Ikebana at JACCC

My teacher of Japanese Culture is Hirokazu Kosaka Sensei.
He is the Artistic Director of the JACCC (Japanese American Community & Cultural Center) in Downtown Los Angeles' Little Tokyo District.
So, of course when he has an event there, I try to attend.

This weekend we had what is now an annual Ikebana Exhibit.
This began as a 3/11 memorial event and continues as one today.

All 3 of the major schools were represented: The earliest, Ikenobo School; also the O'hara School; and the youngest of them, the Sogetsu School of Ikebana.

There was a beautiful Ceremony and offering performed by Professor Yoichi Mizutani from Ikenobo Headquarters in Kyoto.

There was a delightful welcome to Professor Mizutani and everyone from the JACCC's President & CEO, Leslie Ito. She welcomed a standing room only crowd... we kept adding more and more chairs as people continued to arrive.

I will have to say that since Ms. Ito took charge, and the gallery spaces were returned the programs at the JACCC have really come to life again.

Professor Mizutani performed an elegant ceremony; from walking in, placing the try, and having the arrangement come to life, every movement was done with great awareness and mindfulness. It reminded me of tea ceremony and all the other geido arts are really interrelated with a zen like practice. The completed piece was simple and clean and almost as beautiful as the ceremony itself.

After Professor Mizutani was finished all the guest also had the opportunity to contribute to a vase of flowers to offer as a memorial to 3/11.

I originally intended just to post my favorites of the many wonderful examples of ikebana shared at the event. But it's impossible to pick favorites with an event like this. So here are some almost random selections to end the post.

www.jaccc.org