Category: Ikebana

Sorry, I should have written this first.

Photo is my holiday ikebana: Photo by Author

When I wrote the article “How Can a Japanese Career Woman Learn Ikebana?” and “5 Benefits of Practicing Ikebana,” I received comments asking “what is Ikebana?”

Obviously, Ikebana is not an English word but Japanese.  It’s not even as well-known as “Ikigai.”  Let me introduce to you what Ikebana is, my own interpretation.

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Definition of Ikebana

Ikebana is normally translated into English as “Japanese flower arrangement.”  In my opinion, however, this translation doesn’t fully capture the real meaning of the word.

Ikebana consists of two Japanese kanji characters: 生 and 花.  The first character生 means to live, to be alive, life, fresh. The second character花means flower.  My interpretation of Ikebana is to give new life to flowers with your own creativity and expression. 

Ikebana is an art.  Its medium is live, natural materials such as flowers and branches.  Unlike drawing or painting, Ikebana’s canvas is not a two-dimensional space.  Similar to sculpture, Ikebana’s canvas is three-dimensional.

Three Basic Elements of Ikebana

There are three basic elements in ikebana: line, mass, and color.

Line

You cut out a branch or a stem of flowers. In abstraction, this is a line. Looking at how the leaves and flowers are growing on the stem, you can see which side is front or back, and which side is up or down.    

With only one branch or stem, there are many things you can express.  You can express direction (vertical or horizontal? forward or backward?), energy flow, and movement (up or down?).  With two branches, you create a surface…  remember geometry class in high school?  Add one more branch, then you create depth. With only three lines, you can determine the basic structure of your arrangement.

Mass

Another basic element is mass, which can also be called volume.  Some flowers and leaves are dense and massive, full of volume, like some types of hydrangea flowers, for example. Some are sparse, like baby’s breath.  By putting flowers and leaves together, you can create a massive volume.  By thinning the leaves or flowers, you can create sparsity.  By creating mass or lack of it, you can create rhythm in your arrangement.

Color

The third element is color.   All the flowers and branches come with some sort of color, and we make use of them as an important element. If you want to make a strong statement, you want to use contrasting colors.  Vivid green and vivid red, for example.  If you want to express something harmonious, choose flowers with similar soft colors.

Three Basic Techniques of Ikebana

Just as a pianist first learns how to move her fingers, and just as a potter first learns how to knead clay, an ikebana artist learns basic techniques, and there are three: how to cut, how to bend, and how to fix.

How to cut

You cut branches and flowers from nature.  The main tool for ikebana is a pair of scissors. Ikebana scissors have distinct shapes and weights.  You learn how to hold them.

If you cut branches too short, you can’t glue them back together.  When in doubt, you first cut a longer segment of the branch, then keep on cutting shorter till you have the appropriate length.

At what angle do you cut the branch? How do you split a thick branch using scissors?  There are several different techniques to learn.

How to bend

Let’s say you want to create something with a graceful, curved line, but the branch you are working with is too straight.  You must learn to bend the branch.  In order to create lines of your liking, you have to bend the materials. 

Some branches are very flexible, and you can bend them into almost any shape.  For example, camellia branches are quite flexible.  Other branches are not that flexible.  You try to bend them, but they snap. 

Each plant has different flexibility and characteristics.  By bending materials, you get to learn the different characteristics of each material.  How flexible is this maple branch or that one from a cherry tree?  The only way you can learn is by trying to bend the branch with your own hands.  Google search won’t help you.

How to fix

Let’s say you would like to create a piece of art with a floating branch… Well, in ikebana you can’t.  The branch falls because the ikebana canvas is ruled by gravity.

If you want to fix or place an element somewhere, you need a tool.  The main tool is called kenzan, a pin frog.  You fix the branch by thrusting its one edge onto the kenzan.

A kenzan is a useful tool, but it’s ugly.  You need to learn how to hide the kenzan while still making use of it. 

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Ikebana is an art form whose medium is natural materials such as branches and flowers.  You give a new life to flowers with your own creativity and expression. Just as no two people are the same, no two ikebana arrangements are the same. 

