THE EMPEROR'S BIRTHDAY

We have finally had fairly widespread and prolonged rain over much of Victoria in the last 24 hours, which has been a great relief after the bushfires over December and January.

When we came home to Torquay after spending most of the last week in Melbourne I was delighted to see, for the first time ever in our garden, a Kookaburra sheltering under the canopy of one of the trees. The poor bird was looking rather bedraggled after a day of rain.

The parting rain clouds... 

...were beautifully illuminated by the setting sun. 

Many readers of this blog will know that last year, on the 1st May, the new Reigning Emperor ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne of Japan, beginning the new era of Reiwa. Last Thursday, his birthday was celebrated at the residence of the Consul-General of Japan in Victoria. It was the turn of the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School, on behalf of Ikebana International Melbourne Chapter, to provide flowers for the formal reception of guests who were invited to a garden party. As the Director of the Sogetsu Branch it was my privilege to create the large ikebana in the formal reception room and two smaller ikebana works, with the assistance of my colleague Margaret Wilson.

This was a fairly big undertaking and required extensive preparation.

This is the first practise of my small arrangement. The botanical materials include dried stems of a Marguerite daisy Argyranthemum frutescens painted gold, two blue hydrangeas and some gypsophila. In this photo you can see the smaller hydrangea at the back of the ikebana. The vessel is by Graeme Wilkie of Qdos gallery Lorne. 

Here is the ikebana in situ. It was placed on a table in the entrance hall of the residence.

Close up view.

Margaret created a simple arrangement of two aspidistra leaves and a single Oriental lily flower and bud. The arrangement was carefully planned as it had to sit on a side table where the visitors' book was placed on the right hand side of the table. The elegant white vase with a white-on-white crystalline glaze was a gift from her sister and made by a Japanese ceramic artist.

After much preparatory work, this is the first 'mock up' of the large ikebana that had to stand in the principal reception room. I created a structure from three inverted branches of Silver Birch, doweled together, which stood beside the large amphora-shaped porcelain vessel. The hand-thrown vessel, by Alistair Whyte, has a pale blue Chun glaze over a deep red-brown iron glaze. 

For the principal fresh material I chose branches of Acacia Baileyana, from our garden. In this first trial I had thought to use blue Hydrangeas and Sunflowers, but quickly decided the Sunflowers were not suitable because of the straightness of their stems and that their colour was too contrasting to the other materials. 

On the day of the reception the Consul-General Mr Matsunaga and Mrs Matsunaga, co-patrons of I.I. Melbourne Chapter, stand in front of the gold screen to receive their guests who then to exit through the door on the left to the rear garden.

On the day prior to the reception, Margaret and I felt quite relieved to have got to this stage by the middle of the day.

Here is the completed work, which included the addition of white Oriental Lilies and Gypsophila, together with a large mass of gold mizuhiki.

Greetings from Christopher
15th February 2020