Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending an ikebana class. I haven’t had one since my time in Infini, so I really appreciated the opportunity to learn more about ikebana and spend time with great people and beautiful flowers (given that I have the opposite of a green thumb, it’s pretty rare for me to be in contact with plants).

A Five Minute Introduction to Ikebana

Note: There are three main schools of ikebana, but I’m not going to go into too much detail. For more information about the history of ikebana, I found this page which has a very clear history. 

Ikebana, also known as Kadou (華道; the way of flowers), has roots dating back to the 6th century. Although the plants already play a role in Shinto, the arrival of Buddhism brought along the idea of floral arrangements in front of the statues of Buddha. This is how the basic of ikebana came about and it evolved alongside Japanese culture, becoming an integral part of the culture.

The form of ikebana that grew out of these Buddhist offerings is called Rikka (立花; literally translated as ‘standing flowers’) which then evolved to the Shoka style (生花 – which can also be read as “ikebana”). Shoka was popular among the aristocrats and is hence an aristocratic but domestic style.

Sidenote: While trying to find the kanji for Shokka, I came across this interesting blog post about the term 飾花. Apparently, one uncommon way to read “飾花” is “shokka”, and it’s more popular among Japanese Protestants. I’ve always found the history of Christianity in Japan fascinating so this was interesting.

The third style of ikebana, which was what we did in class, is called Jiyuuka (自由花; free flowers) or Moribana (盛花). As the name suggests, this is a more free form style and apparently came about when flowers from the West were introduced to China, sparking a wave of new arrangements.

Interestingly, floristry in China has always had more emphasis on mimicking nature, whereas ikebana in Japan added symbolism to the flowers. But that didn’t stop the Japanese from taking inspiration from China – which goes to show that the influence of one culture on another can lead to greater depth and development of the influenced culture.

Hands-On Experience

After the introduction to Ikebana and a live demonstration, it was time for us to arrange something for ourselves! I am, as you might have guessed, very terrible at things that require an aesthetic sense. It took a lot for me not to grab all the flowers because they were just gorgeous:

We were all given different vessels with a frog pin inside them. Those pins are surprisingly heavy!

Because I have no sense of how colours work, I decided to just try and create space. I once heard that if you try and create triangles, you can get something interesting from it. So here’s my final piece:

By the way, ikebana is a great way to really learn that nature will not do as you say. I wanted one of the flowers to curve with the Ming fern, but it just wouldn’t. I had to learn to use what I had and not stress about it.

So my arrangement isn’t very good, but the instructors and my fellow students had really gorgeous ones! I’m going to share a few that I really liked:

I really love the pop of colour on the right and the lines on the left. It’s such a pleasing arrangement! By the way, I learnt that this vessel is actually a repurposed creme brulee container – showing that you can be creative about the different vessels.

I find this arrangement incredibly cute as it reminds me of a bonsai plant. The line of plants leading up to the Ming fern is amazing too – something I would not have thought to do! I’m really amazed at the creativity of others.

This is the instructor’s arrangement: The mini branches were something I looked at and decided was too hard to use so seeing how it can be arranged was eye-opening. Plus, I love the shades of green here.

I am so glad that I signed up for this class. It was a great time and I appreciated the opportunity to learn more about the history and principles behind ikebana. It was also a good reminder that even though I may not be good at something, it’s still good to learn about it – after all, there’s nothing wrong with failing when it comes to hobbies and interests!