Now I hope you have a pretty good idea of what ikebana is.

It is great both for your physical and mental health.

Photo by Author

Growing up, I always thought of myself as somebody getting bored so easily.  I started practicing the piano at three years old and quit by eleven.  Singing lasted only three years.  Calligraphy, maybe shorter than that.

In my life version 1.0, I never worked for the same company for more than 10 years. 

It’s amazing, therefore, that I have been practicing Ikebana for over 20 years.  Well, I have to admit there was a gap of almost 7 years, but I came back to Ikebana and haven’t left since. 

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There must be some reason why I’m hooked and haven’t quit Ikebana.  Today I took some time to list up some benefits, for your reference.

#1 It’s meditative

Once you sit down in front of the container and start putting together branches and flowers, your entire focus is set between your eyes and your hands, nothing else.

How the arrange will look like at the end is secondary.  You are thoroughly immersed in the process, and it’s meditative.

Writers often talk about “flow state” of their mind.  Ikebana enables you to be in that state of mind.  

#2 It brings you closer to nature

You cut a branch or a stem of flowers from the nature, but it’s still alive.  You touch the nature directly with your hands.

Some are fragile, some are sturdy.  Some are flexible, some are rigid.  Some smell nice, some stink. 

By touching the part of nature, you find your five senses get sharpened.

#3 It stimulates your brain

You try to erect the branches by interlocking them, but you face the natural force of gravity.  Where to add another branch to support the rest? How much more tension is needed to keep it standing? 

Believe or not, Ikebana is not too different from 3-dimentional puzzles.  Or maybe engineering.  You have to think logically.

#4 It keeps you physically fit

You might find interesting materials laying on the ground on your everyday route for a walk. 

Or you want to use that rather large branch of the tree grown in your back yard.  You have to use a saw to cut branches, nails and hammer to put together branches. 

A large container is heavy to carry with lots of water in it.  Ikebana can be a good exercise.

#5 It grows your circle of friends

Ikebana practitioners are spread all over the world.  Ikebana International, a non-profit organization, has been active for over 60 years. 

If you have been practicing Ikebana for some time, normally you are given a chance to belong to a local chapter.  (There is one in Seattle.  Actually, I’m serving as president for this year.) 

No matter where you go, chances are that there is a local chapter of Ikebana International in major cities.  You get to make new friends easily through Ikebana.

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See, I could easily find 5 benefits to keep practicing Ikebana.  I hope the list has intrigued you somehow.

Thank you for reading! 

I had to come all the way to the US to be free from my stigma

What is the first thing that comes to your mind if you think about Japanese culture?

Anime? Manga? Sushi? Ramen? Geisha?

For someone like me, a Japanese woman who came of age in the 1980s, they were Ikebana (flower arrangement) and tea ceremony. 

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In those days, it was the social norm in Japan that a woman should become a good housewife, rather than pursue her career. Ikebana and tea ceremony were the two main things that she should learn before marriage.

I was a rebellious, ambitious girl, pursuing a modern career.  Why would I want to learn such outdated things? 

When I was in college, my mother said, “why don’t you learn ikebana and tea ceremony? Kyoto is the birthplace of both, so there should be good teachers there.”

“Hell no!” was my answer.

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I graduated from college and got a job in Tokyo in 1985. I was one of only two women out of 250 college graduates that my company hired on the main career path (sogoshoku in Japanese).

Three years later I was one of 20 employees selected to study for an MBA in the US. After getting an MBA, I quit my first job to work for the Japanese subsidiary of an American high-tech company. In the summer of 1994, I moved to Seattle to work for the company’s headquarters.

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My work at the headquarters required me to visit Asian subsidiaries, including Japan, quarterly.  On my first or second business trip back to Japan, I picked up a book called “Ikebana for beginners” at a bookstore.     

The book was full of illustrations, which looked like the geometry textbook in high school.  “Ikebana explained in X-Y-Z axis, how cool is that!” was my honest impression.

