WORLD IKEBANA DAY 6th JUNE

Yesterday some of my Geelong students organised an afternoon function to celebrate World Ikebana Day which was established by the Japanese Ikebana Art Association in 2020.

L - R, standing: Christine, Helen, Heather, Karen, Maree

Seated: Ellie, Jo, Laurie, me, Maureen

Recently in my Geelong class...

...Jo's arrangement used colours in contrast in a tall nageire style vessel. She used a branch of red Cotoneaster berries and red roses. Three of the roses were held in a fold of the large contrasting green leaf.

 

Ann's exercise was to make a Variation number 5 moribana in which two kenzans are used. The two principal lines of branch material, possibly Bursaria tenuifolia, are on one kenzan, while the hikae (flower line) Tulips are on their own kenzan.

In both Geelong and Torquay classes, I set some of the students the exercise of making an ikebana arrangement "Incorporating the area where it is placed". This comes from an early edition of the Sogetsu curriculum. 

In Torquay, Kerryn used an oval vessel with a hole through its centre. She used a multi-headed stem of Red Hot poker Kniphofia, an orange Poppy, Marigold Calendula, and Pittosporum with orange berries. This proved to be an opportunity to learn the use of "cross bar" fixing.

In Geelong, Maureen made an arrangement using "Green materials" only. She also extended the materials forward and to the back of the arrangement. Unfortunately this placement is lost by the flattening effect of the photograph. 

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Ellie's arrangement extended to the front left to incorporate the area around the footed vessel. She used a Strelitzia nicolai leaf, Statice Limonium, and Chrysanthemums.

Helen's arrangement also extended to the left and used flowers in shades of pink that harmonised with pink in the glass vessel. The materials included Statice, an unidentified deep pink flower within the arrangement and Chrysanthemums.

My ikebana this week was made at a Victorian Sogetsu Branch workshop that was led by Akemi Suzuki. Akemi asked the participants to think about how looking through a window changes what you see, because of the effect of framing. We may pay more attention to what is visible because we do not experience the distraction of other elements in the environment.

I decided to make an irregular frame from some natural branches of Ash Fraxinus trees. I had noticed that some of the side branches were almost at right angles with the principal branch. The frame had two clearly defined apertures and I decided to use only the largest one. My materials were Autumn coloured Hydrangeas and a Tree philodendron Philodendron bipinnatifidum leaf. To emphasise the "framing" I placed the leaf within the frame and cut it so that it did not extend beyond the frame. The Hydrangeas were kept within the frame.

The vessel is by the Victorian ceramicist Mel Ogden

Greetings from Christopher

7th June 2026