Cleveland Chapter #20 (USA)

October Workshop – Ikenobo

The teacher for this workshop was Mrs. Mieko Fujimoto of the Ikenobo Ikebana Society. She is an Assistant professor of Ikebana, 2nd grade Kakan. She taught the group Shoko shofutai Ishu ike and Nishu ike styles.

Mrs. Fujimoto explained Yakueda, the main lines or branches of the composition, their names, and described the lengths and proportions of these materials. Ishu ike is one plant material and Nishu ike is two plant materials. She then made two arrangements in the Ishu ike style using Liatris as the one plant material. Her arrangements were examples of Hongatte or left style, and Gyakugatte or right style. The students made their arrangements choosing either Hongatte or Gyakugatte styles. Then Mrs. Fujimoto critiqued each student’s work.

The afternoon session was making the Nishu ike styles or two plant materials. The teacher demonstrated again by making two examples of Hongatte and Gyakugatte styles. For this session the plant material was Liatris which we used from the morning class. The students removed two of the Liatris stems from the front of the arrangement then placed Feverfew flowers in the front as the tai group called Negime. All the students enjoyed learning more details about Ikenobo Ikebana arrangement styles.