Ikebana Melbourne: October 2017

Monday, 30 October 2017

SAKURA PICNIC DAY

Sakura picnic Day was held at Banksia Park in Bulleen on 15th October 2017 from 11 am to 2 pm. It was a fine warm day and 50 Cherry trees were in full bloom.

About 1500 people came to enjoy various aspects of Japanese culture including: Tea ceremony, Koto performance, Kendo demonstration, Bonsai display and origami.

The art of Ikebana was also there to be experienced by the visitors to the park.

Aiko Nakada, Head of the Ohara School and Chieko Yazaki, Head of Shogetsudokoryu School created Ikebana in a demonstration representing Ikebana International Melbourne Chapter.

The Cherry Trees in Banksia Park in the north eastern suburbs of Greater Melbourne were the gift of Prime Minister Ohira on his official visit to Melbourne in 1980 to the people of Victoria.

Further images from Sakura Picnic Day.

Sunday, 15 October 2017

At the October meeting with the theme of Japanese Day, our guest speakers were from Kasasagi Fine Arts, specialists in fine incense imported from Japan. They spoke of the varieties of incense available and its uses including for meditation practise.

A workshop was held on a simple method of tying mizuhiki which proved to be of great interest to the members.

Here, Chieko Yazaki is explaining about some of the large variety of uses and symbolism in the complex knots made with mizuhiki.

Lesson one for beginners.

These two photos show examples of the simple knot taught in the workshop and used for presentation of a simply wrapped gift. They were prepared by Reiko Ito who also made beautiful gifts for every member of small mizuhiki rosettes. The new expert in mizukiki knot tying is our member Kyoko Imai, who in addition to researching techniques on Youtube also bought a large supply of mizukiki strings for the meeting on her last trip to Japan.

The photos below are of ikebana arrangements inspired by the theme of Japanese Day.