When I came back to Seattle, I called the Japanese consulate general office and asked if there is an ikebana teacher in town. (You know, it was before the world wide web era.)   They introduced me to a Japanese lady who was teaching Ikebana in Mercer Island, halfway from my house to work.  How lucky!

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To this day, it is not clear why I picked that book at the bookstore, and why I was determined to learn Ikebana in Seattle.  Maybe I felt a strong need to find my identity at work. Among the 60-plus-people worldwide marketing group, I was the only Japanese representing the whole “Far East” countries. 

Whatever the reason, it is the fact that I had to come all the way to the US to get rid of my stigma against Ikebana.  Had I stayed in Japan, I would never have thought of learning it.   

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My response to A to Z challenge with my ikebana arrangements

Photo by Author

I have been practicing Ikebana (the art of Japanese flower arrangement) over 25 years, and have been taking photos of my work. 

In my early days, I never thought of keeping every arrangement I made in a photo.  Only it became easy to take a shot with a digital camera and now with a photo, I accumulate my work as pictures.

When I learned about the A to Z challenge, I wondered how many flowers that start with A I can find… I just found two, if Japanese Anemone can be counted as A. 

Anthurium

Last December I was asked to make a festive arrangement by a local restaurant. 

The vivid, shiny, thick red of anthurium was my choice.  In order to emphasize the shape, I combined the three anthurium with a large palm leaf, bending like a circle to create a dramatic shape in the back. 

I added white baby breath to soften the overall impression.

Japanese Anemone

I planted Japanese Anemone in my backyard.  From late summer to all through the fall, the pinkish flowers decorate the corner of my yard.  I have Jasmine vine right next to the anemone and decided to put these two together. 

The vase is made of bamboo.  The almost perfect circle shape of the vase inspired me to replicate the circles with the jasmine vine.  The only one anemone flower in the center, as a focal point. 

Akemi

And here is a picture of me demonstrating ikebana in front of 20 people at a private event.  The challenge of the demonstration is I have to arrange from the back, imagining how it would look like from the front.

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Ikebana is a very easy way to bring the beautiful nature into your everyday life.  Utilizing nature’s creation, you create something totally new with your own creativity and imagination. 

I hope to share with you the joy of Ikebana more in my future articles.  I hope you will enjoy it.

Two years on, more people visit my channel

Photo by author

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the whole world.  According to WHO, over 6.5 million people died.  Everybody’s lives have been disrupted.  The news in every media is full of tragedy.

Here I dare focus on the silver lining.  How many can I find in my life?

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In my previous post, I mentioned how the pandemic has pushed me to teach Ikebana online.  And I mentioned that my students are now spread all over the world. 

Today’s story explains how that happened, and how the pandemic has pushed me one step further.

It started with one message

July 2020.  I had held my online ikebana class for two months.  Now I was getting used to talking to students on the screen.  My eyes were adapting to imagine how their flower arrangements look like in three dimensions while looking at the two-dimensional photos.

So far my online classes were limited only to my existing students.

One day I received an inquiry from a person who says, “I’m new to Ikebana, but can I register for your class?”

I apologized to that person that my online classes were only for my existing students, not for new students.  In my response to that person, I casually asked, “where are you emailing me from?”

“Minnesota” was the answer!

I started contemplating the idea of teaching Ikebana online to somebody who is totally new to Ikebana and lives miles and miles away.  How can I satisfy their needs?

If I create a video of the very first lesson of Sogetsu Ikebana and post it on the net, then whoever watched it might get the idea of what Ikebana is and what to expect at my online Ikebana class… 

I started shooting a video with my iphone.

My first YouTube video

It was not easy. 

The first one I tried looked so messy that I scratched all.  I couldn’t even finish a short sentence without stuttering.  I felt humiliated but had to realize that I suck at improvisation.  I wrote a script, with every single sentence written down precisely.  I memorized them all, then I started filming.   

Editing was just as hard.  It took much longer than I first expected to learn how to use iMovie. 

But I made it anyway.  My first Ikebana tutorial video.

After posting my first video, I created several more Ikebana tutorial videos, focusing on the very basic elements of Ikebana techniques. 

