flower.

Chabana. Red Rose, Hosta leaf with holes and thin Iris leaves.

1950s ceramics by Gunnar Nylund, Rörstrand Studio.

Gautama Buddha once said “If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.” It's been questioned if this is an authentic quotation. To me the important thing is the meaning of the words: In the single flower you can grasp the miracle of life, including your own life. Because we as humans are also part of nature our life conditions are basically the same.

The puristic esthetics of Japanese simplicity is the key to arrangements such as Chabana, the flowers used in tea ceremonies. To me that's the essence of following the way of flowers - flowers teach us to let go and to live a simple life.

This is the last of my flower practice week postings. I hope you have enjoyed them.

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Day 6 - A Closer Look

Things look different when you take a closer look. There are many other truths than the ones you are used too. That goes for people and it's also true when it comes to flowers. Today I've been looking out for surprising details and life's little pleasures in my search for ikebana materials.

Miniature ikebana. Tree seeds, Cosmos, grass, berries of Cotoneaster, Red clover, unknown purple flower, Rose hips, autumn leaf and Larch.

Scandinavian mid century miniature ceramics.

This is my first experiment with ikebana miniatures. In this set I've been working mainly with colours and balance, trying to give a playful and amusing presentation. Katsumi Teshigahara, the second Iemoto of the Sogetsu School of ikebana, introduced miniature ikebana as one of her trade marks in the 1960s. I've also seen groups of miniature ikebana by her father Sofu Teshigahara in old books. They often used very small glass vases, lipstick caps and other shiny cups as containers, giving the arrangements a kind of fairytale ambience. I've chosen to stick with ceramics to stay in the autumn season.

Enjoy your day - take a fresh look at life!

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Day 5 - Outdoor Meditation in Action

A friend of mine has an allotment not far from my house. I went there today to help planting bulbs for next year's flowering season. This kind of monotonous work is quite meditative - a good preparation for the outdoor ikebana work that I had planned to do with plants growing on the allotment.

Outdoor ikebana. Sunflower, Curly kale and a Marigold in a glass drop.

As we were pulling weeds and withered plants I found a Sunflower that had made a loop in the ground when it started growing out of the seed. With the roots still on it had quite an interesting shape. I fixed the stem upside down between some granite blocks that will be made into a patio, and added a leaf of purple Curly kale. Then I hanged a glass drop filled with water from the Sunflower loop and placed a single Marigold in it. The arrangement still needed weight at the base, so I took the top of the Sunflower and placed it under the Marigold so that the glass drop "falls down" into the seeds like a dew drop.

It feels different to work with ikebana in the outdoors. It involves your whole body as you are assembling, cutting and fixing materials and transforming the space. Like weed pulling and bulb planting it becomes a meditation in action.

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Day 4 - The Beauty of the Imperfect

Nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect - that's the beauty of life. The Japanese words wabi-sabi stand for an aesthetics of beauty that is imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. Wabi refers to the loneliness of living in nature, rustic simplicity, freshness or quietness, and understated elegance.

Intertwined leaves of Siberian Iris with Potentilla flowers.

Stoneware bowl by Gunnar Nylund, 1950s Rörstrand Studio.

In todays ikebana arrangement I've used yellowing leaves of Iris, intertwined in shape of a drifting movement. I also found some Potentilla flowers that are still in bloom, reinforcing the yellow colour. One of them is actually just a bud - nature never gives up.

October is considered the most wabi month of the year. According to my friend Margie of the SweetPersimmon blog, in tea ceremony this is the time to find again the cracked and broken utensils that have been lovingly repaired. In the world of flowers autumn is a time for reflection and seeing things as they are, honoring the flawed beauty of withering plants.

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