Basic Slanting Left (Kado/Kalapa Ikebana Style)

Basic Slanting Style Moribana - 7

Don't you love these anemones? So vibrant.
I took them to work and put them in a simple bud vase. It brought new life to my office.
I was also fond of the sense of movement in this arrangement.

Basic Upright Style Nageire (Reversed) - 6

The first nageire that I was actually proud of -- although I still don't really know what I'm doing!

Also, don't you love the black pussywillow?

Basic Upright Style Nageire 5

To be honest, both of these seem very "confused" to me -- I wouldn't try to emulate them.

Sogetsu - Basic Upright Style Nageire 4

Although Nageire is known as "thrown in" style, it is actually about achieving a delicate balance.
It is also VERY difficult. I find moribana much easier, as do most students.

Sogetsu - Basic Upright Style Reversed - 3

Sogetsu - Basic Upright Style Moribana 2 - Cont.

Basic Upright 2 Moribana

Basic Upright 2 Moribana

Playing Around with Tulips at Home - Freestyle

Sogetsu - Basic Upright Style Moribana - 1

Basic Upright Moribana - 1

Basic Upright Moribana -1

A Sogetsu Exhibition - "Waiting for Spring"

A few arrangements from the "Waiting for Spring Exhibit" sponsored by Sogetsu New York at the Nippon Club in NYC.

The main "Waiting for Spring" Arrangement, by my teacher, Hazue Tamura-Rogers, and her teacher, Judith Hata.

Another beautiful arrangement - very natural

A Brief History of Kado and Ikebana

Kado began in China as a Buddhist devotional practice, which later became a popular art form for the moneyed class. Japanese envoys to China, admiring the robust Chinese culture, brought the practice of flower-arranging to Japan, under the name "Ikebana."

The first school of Ikebana in Japan, founded in the 15th Century, was the Ikenobo school, which was based in Buddhist devotional practice by monks. The monks created very large flower arrangements, called rikka, as offerings to the altar. Nowadays, ikenobo is still considered the most traditional style of ikebana.

A traditional rikka style Ikenobo arrangement

Later, other schools developed, such as the Ohara and Sogetsu schools.  The Ohara school was founded in the 19th Century. It is distinctive for appearing more like a landscape that would appear in nature. Its focus is on expressing the feeling of a certain season and emphasizing the way flowers naturally grow. 

An example of Ohara style

And in the 20th Century, Sofu Teshigawara founded the Sogetsu school, the goal of which was to make Ikebana a widely-accessible practice, open to anyone who was interested in it. Thus, arrangements in the Sogetsu school tend to be less formalistic (and some say more imaginative) than those of the traditional Ikenobo school.

A Sogetsu style arrangment

My teacher, Marcia Shibata, practices kado based on a style developed by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, the great Tibetan Buddhist teacher who helped bring the dharma to the West. Trungpa, inspired by the Sogetsu school, created his own school of flower arranging, kalapa, the purpose of which is to draw upon Nature's innate wisdom, as expressed by flowers, to teach and understand the true nature of reality.

Basic Upright Left by Marcia Wang Shibata
Note that I photographed this arrangement incorrectly
(the arrangement is meant to be viewed straight on)

* All rights to the original photographers and artists, with appreciation for sharing their craft. *

Expanding My Horizons - A Sogetsu Class

Relatively recently, I decided to take classes in Sogetsu, a more "freestyle" Japanese style of flower arranging. This is because my Kado teacher, Marcia Shibata Wang, is only able to come to NYC a few times a year. I found a new teacher, Hazue Tamura-Rogers, who is certified at the highest level of the Sogetsu school of Ikebana, and who has exhibited in Japan, the US, and Australia. She has even exhibited at the Japanese Ambassador's house when one of the princes of Japan was visiting!

