JUNE 13th MEETING

The guest speaker at the June meeting was Saori Kojima who is a Melbourne based maker of Japanese sauces. Ms Kojima studied health science at Fuji Women’s University in Sapporo before moving to Melbourne. In Australia she decided to share her knowledge of Japanese cuisine and its health benefits with family and friends, which then became a successful business.

At the meeting Ms Kojima prepared lightly sauteed eggplant with her own Tsuyu sauce, as well as beans which were dressed with sesame seeds.

It was not long before the room was fragrant with mouthwatering aromas. Following the demonstration showing the simplicity of the food preparation and cooking, the members present were then able to taste the eggplant and beans for themselves.

We were then treated to an ikebana demonstration by Thea Sartori, a senior Sogetsu School teacher. 

Thea's four ikebana arrangements followed the theme of "Healthy Living".  

This ikebana featuring aloe, with cherry tomatoes, represented skin health and nutrition.

Dragon fruit is noted for being a low in calories, high in vitamin C and fibre. It is also dramatically beautiful.

Thea was given these flowers by a friend and she reminded us of the importance of relationships to our well-being.

Her "welcoming Ikebana" was composed exclusively of herbs. They can all be used in cooking or in the making of tisanes.

Below are photos of ikebana made by members on the theme of the meeting.

Helen Marriott

Chieko Yazaki

Christopher James

Akemi Suzuki

Beverley Webster

Susan Healey

Swann Lam

Sally Wilkinson

Judy Hajdu

Jenny Loo

Elizabeth Angell

Margaret Leung

13th June 2023

May meeting

The theme of the meeting of Ikebana International Melbourne Chapter on Tuesday 9th May was Mother's Day. Three teachers from Shogetsudo koryu presented a demonstration with their individual interpretations of the theme.

From the left; Chieko Yazaki, Head of School in Victoria. Rachel Lok and Helen Marriott.

Helen created a freestyle moribana ikebana.
 

She used aspidistra leaves which she altered by cutting a U-shaped curve into their tips and then massed cheerful orange chrysanthemums in the central space between the leaves.

Rachel made a double ikebana arrangement in a footed vessel.

 

The first arrangement was upright using the three stems of blue Dutch irises. Her second arrangement was a slanting one using white lisianthus placed within the embrace of the iris. It was finished with a mass of yellow chrysanthemums.

Chieko created a unique ikebana arrangement with nine red roses.

 

She set the roses in a traditional "kine gata" (pestle-shaped) Seika vessel. She used the traditional fixing technique and arranged them in the Seika form, the signature style of Shogetsudo koryu. When she had finished this Seika arrangement...

...Chieko made a freestyle ikebana with carnations, roses and gypsophila in a nageire vase.

The following ikebana arrangements were made by some of the members at the meeting.

Nobuko Kobayashi

Yvonne Chu

Christina Marshman

Christopher James

Emily Karanikolopoulos

Margaret Leung

Thea Sartori

Betty Karanikolopoulos

Nicole McDonald

Trish Ward

Karen Thode

Angeline Lo

Swan Lam

March meeting

The March meeting marked the anniversary of the founding of the Melbourne Chapter in 1959. This is also traditionally "Japanese Day" in the Chapter. Japanese members of the Chapter make a special focus of Japanese culture at this meeting including bringing traditional food.

As is our custom we celebrated with a birthday cake that was made by Mrs Marjorie Campkin-Smith. 

The candles were blown extinguished by, left to right, Mrs Campkin-Smith, the Chapter's Patron Mrs Shimida and President Nobuko Kobayashi.

The guest presenters for the meeting were Mr and Mrs Murooka who are specialists in the Japanese art of Kintsugi. 

Mr and Mrs Murooka gave an interesting presentation about both the history and technique of Kintsugi repair of ceramics.

This slide of a Chinese Southern Song era bowl was shown. It had been given to the Shogun Taira no Shigemori in 1175 CE. During the time of the Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1435 - 1490) it was sent to China to be replaced with and identical bowl. However, it was returned after being repaired. It is an early example of respecting the flawed beauty of a beautiful work of ceramic. It is now a National Treasure held in the Tokyo National Museum.

 

The presentation included a step-by-step demonstration of a simple Kintsugi repair.

Here Chapter member Jenny Loo is applying gold-coloured mica to the cleaned and joined break in a small dish.

Toula Karanikolopoulos subsequently dusted the glue with  an additional layer of gold-coloured powder.

Below are the ikebana arrangements made by members on the theme of "Celebrating imperfection"

Reiko Ito

Chieko Yazaki

Chiemi Daly

Rie Sasaki

Beverley Webster

Christopher James

 

Yukako Braun

Margaret Leung

Sally Wilkinson

Karen Thode

Angeline lo

Toula Karanikolopoulos

Emily Karanikolopoulos

Helen Gray

Naomi Nakajima

Aileen Duke