When I added online classes for beginners, I made it prerequisite to watch my tutorial videos for registering for the class. When teaching in person, I used to demonstrate each time a new student joined my class.  Now that I created this tutorial video, I can skip that process.  The struggle of making the first video paid off handsomely!

My YouTube channel keeps growing

Since my primary objective of creating tutorial videos was to help beginners jump start with their learning Ikebana, I stopped adding any more video after several of them.  If you want to keep on learning Ikebana, please sign up for my online class – is my current position.

After over two years since I stopped uploading any more videos, my YouTube channel still keeps growing.  As of today, there are 6,747 subscribers. 

That’s all thanks to the pandemic.

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What’s your silver lining?

Now my students spread worldwide

Photo by Author

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the whole world.  According to WHO, over 6.5 million people died.  Everybody’s lives have been disrupted.  The news in every media is full of tragedy.

Here I dare focus on the silver lining.  How many can I find in my life?

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It was such an honor that I got to teach Ikebana at Fran’s Chocolates, one of the best chocolatiers in the US (I believe so, so does Barack Obama!). 

Fran’s Chocolates just opened a café in their main building, which used to be a famous brewery in Georgetown neighborhood in Seattle.  Fran’s chocolates turned its vast space with the high ceiling int to a beautiful, cozy space where people can hang out over their chocolates and drinks. 

The café has a huge table that can easily seat twelve people.  And that table became where my Ikebana students use to make flower arrangement during my class twice a month. 

My students get to learn Ikebana while enjoying their favorite drinks (my favorite is Fran’s Matcha Latte!).  At the end of the class, the students get to take home a small box of Fran’s Chocolates together with the flowers they used for the class.  Flowers and chocolates… What a heavenly combination!

My Ikebana classes become quite popular.  They often filled up way in advance. 

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit

As with all the retailers in town, Fran’s coffee shop had to shut down.  How long will be the lockdown?  When can we resume our class? 

The first couple of months of lock down, I made myself busy cleaning up every single corner in the house.  But there was so much you could clean.  Our house is not a mansion.

The spring flowers were blossoming in the neighborhood.  Just because we can’t get together physically, that doesn’t make a good excuse for not enjoying Ikebana.  Now everybody is rushing to online meetings to get connected.  Why not teaching Ikebana online?

In May 2020, I invited a small group of my longtime Ikebana students to be my Gunnie pigs.  I asked them to download Microsoft Teams onto their desktop and wait for an meeting invite from me. 

I scrambled to get whatever necessary.  My old iPhone became the second webcam.  I researched which wireless microphone is suitable for me.  Oh, my room is kind of dark.  I should get some lighting gears!

Setting my online Ikebana class Photo by author

The day of the trial class came.  All the 12 people who agreed to participate could join.  Can they see me? My desk?  Can they hear my voice?  So far so good.

At Fran’s I used to purchase all the flowers, three kinds of flowers for twelve students, so that my students didn’t have to bring anything.  For the online class, they had to prepare everything themselves.  Flowers and branches, a container, scissors, etc.  Everyone put good thoughts into which materials to use.  I was impressed to see the wide variety.

I gave everybody 30 minutes to create their own arrangement.  I muted myself, but watched carefully how each student was enjoying (or struggling). 

The time was up.  At first I asked the students to show their work with their camera.  But the resolution of the image was poor.  What should we do?  I asked them to take a photo of their work and send it to me via email or text.

I copied the photos on to my computer and shared them one by one on my screen.  I would give some suggestion to each work.  The students would see together everybody else’s work and hear my suggestion.  After I go through all the work, the students would go back changing their arrangement based on my suggestion. 

The students would send me another photo of their work. 

Now I can show two photos side by side, “before” and “after” of the same arrangement.  Well, that would have been impossible to do if I were teaching in person! 

Fast forward, more than two years later, my online class is going strong.  Several of my local students are still continuing to take my lessons.  Some of them are so close to obtaining teacher’s certificate.  Congratulations!

