Detroit ＃85 USA

8-10-2025
The Mi Bon Festival on August 10 was a great success!
The Japanese Festival attracted over 700 people.

8-13-2025 Sogetsu
Our chapter took a field trip to The Farm at Trinity Health Hospital.
The Farm had colorful cut flowers from their cutting garden for all of us to create beautiful arrangements for the patients. After we finished, The Farm let us cut more flowers to make arrangements at home. The Farm also grows fruit and vegetables for the hospital to cook with and provides free to the families. It was a wonderful and rewarding day!
A Japanese Ti Bon Festival which took place at the beautiful gardens at Cranbrook Gardens in Bloomfield, Michigan.
Our Chapter created many ikebana arrangements for display at the festival.

September 10, 2025
Ikenobo
For our September program Ikenobo instructor Pat Langs demonstrated modern Jiyuka (freestyle) arrangements.
With her fall garden as her motive, Pat demonstrated a horizontal arrangement suitable for a tabletop using hydrangea. Her second arrangement was a vertical landscape using papyrus.
She shared that a natural expression could include seasonality, sussho (life/growth characteristics) of a specific plant material or a landscape. While a non-natural expression could include personal feelings of happiness, joy, etc., she invited participants to have a motive for their arrangement defining what they’d like to express. In the afternoon, David Lee gave a presentation intitled “Ikebana Journey in Japan – Ikebana Origins (Buddhist, Shinto, Literati Infusions).”His talk presented ideas on Buddhism’s interaction with East Asian culture and its influence on the origins of Ikebana in Japan.

October 8, 2025
Sogetsu
Our morning workshop, taught by Sogetsu Instructor Leslie Rosinski, was a lesson in Upright Style Moribana. Using a low sided, lat bottom container we learned to create unity and balance using two groupings of materials in two seperate kenzans and showing water in between.