Melbourne Ikebana Festival, Spring 2024ikebanafestival.com

Sunday 25 June 2017

Salvos Community Fundraising through Ikebana


Salvos Community Fundraising through Ikebana: Host Shoso Shimbo 's workshop at your venue.

Shoso Shimbo and his team can offer many types of ikebana workshops now. You may be able to earn more than $200 per hour and donate $50 or more to a charity by hosting our popular one hour workshop. http://www.shoso.com.au/p/workshop.html


Image: Ikebana demonstration at Made in Japan (South Melbourne)

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Monday 19 June 2017

Friday 9 June 2017

Monday 5 June 2017

Ikebana Today 59



I’ve been writing about my questions about a popular notion that Japanese culture is Zen culture. I also have a little question about Sado, the Japanese tea ceremony.

A renowned philosopher from the Kyoto school of philosophy, Shinichi Hisamatsu said, “ Wabi-cha (tea ceremony) was a religious revolution in Zen.” What he meant was probably that Zen was transformed to the tea ceremony when it was introduced from Buddhist temples to the common people. But I don’t agree with him.

Let’s think about the Japan Festival in Melbourne as a case study. This is a good sample of cultural transformation. A: Japanese festival + B: Australian ways of cultural events = C: Melbourne Japan Festival as a new culture. A new culture is almost always a combination of an original culture and other cultures.

Hisamatsu’s comment can be simplified as; A: Zen + B:? = C: tea ceremony. I don’t think Zen can be transformed to other forms without any other influential factors. Seemingly, a tea party, a new culture from China at that time was supposed to be B, another cultural factor. However, we need to be aware that tea parties were almost gambling activities for the Japanese at that time.

I wonder whether someone would try to transform a gambling occasion to a sophisticated interpersonal performance like a tea ceremony. Would anyone try to transform for instance mah-jongg to a spiritual ritual today?

This is only my hypothesis but a model of the tea ceremony may be one of the Shinto rituals related to eating and serving; A: Zen + B: Shinto rituals = C: tea ceremony. However, I cannot provide any evidence that Juko Murata (1423 - 1502), a founder of the tea ceremony was associated with Shinto. Although he was believed to be a Zen monk, very little is known about him.

My hypothesis may be weak in this case, but it is fascinating to review various aspects of Japanese culture from a Shinto perspective. I think Shinto deserves much more attention in Japanese studies.

This is a work I made for a clinic reception. It was a bit hard to add water to the containers, but they said, “don’t worry, we will ask one of our surgeons and he will water them using his syringe"

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Thursday 1 June 2017

Winter is the time for Ikebana



Ikebana Workshop at Chotto, Fitzroy & Ikebana in School

a. One hour workshop will be held at Chotto, Fitzroy and Made in Japan, South Melbourne. Details will be announced shortly. Like https://www.facebook.com/ikebanaaustralia/ for the latest news.

b. Short Course. Japanese Aesthetics: From Ikebana to Contemporary Art at RMIT Short Courses starts from 16 August and 25 October 2017. http://bit.ly/1IFmuyl

c. Certificate Course. Our new term starts from August. Early bird discount rate ($160 for 10 sessions) is available for all the past students (not just for continuing students) only this time. The past students means those who have done Shoso’s certificate courses, RMIT courses, or one hour workshops. This is a great time to come back to Ikebana, if you have been taking a break from it. Other terms and conditions apply. http://www.shoso.com.au/p/tuition.html

d. Ikebana in School. Ikebana workshops for secondary students.  http://bit.ly/ikebana-in-school

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