Gardening : <i> Ikebana</i> ‘s Living Sculpture: the Theatricality of Nature
Many people think of ikebana as those spare, artistic flower arrangements posed delicately as a table centerpiece or lovingly in a small vase. But as devotees of the Sogetsu School will tell you, ikebana can take more monumental forms.
“It isn’t just something you put on a coffee table. It doesn’t just disappear into the living room decor,” says Don Davidson, who has studied Sogetsu ikebana for 15 years. “I do mostly large arrangements. It’s not unusual for my arrangements to be six to eight feet high or eight to 10 feet long.”
For Davidson, who has designed floats for the Tournament of Roses parade for 34 years, part of the appeal is the grandness and theatricality he puts into his ikebana designs. But it’s also the opportunity to work with nature.
“I grew up in the Cascade Mountains in Washington state and always had a great love of nature and the seasons,” Davidson says. “I was always drawn to nature, and to play with nature in ikebana is a great joy.”
Davidson will be among those ikebana fanciers providing examples ranging in size from medium to extremely large at the Sogetsu Ikebana Flower Arrangement Show today and Sunday at South Coast Botanic Garden.
“We hope the audience will see the many ways materials can be used besides just putting materials in a vase,” says Tomi Maeno, who has studied Sogetsu ikebana for 20 years.
While the exact beginnings of ikebana are not known, it is believed to have derived from the custom of dedicating flowers to the Buddha, which began when Buddhism was brought to Japan in the 6th Century.
The Sogetsu School, one of the three largest ikebana schools in Japan today, was founded in 1927 by the late Sofu Teshigahara, who believed that ikebana should be both enjoyable and creative. Teshigahara had trained from childhood in the tradition of flower arrangement.
“Sogetsu was the first (school) to follow a less rigid code and stress originality,” Maeno says.
“Certain schools are known for certain types of arrangements--some for being traditional or formal, while others emphasize natural quality of plant materials. Ours is well known for being more abstract--more modern--which blends in well with the modern architecture in Japan and in many homes.”
The Los Angeles Sogetsu group works on larger ikebana that are displayed in area banks and hotels, including the New Otani Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
Sogetsu instructor Yokou Kitajima regularly creates arrangements that may be displayed up to six months in the hotel’s lobby, and replaces the flower components as needed.
For example, Maeno says, at the time of Emperor Hirohito’s death in January, the hotel’s arrangement featured red flowers--inappropriate during a time of mourning. So Kitajima replaced them with white blooms.
Kitajima, who has been with the Los Angeles branch for 10 years, received his ikebana training in Japan. He is one of the few male instructors in the United States, a reversal of the Japanese arrangements, Maeno says, where men dominate the ranks of masters and instructors.
“To me,” says designer Davidson, “because of my sculptural background, I treat ikebana as sculpture in plant material, and even non-plant material, but we always try to get the plant material in there somewhere. If you use tree trunks, logs or branches, it will last indefinitely as a piece of sculpture. In Japan, there is no distinct line between sculpture and ikebana. Many of the ikebana masters in Japan do fabulous sculpture.
“And when you get into the very abstract, there is no definite dividing line, especially since in Japan ikebana is an art form recognized on the same level as sculpture or painting.”
Davidson notes that while it takes a long time to master ikebana , students show results immediately.
“Instruction is geared in such a way that you learn specific do’s and don’ts and if you follow instructions carefully, you cannot do a bad ikebana, “ Davidson says.
Sogetsu instruction includes learning to handle and “condition” materials through cuts with boiling water, alcohol or sake. The conditioning, Davidson notes, will help preserve the work longer than normal flower arrangements.
He also notes that ikebana stresses originality, not competition. “One of the big differences with ikebana is that shows are never judged. No one ever selects one arrangement over another. We encourage people who are just beginning to participate in shows.
“At a show, some arrangements will overwhelm you and you may think, ‘I could never to that,’ but then you’ll look around the corner and see something simple and think, ‘Well, I could do that. ‘ “
If you’d like to be overwhelmed or inspired by ikebana of the Sogetsu School, you have two opportunities this weekend. The Yeojin Flower Arrangement Club Show, which opened Friday, continues today from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Descanso Gardens, La Canada Flintridge. The Sogetsu Ikebana Flower Arrangement Show is today and Sunday at South Coast Botanic Garden, Palos Verdes Peninsula. The hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days.
Admission to the ikebana shows is included in the general admission to the gardens: $3 for adults, $1.50 for seniors and 75 cents for children 5 to 12. For information about the Yeojin show at Descanso Gardens, call (818) 790-5571; for the Sogetsu show at South Coast (213) 544-1948.
