Nanka Nikkei News: June 2014

Monday, June 23, 2014

Jaccc ikebana june 2014

Japanese Flower Arrangement in Los Angeles

June 2014

By rick beal

This past weekend the JACCC (Japanese American Cultural Community Center), in Downtown Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo District, had a Japanese Flower Arrangement exhibit. The exhibit itself was not an official JACCC event, but rather the annual display of arrangements by the teachers of The Ikenobo Ikebana Society of America.

For this particular event the head instructor from the U.S. Headquarters flew down from San Francisco. Each year the event is held at a gallery near one of the area’s ikebana classes. Last year was in Torrance California, and this year at the JACCC. There are classes across the country with many Pacific Coast opportunities to view and participate in the art of flower arrangement.

Japanese flower arrangement is famous worldwide for its beautiful displays. ‘Ikebana’ literally translates from Japanese to English as ‘living flowers’. The Ikenobo school is not only one of the 5 main styles of Japanese Flower Arrangement, it was the first school of what we now call Ikebana. Ikebana comes from the practice of offering flowers on the altars in temples and homes, and has evolved to include decorations for both homes and public places that bring a sense of the sacred to any space.

This annual event by the local chapters of the Ikenobo Ikebana Society of America is unique in that all the displays are from the regions teachers, rather than just one from a teacher and the rest from their students as we often see. So much so, that to offer pictures of all of them would be fantastic, instead we can only offer a few examples. But each and everyone shows a sensitivity to nature and the materials being used. If you enjoy these please look for a class or exhibit near you.