Melbourne Ikebana Festival, Spring 2024ikebanafestival.com

Thursday 23 October 2014


Friday 17 October 2014


Thursday 16 October 2014

Daily Meditation


I have been showing a series of my my ikebana works, Daily Meditation on our Facebook pages, https://www.facebook.com/IkebanaGallery and https://www.facebook.com/ikebanaaustralia.

From time to time the visitors to the pages ask similar questions, what do you mean by daily meditation?, or what do you mean by 'using left over materials'?

I make ikebana works almost every day. Making them is a daily ritual as well as meditation for me. I hope viewing them would be meditation for the viewers as well. So I named the series Daily Meditation.

As anyone working with flowers knows, there are always some left over flowers after lessons or after making commercial works. That's inevitable. Sadly we usually have to throw them away. However, I often save them from our rubbish bin and make another ikebana work. 

As discarded followers, they are always limited in quantity, quality and selection. With such limitation I can still make something interesting and I would like to share it on our Facebook pages.     
      
http://www.shoso.com.au 
https://www.facebook.com/ikebanaaustralia


Monday 6 October 2014

Ikebana for Home Party



This is another example of our Home Party Package A: 1 medium arrangement with a give away container + 2 small table arrangements with a plastic container each.

Visit our Display & Delivery page for the details.  

http://www.shoso.com.au 
https://www.facebook.com/ikebanaaustralia

Thursday 2 October 2014

Ikebana Today 28




We have been trying to find out what Ikebana is. Historically ikebana was a style of Ikebana (Ikebana as a general term for Japanese flower arrangement). It was contradiction to Takehana, the main stream of Ikebana but it seems to have something essential about Ikebana. Then, what is the essence of Ikebana? 

Let’s  look at the word “ikebana” more carefully. The word consists of ike and bana. Bana means flowers. What is ike(ru)? The original form of ikeru is a verb, iku, which has three basic meanings: 1. to make alive, 2. to do ikebana, 3. to bury (plants), etc. The first one is the oldest and closest to the original meaning of the word. 

So ikebana originally means to make flowers alive. We could imagine someone was arranging flowers around 15th century in a new fashion thinking “I am not making flower upright like Tatehana. I am making flowers alive. Let’s call what I am creating ikebana”. We now have to think what does it mean to make flowers alive. 

This month I’d like to show you my Christmas installation, Magical Tunnel  commissioned by the city of Ballarat in 2013. It is covered with solar lights and people can walk through the illumination at night. My task was to recycle the Christmas decorations and wastes from the previous years. To recycle them I had to break them down into smaller units and rearrange them into a new form. That process was very similar to Ikebana, breaking down natural materials and rearrange them in a harmonious order. This work was chosen as the most popular Christmas art work by the people of the city.     

    
http://www.shoso.com.au 
https://www.facebook.com/ikebanaaustralia

Wednesday 1 October 2014

Bridal Bouquet by Shoso


A wired bridal bouquet is light, easy to carry, long lasting and flexible in design. 

"Thank you so much for the beautiful flowers. I was so pleased and they had such a wonderful fragrance. Many many thanks."  

http://www.shoso.com.au 
https://www.facebook.com/ikebanaaustralia