我孫子市国際交流協会

Date: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 10:00am-12:00noon

The theme set for this year was "An easy flower arrangement that can be done anytime, anywhere and by anybody".
Cherry tree twigs and colza blossoms (nanohana) were chosen as today's　materials,and flower bowls and kenzans (frog) were also prepared. Ms. Iwai advised that a kenzan could be substituted by a sponge, commonly called "Oasis" in Ikebana.
This was the first Ikebana experience for the majority students attended.
Ms. Iwai explained with easy words about the basic manner of arranging flowers　
saying that "Sakura, cherry blossoms, is one of the most outstanding Japanese
flowers and can be arranged as follows."
"First, stick one-meter long cherry twig at the center and a little back of the kenzan. This position is called "Shin"(core or center).
Then, put another twig, 20 to 30 centimeters shorter than that of the Shin, to the right shoulder direction of the flower arranger.
This position is called "Soe"(support or company).
Finally, stick a nanohana, 20 to 30 centimeters lower than the Soe, at the left front　side pointing at the left shoulder of the arranger.
The third posture is called Hikae (guard or subordinate).
These three elements compose a triangular form."
"You can produce a sort of massiveness by putting extra flowers and twigs in and around the triangular space.
If you prefer simplicity in composition, you would better use twigs with little
flowers at the lower part".
"When you stick flowers onto the kenzan, make an appropriate angle upward to add spice but do not straighten them up. In this case, it will be a key that the angle of all twigs and flowers but the "Shin" twig would be arranged to direct to an imaginary
point a little lower than the Shin twig's top, in order to animate the whole flowers.
In reverse, flowers and twigs pointing downward would make viewers blue.
So you should be careful about this".
"In summary, you can arrange openly flowers as you like if only you would observe the basic composition of the three elements, Shin, Soe, and Hikae".

All students completed respective arrangement with relaxation following the
kind and timely advice filled with humor of Ms. Iwai.

All attended took a picture with respective Ikebana work in front of them.
And at the end of the class, they enjoyed a cup of tea and introduced themselves.(vol.140)