Tools and Techniques  Carolyn Alter

On Monday, March 9th we had a lovely luncheon meeting at the Albertina Kerr Center. The program topic was on Tools and Techniques and four of our ikebana schools participated. Each leader or member of a school presented on various aspects and uses of different tools, techniques, and containers in making their ikebana.

As the tools and techniques have evolved in the history of our art, we presented in a chronological order with Kathryn Cochran of the Ikenobo school going first, followed by David Komeij of Saga, me for Ohara, and two members, Leslie Dolin and Nana Bellerud for Sogetsu.

Kathryn described several styles of the Ikenobo school including Rikka and Shoka. She had a colorful handout showing these styles. Rikka uses nine elements each representing a part of the landscape including mountains, hills, and streams. This style has strict rules about what materials may be used, their lengths, positions, etc. A kenzan is used at the top of a tall vase in which pebbles are placed to hold the kenzan at the correct height. This was used to decorate the temples and tokonoma. She then demonstrated a Shoka arrangement using quince and daisies. This is a simplified version of Rikka in having three main elements. All the stems are inserted in a straight line.

David spoke about the Saga school and began by bouncing a super ball repetitively. Why? Because that is what super balls do… they bounce, that is their nature. He spoke about the school’s purpose of uniting flowers and the universe. He mentioned the need for the arrangement to have a natural balance point and its foot area should be clean. Then he made a Seika arrangement inserting camellia branches into a shippo. He also explained about the type of scissors, “hasami”, they use as being shorter and broader with the ends curling in like a fern shoot. He also had a handout describing some of the different tools including crab and turtle holders.

I talked about the Ohara school’s 120th anniversary and how the founder Unshin Ohara developed Landscape Moribana by moving the points of insertion over a wide flat plane instead of being all lined up. I demonstrated a Traditional Landscape using hydrangea, bluebells, and a ground cover in shippo. The ground cover is placed using a three layer method under, amid, and above the shippo. I also had a handout which told about Ohara’s five headmasters and the styles they developed. I showed containers including a half moon suiban for a basic flower design form, a fan shaped Oribe pottery for Rimpa style, and a Ching-te-chen vase with green glaze and lion motifs for Bunjin style. I presented tools we use with various shaped kenzan to match a containers shape, wire and cutters, sprayer, turkey baster, and bamboo skewers.

Lastly Nana Bellerud discussed about how they have a short apron they wear around their waist that they can place all their tools in. The Sogetsu school has a set curriculum in four sections and after the basics are learned they move on to more freestyle type arrangements. Leslie Dolan showed a couple of their books and spoke about how they can use a variety of materials not just flowers. The emphasis is on the line, color, texture, size, and expressing the feeling or idea the arranger has in mind. She spoke about how they try to cover three quarters of the vases opening. She also showed using a vertical stem split to hold a material in place in a tall vase.

It was a very informative program that taught us all about how the schools techniques have built on each other and changed as time has progressed. We all have a new respect for the different aspects that each school brings to our art of ikebana.