A couple of weeks ago I checked out the Living Flowers Ikebana and Contemporary Art exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo. This special exhibit started June 15 and will continue until September 7, 2008 and showcases the different ikebana styles of the Ikenobo, Ohara, and Sogetsu schools. The ikebana will continue to change throughout the exhibition, so you should go back periodically to see the new works of art! I was particularly floored by the more modern works presented in the Sogetsu style. Since photography was not allowed, I had to sneakily take these pictures using my phone (sorry for the quality!)
I loved the clean and modern look of the arrangements. Going through the exhibit inspired me to learn and practice ikebana – which roughly means to “bring life to flowers”. Flowers are dead when they are cut and are given new life when they are arranged. Interesting, neh?
Anyway, so I really liked the modern and gutsy ikebana arrangements from the Sogetsu school of thought and looked online for classes and workshops offered by Sogetsu. Not too much in the way of online information for the Los Angeles branch (like a website) but there’s a list of all the local branches of Sogetsu listed on the Japanese website. For learning for the first time and practicing, I think I would like to take a class offered by UCLA extension taught by Kyoko Kassarjian, who holds the highest teaching rank of riji by the Sogetsu School of Ikebana in Japan. They are offering the intermediate level course for summer 2008, so hopefully they will offer beginner again in the fall! In the meantime, I plan to go back to the museum to see different Living Flowers ikebana!!
The Flower Lab website
Tiny Wren Press