This post is about one of my hobbies, ikebana, Japanese floral arrangements.
In August 2024, I resumed learning ikebana at the Ikenobo School, returning after 10 years.
When I was a child, my grandmother hosted ikebana and tea ceremony classes at home. She would invite teachers and offer our house as the venue. Around ten local people gathered each month to take lessons. On those days, when I came home from school, the house was filled with the sight of flowers, or on other days, the aroma of matcha and sweets.
The ikebana I remember from the 1980s was slightly different from what I practise today. The arrangements were tall and visually striking. Luxurious vases held generous amounts of flowers, with flamboyant, elaborate displays. At that time, I did not feel particularly drawn to ikebana. My interest only began to blossom when I reached my thirties.
After returning from Switzerland, where I had studied Western floral arrangements, I enrolled in an introductory ikebana course at the Ikenobo School in Tokyo in 2014. I still remember how fascinated I was by new tools: the flower shears, kenzan, and flower bag. My teacher was a young man who demonstrated a different style of ikebana – simple and sophisticated. I was captivated by the beauty of minimalism in his neat and discreet arrangements. Each lesson was divided into two parts: a theoretical lecture, followed by a practical session. Although I do not have photos of the arrangements I made during those classes, I have kept my notebook filled with lecture notes and sketches of my work.
Not long after completing the introductory course, I moved to the UK, and my study of ikebana was paused for nearly a decade from 2015 to 2024.
My current teacher often reminds me that ikebana is a beauty by subtraction – to observe the branches and leaves carefully, to touch and interact with them as living things, to converse with nature, and to create beauty.
After each lesson, I attempt to recreate the same arrangement at home. It is a quiet conversation between me and nature.
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