So far, Sogetsu class has been different from kado, in that the arrangement occurs more speedily. In my view, there is less of an emphasis on mindfulness, since it isn't a meditative practice, but rather more of a hobby. Due to that, there is more emphasis on the form (there seem to be more basic forms) but still a lot of emphasis on process (but less than in kado). I'm still working on my level 1 certification, which involves practicing moribana (the arrangements in the wide bowls that you've seen thus far) and nageire (in tall vases-- more of a balancing).

Variations on a Theme

Basic Upright Left by Marcia Shibata Wang

Note that you don't get as much of a sense of the "leftness" of the arrangement when it is in a smaller suiban (container), however there is nonetheless a definite orientation towards the left.

Basic Slanted Left

Mine is a "slanted" arrangement because my Heaven is slanted to the right of the main (hypothetical) light source.

The Theory Behind Kado and Ikebana

Kado means "the way of the flowers." 

Before going into further detail, I must first give thanks and credit to Marcia Wang Shibata, who first introduced me to kado and who shared with me the insights on kado that I share with you below.

Kado, as I aspire to practice it, is just like meditation. Instead of sitting on the cushion, flower arranging (done in a certain intentional way) helps reveal to us that what is true for the flower world is also true for the animal (human) world. 

By working with and paying attention to flowers and their true nature, we contemplate our own nature. We can observe the cycle of life and death, as it applies to flowers, and recognize that this cycle applies to us humans too. Thus, it isn't about the result, but rather about the process. If "performed properly," the resulting arrangement will be aesthetically pleasing, even though that wasn't the practitioner's goal.

In Kado and Ikebana, the arrangement always contains three elements, which reflect Nature's hierarchy. These elements, in order,  are Heaven, Humanity (or Man), and Earth. A higher position in this hierarchy doesn't mean that the element is "better" than the others. Think about it, it is impossible for one to be better if all three must work together in a synergistic relationship. Instead, the higher position means that this element bears more responsibility for everything else around it. Thus, since Heaven bears the greatest deal of responsibility for everything around it, Heaven is the first element the we place in the kenzan (pin holder) within the container.

I will describe the process of creating an arrangement in more detail in a later post.

In Which A Young Lawyer Takes Up the Ancient Art of Flower Arranging

Lawyers aren't normally known as terribly creative people (other than when it comes to "creative" contract phrasing or statutory interpretation). However, I've found that the truth is that many lawyers are actually aspiring artists, writers, dancers, and singers who, rather than pursue their dreams, decided to do the "smart" thing and take on hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt to do something they didn't really find all that interesting in the first place. Personally, I always wanted to be a writer.

To back up a bit, my name is Nina, and, if you haven't guessed, I'm a lawyer. During law school, I took up meditation as a way to manage the stress and anxiety that accrues from three years of doing 100s of pages of reading on less than 6 hours of sleep a night. I started meditating with the Tibetan Buddhist chaplain at school and then began to attend meditation classes based in the Shambhala lineage upon moving to NYC.

Meditation has helped me find an enormous amount of peace in my life, and I highly recommend it, if you haven't tried it. Meditation isn't necessarily sitting around and chanting "Om" for hours (although it can be that -- I can touch on the value of chanting in a later post). Instead, meditation can be as simple as just sitting quietly, taking a few deep breaths, and trying not to let your stream of thoughts drag you away from the present moment, like high tide. It is kind of like when you were put in "time out" as a kid, except this time you are putting yourself there.

My meditation practice has led me to want to get back in touch with my creative energy. This summer, I did a CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture) share that included a bouquet of farm fresh flowers each week. I got really into photographing the flowers and appreciating their transient beauty. So, when a  local meditation center announced that they were holding a flower-arranging class, I jumped at the opportunity. One three day retreat later, I've decided to start a regular practice of arranging flowers to supplement my meditation practice.

In Kado (or Ikebana, as it is known in Japanese), flowers aren't just arranged willy-nilly. Rather, the arrangement is supposed to contain and reflect the ordering of the universe. I'll discuss a bit of the theory behind the practice in a later post.

In the meantime, enjoy this photo of my first-ever kado arrangement!

Form: Basic Upright Left