JAPANESE DAY

The meeting on Tuesday 9th June began with a brief remembrance tribute to our former member Mrs Masumi Jackson, who died in March. Mrs Jackson established the Melbourne branch of the Ichiyo School in 1988 and was remembered as a much valued Life Member of Ikebana International Melbourne Chapter. In her early life she taught at a High School and University in Tokyo. She married her Australian husband, a lecturer at RMIT, in 1984. In Australia she became very active in a wide range of cultural and charitable pursuits. In addition to ikebana she practised tea ceremony, Noh theatre and paper doll making. There is an article about her on the Museum Victoria website: Masumi Hiraga Jackson and another group of pages about her donations of cultural items to the Museum's collections.
Masumi Hiraga Jackson Collection.

At the meeting her students spoke affectionately about their teacher and created a display in her memory.

These are some paper dolls made by Mrs Jackson.

Masumi Jackson 1935 - 2015

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Following the tribute to Masumi Jackson the meeting activities proceeded as planned on the theme of Japanese Day. Our guest presenter was the chef Mr Sam Ito, who gave a demonstration of making Sushi.

Mr Ito explained many correct techniques including how to slice fish...

...and create a sushi roll using a bamboo mat.

 The granddaughter of one of our members was the first 'volunteer' to practise this skill. 

Subsequently members made the sushi rolls, shown in the photo above, that were enjoyed for our lunch. In keeping with this theme, members made ikebana using tableware in lieu of vases, that can be seen on the following link, Ikebana for the table. 

AUTUMN BOUNTY

The theme of the meeting on 12th May was 'All the Bounty of Autumn in a Basket'. 

The photo above shows Lee Johnstone giving a demonstration in which she used a variety of autumn materials in a round bodied basket.   

The arrangement in this photo was dedicated our late member Masumi Jackson.

Click here for: Additional Photos

Guilfoyle's Volcano

On Tuesday 14th April, 13 members and friends of the Melbourne Chapter met at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melourne, for a guided tour. The tour was led by Jenny, a volunteer guide, who focused the tour on 'Guilfoyle's Volcano' * . This is a 19th Century water feature of the garden that was created to provide a 'header tank' to allow a gravity-fed watering system for the gardens.

We set off from the Observatory Gate on a very overcast, autumn Melbourne day.

At the top of the 'volcano' Jenny explained how stormwater, harvested from the south and east boundary roads of the gardens, is passed through a series of filter beds. It is then further detoxified by the dangling root systems of plants on the floating islands shown in the photo below.

At this highest point in the gardens, the city skyline is in evidence. However, the overcast weather conditions blurred the distant view.

The sides of the 'volcano' have been planted with thriving succulents in beds that represent lava flowing down the side of the volcano.

The image below shows a reproduction of a watercolour by Guilfoyle, in which he had imagined the garden beds being islands and the grass lawns representing the lava flowing around them.

The floating islands inside the reservoir have proved to be a sanctuary for the ducks in the photo below.

Click here for further images of Guilfoyle's Volcano.