My student base has expanded.  Now many are taking my classes from out of state.  States like I have never visited before (Oklahoma, Main, Wisconsin, Arizona).  I even have students in Europe! (Germany and Czech Republic)

Who’d have thought I could teach ikebana online?  And teach worldwide?

That’s all thanks to the pandemic.

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What’s your silver lining?

A Little Experiment I Conducted Gave Me Some Hint

Day 27 of 30-Day Writing Challenge

The event, held at Frye Art Museum – I had never displayed my flower arrangement before –  was quite a unique opportunity for me to experiment something new.

Between 100 and 200 visitors were expected to show up between a rather short time span from 11am to 2pm.

There were three other exhibitors.  TeaLeaves would offer tea tasting.  Fran’s chocolates would offer tasting of their new product.  Botanical Colors would conduct a color-dyeing workshop. 

What should we Five Senses Foundation offer?   A normal ikebana demonstration would be too boring.  Another workshop would wear out the visitors…      

On the round container I placed two large branches and spread a fishing net on the branches to make a platform of the arrangement. 

I bought bunch of different kinds of flowers – mums, carnations, dahlias, hydrangeas, all in different shades of pink. And some greens and a few white flowers to add accent.  Why mainly pink?  Because the event was to celebrate Color of Biodiversity, announced by Pantone earlier in the year.

Right before the event started, I asked each of the exhibitors to place one stem per person onto the platform.  I placed a large hydrangea in the middle, to create a focal point. 

The door opened.  Visitors started to come in.  The first stop was Tealeaves, where they enjoyed the tase of Color of Biodiversity tea.  The next stop was our table.

“We are trying to collaboratively create a flower arrangement.  Would you please participate?  Good!  Please pick one flower or a green stem.  Place it wherever you like.  When this event ends at 2pm, let’s see what kind of work we can create together.”

In the course of three hours, well more than 100 people came by.  Nobody turned down my offer.  Some picked pink, some green, some white.  Everyone placed their stems carefully where they thought appropriate. 

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Three people caught me by surprise. 

One person cut out the stem entirely and placed the white mum flower on the tip of the branch on the right.  One person made a circle by twisting and weaving a green vine, and placed it on the left branch.  And One person picked a hydrangea stem, flipped it upside down, and carefully hang it on the tip of the longest branch on the left. 

Out of a little over 100 people who participated in this collaboration work, three people placed their stem in such a way I didn’t expect at all. And to me they were most inspiring!

This was an interesting experiment.  Three out of 100.  Maybe 3% of whatever happens to me can inspire me.  I will set this rate as my expectation!

Day 3 of 30 Day Writing Challenge

Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash

My father passed away 18 years ago.  Since I left home for college until he died, how many times did I see him…

Kyoto, where my college was, and my home was two-and-a-half-hour train ride.  I don’t know if the distance justifies the fact that I went home less than once a month.  After graduating from college, I found a job and move to Tokyo.  From there I visited my parents less than once a year.  After I moved to Seattle, I visited my parents twice or three times a year, ironic that would visit them more often from abroad than when living in the same country. 

So between the time I graduated from high school until his death, maybe I saw my father not more than 90 times.   Of course I thought about him when I was not visiting him, but I’m pretty sure it hasn’t happened as often as my father would have liked.

No matter how terrible I may be in remembering my father in my brain, some other parts of my body had never, ever forgotten him.

The shape of my eyes and my nose are the perfect replication of my father’s.  It is said that cells that make up a human’s skin are replaced with new cells in two to three weeks.  Although cells are replaced that often, my eyes and my nose never fail to keep the same shape, resembling my father.  My cells definitely have tremendous amount of memory. Otherwise, how can it be possible?

What is the mechanism of the memory in my skin cells?  Where is the memory stored?  In the gene? Scientists have decoded the entire human genome.  Does it mean that scientists can identify which part of the genome is responsible for remembering the shape of eyes and a nose?  In the name of gene therapy, can scientists not only identify which part of the genome has memory of my father’s nose, but even altar them?

Please don’t.  I already feel guilty that I don’t store enough memory of my father in my brain.  Please let my father’s eyes and nose remain on my face.  Don’t take away that memory, please.