Flowers Plus on Friday 25th March.
Today was a journey from one end of the spectrum to the other with my interest in flowers whether it was verging on traditional to the ‘viewing flowers in a wayout prespective’ or attending an event for Sogetsu Ikebana.
The day started meeting another one of my heroes Azuma Makoto san. I had the pleasure of meeting him in person and even though his time was precious he still had time to show Julia and I around his studio. Wanting to spend more time with him we realised he had work to do but promised to visit him at the official opening on Fendi in Ginza where he had prepared all the floral decoration.
From there Julia and I visited Nicolai Bergmann, whose shop/café was more inviting in the sense it was decorated to draw the public in, where as Azuma’s place is a working studio. The selection of flowers in an array of containers was quite spectacular and the feature wall of the café plus the hanging tree was eye catching.
The next floral encounter was at the Sogetsu School of Ikebana. An important event in the calendar, The Flower Ceremony. The event started with a moving experience where everyone attending (well over a couple hundred people) placed flowers in the arrangement on stage. The programme then acknowledged members who have reached the highest level of certificate, members who had worked beyond expectation for the exposure of Sogetsu then the acknowledgment of thirteen members over the age of ninety years still teaching. The event finished with timed demonstrations by members of the School. We (my students and I) left in a state of awe and the drive to strive higher in our ikebana.
The day culminated in visiting Fendi to see the work by Azuma, and then viewing blossom in Shinjuku at night. My problem was I just wanted to keep taking photos – did take a few too many and these can be seen on Flickr (click on the link below)
