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