Friday, 21 December 2012

Kimono + Ikebana #3


URASENKE

Well, the year is slowly coming to an end. Last week, I had my last tea ceremony lesson of the year. In Urasenke tea ceremony, there are slight variances among the utensils, decorations, and methods used during each of the four seasons. Because Kumano had its first snow fall of the year (hatsui yuki) the day before my last class, I learned to preform the ceremony as one would during winter. To be honest it is probably the most difficult, but I still had a lot of fun during the lesson.

After attempting to perform the ceremony twice under my sensei's instruction, she my dressed me up in her friend's Kimono. And what a pleasant surprise that was! Regardless of my curiosity and intrigue of Japanese culture, I can't say I've ever thought I'd ever find myself dressed in a Kimono. A very enjoyable experience indeed.


After I took off the Kimono my sensei gave me a crash course on how to make dashi from scratch. In case you're wondering, dashi is a commonly used soup base made from Kombu (a kind of seaweed) and bonito (fish flakes). We enjoyed some delicious fried shrimp udon together. It was certainly a lovely way to end my last lesson of the year. I'm already looking foward to returning in January, and a little sad that I won't be practicing for a few weeks.


IKEBANA

 This morning I did two oshogatsu flower arrangements in honor of the coming new year - in Japan, the year of the Snake! I loved working with the traditional colours and materials for the new year, since my taste in plans and flowers tends to gravitate towards those that have a winter-like or Christmas feel. The most enjoyable aspect of creating a New Year's arrangement is that its acceptable to free style, so today I didn't have to follow any rules!

First arrangement: 
Free Style Oshogatsu arrangement

Materials Used:

Pine
Ornamental Cabbage
Willow - (dyed gold)
Senryo














Second Arrangement:
Free Style Oshogatsu arrangement (I think it looks like a form of Heika adaptation)

Matierals Used:

Pine
Willow
Ornamental Cabbage
Senryo  (looks like holly desu ne?)

Sunday, 9 December 2012

Kumano Cultural Exhibition

Practice run
Last week I spent a few hours practicing my Ikebana arrangemet for the Kumano Cultural Exhibition. I am working on a Shogonka Adaptation Arrangement: Kusonohana using monkey ceadar, cypress, marigold, and what I belive is a species of or related to statice.

Shogonka is traditionally meant as an offering to non-living beings such as Buddah, our ancestors, or deceased relatives, and was arranged and displayed on an alter. Today it is beginning to be used in other situations; In my case for display at the cultural exhibition. I spent a few hours last weekend trying out different materials as my sensei gave me some pointers and advice about how my piece should be arranged. Although simple in design, this kusonobana arrangement looks much more dynamic and interesting than the arrangements I've done previously.

Me with Yamamoto-sensei and my kusonohana arrangement
Yesterday the exhibition was held. I went to the cultural centre on Friday to help set up and prepare my arrangement.  I used the same monkey cedar and cypress as I did for my practice arrangement last weekend, but instead of marigolds and statice, I used carnations and aster for their long lasting qualities.

There were tons of beautiful arrangements which have helped inspire me and also gave me some direction and influence as to how to go about future arrangements. It was also great to chat and meet some of the other students.

The Kumano Cultural Exhibition was really quite impressive and enjoyable.  Many locals displayed their work which ranged from Japanese and Western style ikebana, painting, calligraphy, stained glass, photography, doll-making, sculpture, fabric, origami, and jewelery. While at times a bit reminiscent of the large scale Christmas showsI'm always so excited to attend back home, the Cultural Exhibition was not about selling the goods on display. It was simply for looking, a way for people to share their creativity with the community.