Holiday Cinema 1: The Art and Meaning of Ikebana (1973)

Christmas and New Year is a time for festivities, but also for slowing down. I thought it would be fun to invite you to my Holiday Cinema and show some rare and interesting ikebana related videos. Relax, sit down in your favorite chair with a nice cup of tea and put your feet up!

First out is The Art and Meaning of Ikebana, a 27-minute film made in 1973 by Sakura Motion Picture and presented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. This video looks at ikebana practice and relates it to to other aspects of Japanese culture. It shows beautiful interiors and also gives a nice background to ikebana:

"The history of ikebana has its origins in ancient times when people expressed their faith in flowers. Even today a branch of the sakaki tree, an evergreen, is offered to the shrine. The ancient Japanese believed that a devine spirit was present in all growing trees and plants. ... It was in the early years of the 6th century that Buddhism was introduced to Japan. People began to make floral offerings to Buddha. This was the begining of ikebana, in which the peoples antient faith in flowers was combined with the Buddhist idea of Paradise."

Towards the end you'll see Sofu Teshighara working on a large scale arrangement with driftwood and pine, and finally his daughter Kasumi Teshigahara arranging white Camelias, I think location is the old Sogetsu Kaikan from 1958. Enjoy!

This video was uploaded to YouTube at the Art of East and West channel.

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Best Wishes for the Holiday Season

I'd like to thank all of my readers and contacts through 2013
wishing you all a happy holiday season.

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Christmas Ikebana By Megumi

One of my new discoveries in 2013 is the demonstration video series by Seattle based Sogetsu ikebana teacher Megumi Schacher. In this video she makes a Christmas arrangement in a tall vase, using a silver painted Allium Schubertii. Pay attention to the depth of the arrangement that comes from tilting materials both to the front and to the rear.

See more videos by Megumi through this link.

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Christmas at Sogetsu, Tokyo

In this time of Christmas preparations I want to share with you this weeks ikebana arrangement from the Japanese room at Sogetsu Headquarters in Tokyo. The artist is Katei Motoe and the materials used are coloured wood, root, Poinsettia, Chinese holly, and Easter lily.

The arrangements in the Japanese room are changed regularely and posted on the Sogetsu website, and also on their Facebook page. On the website there is also an archive with previous arrangements. Lots of goodies - enjoy!

Photo: Sogetsu Foundation

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Christmas Ikebana Exhibition

I took some photos at the opening of the exhibition "Japanese Days – a different kind of Christmas celebration" today. It's soon Christmas and a few new ideas can come in handy. The last ikebana (detail) with red chili pepper Santa's hats is by Helga Johanne Fjer Lindland. The other arrangements are all by Lisbeth Lerum.

The exhibition runs until December 21th at Nesodden Community Centre.

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Japanese Days – a different kind of Christmas celebration

Don't miss the opening of the Christmas exhibition at Nesodden community Center tomorrow, Saturday December 7th, at 1.15 pm. The exhibition "Japanese Days – a different kind of Christmas celebration" features ikebana by Lisbeth Lerum, Japanese woodblock prints, kimonos and lacquerwork from the collection of Knut Myrer, and origami by Pakistani Norwegian Ajaz Ul Haq.

At the opening you can listen to traditional Japanese music for mukkuri and koto, performed by Svein Westad and Liv Lande. Japanese and Asian food will be available in the venue’s Café. There will also be an Origami workshop by Ajaz Ul Haq.

The exhibition is arranged in cooperation with The Embassy of Japan and will be on display until December 21th at Tangenten, Nesodden community Center, Nesoddtangen.

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Tropical Materials

Tropical materials.
Surfaces of leaves, keeping in mind the shape of the vase, contrast colours.

I couldn't resist making a quick arrangement using a few leaves and a flower from the gardens of the hotel I'm staying in at Bang Tao beach, Phuket. They have a wonderful garden with a lot of plants that I'm not familiar with, but also a few that I know - even lotus flowers!

In this arrangement I have intertwined some thin Spider Lily (Hymenocallis) leaves with the larger leave from a Parakeet flower (Heliconia Psittacorum), and finishing by sticking a red flower of Indian Head Ginger (Costus woodsonii). It has very small flowers coming out one by one from the red conic shape.

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First Freestyle

The theme of last weeks ikebana class was sketching and creating a freestyle arrangement. The materials were limited to three straws, two leaves and two flowers. Using a limited amount of materials makes it easier not to crowd the arrangement, but keep the lines clear and work on the open spaces in the arrangement. Using two container also help to incorporate space in the work.

This was my beginners class' first attempt with freestyle ikebana. I think they all made a good job keeping in mind the principles we've been working with in the more fixed basic styles, and applying them in a creative encounter with the materials.

If you're in the Oslo area and would like to try ikebana, feel free to contact me as I am currently planning for a new beginners class to start early next year.

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More Cala - Curved and Intertwined

Flowers only, Curved lines, two containers
Ishu-ike, freestyle, moribana.

This blog post contains a few more Cala designs using the stems to create lines. The idea here is to connect two containers with curved and intertwined lines.

Flowers only, intertwining, two containers, curved lines.
Ishu-ike, abstract freestyle, moribana.

The stems were a bit too fresh for intertwining exercises. They get more flexible when they've been sitting around for a while. Even so, both my teacher and I were satisfied with the result. It was a good exercise to create as many different arrangements as possible with the same material.

Klick here if you want to see more Cala designs and read the first blog post in this short series.

Flowers only, intertwining, two containers, curved lines.
Ishu-ike, abstract freestyle, moribana.

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Abstract Cala Lily - Mass and Lines

Flowers only, straight and curved lines, mass and line.
Ishu-ike, abstract freestyle, moribana.

I found these magnificent Cala lilies at the market square today. They were exactly what I needed. Nice fall colours and long, ferm stems - perfect fore the challenge I got for this weeks class at my ikebana teacher: To make a variety of mass and line designs using the same material.

Flowers only, straight lines, mass and line.
Ishu-ike, abstract freestyle, moribana.

Mass and lines are two of the fundamental elements in ikebana. By showing different kinds of lines, basically straight and curved, in contrast with massed materials a peaceful balance is achieved.

In the teachings of the Sogetsu School it is usually said that the third fundamental element is colour. Christopher James, a friend of mine who is teaching ikebana in Melbourne, argues that it makes even more sense to exchange colour with space when it comes to the essentials of ikebana. The importance of space in Ikebana is, according to him, growing from the early Buddhist tradition of the triptychs, with the middle screen always depicting a “sacred” empty space. So, space has a traditional cultural connection to spirituality in Japan and is extremely important in ikebana. Maybe even to the extent that we should say "mass, line and space" rather than "mass, line and colour".

I find it to be an interesting observation that points out an important thing to keep in mind. When you think about it, the arrangements in this blog post are actually even more about the open space created between the lines, than the actual lines.

Flowers only, straight and curved lines, mass and line.
Ishu-ike, abstract freestyle, moribana.

The exercise of this blog post exemplifies in a good way that all parts of the plant is equally important in ikebana designs. It's not all about the flower part. In these arrangements the shapes of the stems are the main feature.

A couple of the stems had double sets of petals (I've never seen that before on a Cala), which helped a lot when it came to fixing the flowers against each other.

Flowers only, straight lines.
Ishu-ike, abstract freestyle, moribana.

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