FREESTYLE IKEBANA INCORPORATING PAPER

This week has been exceptionally busy with the visit of Master Instructor of Sogetsu Head Quarters, Kosa Nishiyama to the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School. 2024 marks the 60th anniversary of the Victorian Branch, which was established by the late Norman Sparnon.  

Mr Sparnon, who was born in Melbourne in 1913, became proficient at speaking and writing Japanese while a young man. After WWII he was seconded to General Macarthur’s occupation forces as an interpreter. He remained in Japan for a total of 12 years, during which time he began to study Ikebana, ultimately becoming a Master of the Sogetsu School and the Ikenobo school. Upon his return to Australia he dedicated is life to teaching ikebana and promoting Australian - Japanese relations through the art of Ikebana. He and his wife Mary travelled tirelessly around Australia and New Zealand, teaching and establishing Branches of the Sogetsu School and Chapters of Ikebana International. He established the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School in 1964. Our members have held classes and exhibitions in multiple venues around the city every year since then. 

The following link is to an article in the Australian Dictionary of Biography about Norman Sparnon.

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Victorian Branch, Nishiyama sensei gave a public demonstration at The Edge in Federation Square in Melbourne. She also presented two workshops at the Asia Institute, Melbourne University.

The following photograph is of my work at the morning workshop. The first theme was to make a freestyle ikebana using paper, of any kind. The Victorian Branch provided botanical materials and attendees had to provide their own paper.

I used a Japanese ikebana vase from my colleague Aileen's collection and was given a branch of tortuous Willow and some red Callistemon flowers. Using news paper, I created long paper straws by wrapping sheets around a chopstick and removing it before it got trapped inside. This provided me with straight lines that contrasted with the wavy lines of the willow. 

Greetings from Christopher
3rd November 2024

CAGED SPACE

As I noted last week, the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School Annual Exhibition is being held at the City of Whitehorse Artspace Gallery. It was opened yesterday and photos will appear on the Sogetsu Victorian Branch Instagram account soon.

I participated in the exhibition and along with some of my colleagues had the privilege of using one of the vessels from the City of Whitehorse ceramics collection.

For the exhibition I chose an interesting ceramic vessel by the Victorian ceramicist Garry Bish. His work is highly refined. The design incorporates optical illusion effects that distort perception of the vessel’s surface, which seems to in some places to recede or project forward. The surface of the vessel is also covered with over printed letters spelling “Caged Space”, to which my ikebana makes reference. I created an irregular 'cage' using black bamboo that I doweled together using kitchen skewers. I was interested in making a sculptural structure that responded to the vessel but which it did not actually touch. The fresh materials are two Coastal Sword sedge Lepidosperma gladiatum, leaves and a stem of Crucifix orchids Epidendrum radicans.

Sorry this is late and brief. Hopefully more next week.

Greetings from Christopher
27th October 2024

ANNUAL EXHIBITION OPENING SATURDAY 26th OCTOBER

  

On Tuesday last week I attended an outing organised by Ikebana International Melbourne, to the Alowyn Gardens in Yarra Glen, north east of Melbourne. I had not been to these gardens before and was surprised by their extent and variety. The gardens are described by their creators as a "labour of love over the last 25 years". Having been created on almost 

3 hectares of neglected farm land, the gardens are divided into 9 separate themed gardens.

The first of these is the Wisteria arbour, which is the main entrance into the other sub-gardens. 

I was intrigued to learn that the Wisteria seen above is the Japanese variety, W. floribunda, which has the longest flower racemes of all the Wisterias. The longest measured in this garden was 1.6m.

Another very eye-catching garden was the vegetable garden, which contained a very long bed of poppies. I assume they were being grown for their seed.

While walking along this bed, my eye was caught by this sole red flower with highly fimbriated petals.

On a much more modest scale, Laurie and I were delighted to see many small ground orchids in the Iron Bark Basin reserve recently.

This is the Angahook Caladina, C. maritima, which is endemic to the Anglesea area.

In our own garden the Spanish Broom  Spartium junceum has suddenly flowered, creating a bright yellow mass that stands out among the green. The yellow is so intense I thought I would use some in my ikebana.

I have combined a number of tightly-arranged stems with a New Zealand Flax Phormium leaf. To balance the strong vertical lines, including the vase, I have added a now dried tangle of Strelitzia juncea stems that I had made some months ago.

News items: 

Next Saturday, 26th October, the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana's annual exhibition opens in the Whitehorse Artspace in the old Box Hill town hall. The exhibition will run for a month, with the arrangements being changed each week.

Don't forget the demonstration by Master Instructor Kosa  Nishiyama being held at Federation Square's The Edge on Thursday 31st October.

 

 

Greetings from Christopher

20th October 2024

60 YEARS of SOGETSU IKEBANA in VICTORIA

The Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School was established in 1964 by the late Norman Sparnon (1913 - 1995) who was born in Melbourne. He became a Master of both the Sogetsu School and the Ikenobo School. Mr Sparnon, and his wife Mary, managed the administration of the Branch until 28th November 1977. On that date, the inaugural meeting of the Australian Sogetsu Teachers Association, Victorian Branch was held in the Malvern Town Hall.

This year is the 60th anniversary of the Victorian Branch. To celebrate the event we have invited Kosa Nishiyama, a Master Instructor of the Sogetsu School in Tokyo, to be our special guest. 

The public event to mark this significant milestone is a live demonstration of ikebana to be created by Nishiyama sensei.

Date and time: Thursday 31st October, 7.30pm - 9.00pm
Venue:The Edge in Federation Square, Melbourne.
Tickets: $75.00 

Tickets are available through this link,

  Master Instructor, Kosa Nishiyama's demonstration. 

To coincide with the Master Instructor's visit, the Victorian Branch is presenting its annual exhibition. This year it will be at the Whitehorse Artspace gallery. The exhibition will take place over four consecutive weeks and involve a weekly change of the ikebana exhibits. During the first two weeks, some of the ikebana works will be arranged in vessels of the City of Whitehorse's extensive ceramics collection. 

Open: Tuesday to Saturday from 26th October to 23rd November. 10am - 4pm (Saturdays 12noon - 4pm).

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In July I noticed the yellow fruit on the Ginger lily Hedychium gardnerianum, had started to open revealing its red berries. The colours looked especially intense against the green of its broad leaves.

 

An interesting subject for an ikebana, and a demonstration of the beauty that is to be found in plants even after the flowering has finished. 

The stems of the plant are very stiff and cannot be manipulated easily. So I placed it on an angle to create a sense of movement, using a black and red-glazed, faceted vessel for additional colour contrast. The vase is by the South Australian ceramicist Rebecca Dawson.

Greetings from Christopher

13th October 2024

LILIUM BUDS

Recently I asked my U3A students in Torquay to make an ikebana in a suiban to be placed on a table, so that it could be seen from all around. The model for this arrangement is the Sogetsu curriculum variation No 6. This variation has the three principle lines radiating so that from a bird's eye point of view they divide a circle into equal parts.

This is Coralie's ikebana. She has used Eucalyptus for two of the lines and a fine-leafed material for the third. Freesias are partially hidden among the massed material in the centre.

At my Geelong class, Anne made her first freestyle arrangement. We discussed the idea that this means following fundamental principles of ikebana, but not the patterns of the early exercises. She arranged several  branches of pink flowering blossom of different lengths. Their placement is asymmetrical and the kenzan is off-centre in the suiban. Her second material, three stems of daffodils Narcissus, were placed at the back so that they were seen through the screen of branches. 

The senior students' exercise was to make an ikebana incorporating bare branches in the two-step approach. This means first creating a self-supporting structure, which is then incorporated in a vessel with fresh materials. 

Ellie used some dried honeysuckle Lonicera caprifolium, outside her vase, which was contrasted with a mass of dwarf Nandina and Chrysanthemums. A further mass of finely branched material was placed at the back. 

 

Maureen's branches were a fine branching material that had some mustard-coloured lichen. In the photo, the lichen is on the thicker part of the righthand branch. She added some yellow Leucadendron that was supported by the branch material; thus managing without the use of a kenzan.

 

Jo's exercise was to make an ikebana using 'Green materials only'. It made me laugh to see the use of two apples and one Monstera leaf. I thought it was a cheeky-looking ikebana!

Maree set her 'Green materials only' in two shiny metal tins. The curving green lines are the grass-like leaves of a Xanthorrhoea which are very strong and springy. It is the tension of the leaves that is holding smaller tin at the tilted angle.  The other materials are Dianthus 'Green Ball' and a single small Arum lily Zantedeschia leaf.

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A couple of weeks ago I bought some Oriental lilies Lilium, for an event, then did not need them. Being surplus to requirements, I arranged them at home. They are very large flowers, even at this unopened stage, and needed a strong second material to visually balance them. A single large Strelitzia leaf was sufficient for this purpose. The lily stems cross each other so that all the buds are pointing in the same general direction.

The vase is a mid-20th century Japanese ceramic ikebana vessel.

Greetings from Christopher

6th October 2024 

TWO VESSELS and a WINDFALL

In the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, I was recently surprised and delighted to see this huge sweep of pink everlasting flowers. They are in light shade under some tall Eucalyptus trees. My internet research tells me that they are no longer called Helichrysum but have been transferred to a new genus Xeruchrysum. 

I did not notice a label for these, however they may be a hybrid of X. bracteatum. Or they may be naturally occurring in this colour. Please contact me if you know the answer.

They are particularly beautiful in this massed planting.

Three weeks ago I mentioned that we had some extremely windy weather, particularly on the Saturday night. I was relieved when I walked around the garden the following morning not to find any large branches blown off the trees. 

However, when I walked along the creek path we came across a Bushy Yate  Eucalyptus lehmannii, that had split at its lowest forking branch. I think somewhat less than half the small tree had survived. The tree was aged and I think had passed its prime.

This was the largest of the branches that lay beside the path. When I passed the branch again on my return I noticed that there were a few open flower-heads and quickly rescued a couple of shorter branches before the Shire workers came along with their mulching machine. "Waste not, want not", as the saying goes; an impulse which many Sogetsu practitioners will recognise. A literal wind-fall. 

I immediately knew that this material would make for an interesting ikebana opportunity.

The mop-like, greenish-yellow inflorescence is quite fascinating, as is the fruit when it forms. The one on the righthand branch has only recently lost most of its stamens. I am not sure of the technical name of the remaining curving structures. 

In planning this ikebana I wanted to show the three phases of the inflorescence development from bud to open 'flower' and then fruit

I decided to make an ikebana using two smoke-grey glass vases with the lines spreading widely. 

  

To start I removed about eighty percent of the leaves to reveal the lines of the branches and the phases of the flower from bud to fruit. There is a small bud on the branch just to the right of the central mass. The large spiky mass on the left branch is a well-developed, but as yet unopened, inflorescence. The line on the left is stretching slightly to the back and the other is stretching slightly forward. The flowers are on very short stems and could only be positioned side-on. 

Greetings from Christopher

28th September 2024

AUSTRALIAN NATIVE MATERIALS

 

Last week I posted a photo of my contribution to the Ikebana International Exhibition at the Labassa Mansion in Melbourne. Earlier this week I was delighted to receive a photo of my work by my colleague Lei Wang. Lei made good use of the Covid lockdowns by completing a photography course on-line. 

The knowledge and skills she has gained since then are evident in this beautiful image that shows the context of the ikebana. 

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The Consul-General of Japan for Victoria, South  Australia and Tasmania and his wife are joint patrons of Ikebana International Melbourne Chapter. On a rotating basis, for special occasions, the five Ikebana Schools in Melbourne are called on to provide Ikebana in the Consul-General’s residence. A few weeks ago I was advised that it was the turn of the Sogetsu School. The event was a reception to mark the end of the term of office and pending departure later this year of the current Consul-General, Mr Shimada. 

I had the privilege of making an Omukaebana, a welcoming ikebana, for the reception. In my planning preparation I thought it would be appropriate to create an Ikebana using only Australian native materials to express the unique beauty of our flora.

My starting point was a solid piece of Moonah Melaleuca lanceolata driftwood. This interesting branch has three principal twisting lines that radiate in different directions. It is quite a heavy piece so I needed to choose a fairly large and solid vessel. 

I chose this wood-fired vessel and was delighted to discover that the branch had a small side stem that allowed it to sit very securely in the mouth of the vessel without the need for additional fixing. The ceramicist is Ian Jones of Old St Luke's Studio.

The other materials are, on the left side, Banksia praemorsa from the garden of my ikebana friends Rosemary and David. And on the centre right a striking pink Waratah Telopea speciosissima. I assume it to be a new hybrid. The petal-like bracts that surround the small inflorescence are quite long and loose looking. They made a good textural contrast to the strength and denseness of the Banksias.

I was assisted in this exercise by my colleague Susan.

Greetings from Christopher

22nd September 2024

 

COMBINING MATERIALS

 

Recently in Melbourne I set my students the task of making an ikebana which incorporated both Australian native and exotic materials. In the past, traditional ikebana had rules about the appropriate combinations of materials; the flip side of which was that there were combinations that were considered "objectionable" *. 

These old rules have their reasons and logic. The Sogetsu School, however, releases its practitioners from such rules; so no combination of materials is prohibited. The challenge is to make such unlikely or difficult combinations in our ikebana work so that the finished ikebana is coherent.

Eugenia created a space between a branch of (unidentified) Acacia and Kangaroo fern Zealandia pustulata, in which she set a single red rose.

 

Marcia also set a large mass of fine-leafed Acacia, to which she added Euphorbia.

Jacqueline harmonised the colour of curving lines of Eucalyptus leaves with a vase she had made. These were contrasted with two bright red roses.

Marisha chose two principal materials with harmonious colours, Eucalyptus leaves and stems of Leucadendron . She added some small branches of Thryptomene in the space beneath the main lines.

Aileen's principal material was Acacia aphylla set in a clear glass vase. A floral focus of two pink orchid flowers has been set in the embrace of the entwined curving lines.

My ikebana this week is a partial re-working of an Ikebana I made at the AGM of Ikebana International Melbourne Chapter last month.  

For the original arrangement I used only Australian native materials. On the left side is a Eucalyptus I bought for its grey stems and seed pods (I think E. pterocarpa). In the centre are three Banksia paludosa flowers. The dried woody line is Billardiera heterophylla,  a climber that I had used as a ground cover in the garden, but which had died.

This week the native materials I wanted were not available. I decided to remake it with two Cymbidium orchid stems from the conservatory and four Strelitzia leaves provided by my student Maureen. This re-worked ikebana is currently in "Labassa", a National Trust property in Caulfield North, Melbourne. It is one of many ikebana works on display by members of Ikebana International Melbourne for this weekend only. My work is on a dining table and therefore was made to be viewed from both sides.

 

Here is the other main view. The rest of the exhibition is being photographed and will be uploaded to the I.I. Melbourne website in due course.

The vessel is by the Australian ceramicist Alistair Whyte (1954 - 2023).

Greetings from Christopher

14th September 2024

 * Page 76. Condor J. "THE FLOWERS of JAPAN and THE ART of FLORAL ARRANGEMENT". 

Hakubunsha Tokyo 1891 publisher.