New Workshop: Testimonials for Mindfulness through Ikebana

The Power of Japanese Flowers: Mindfulness through Ikebana

Duration: 2 Hours

Fee: $135 / $240 for Pair

28 November 2026, 23 January 2027, 1 May 2027 

Booking for a single ticket

Booking for a single or a pair ticket

Our popular one-hour Ikebana Introduction Workshop is a wonderful way to discover the basics of ikebana. This extended workshop, however, gives you more time to slow down, explore, and experience the mindful side of ikebana.

What will you gain from the workshop?

1. Calm and re-energise: Step away from busy days and slow down in a tranquil garden. Enjoy a calming, mindful experience that helps you relax, reset and reconnect with yourself.

2. Discover your creativity: Learn the simple principles of Ikebana and Japanese aesthetics—balance, space, asymmetry and natural beauty—and use them to inspire your own creative practice.

3. See nature in a new way: Learn to look at nature through the eyes of an Ikebana artist. Notice the beauty, shape, movement and character of natural materials, and discover how connecting with nature can bring a sense of wellbeing.

4. Experience Japanese culture: Discover how Ikebana nurtures personal growth, mindfulness and respect for nature, while deepening your connection with the environment.

Connect with nature, experience a different culture and discover the beauty of Ikebana. 

No experience is needed. You’ll create your own unique Ikebana artwork to take home, along with a new way of seeing nature and creativity.

Learn from Dr Shoso Shimbo, an award-winning Ikebana artist, sculptor and qualified Ikebana teacher, highly rated by participants with 4.9/5 from 83 ClassBento reviews. 

Testimonials

Future

“I love colour and vibrancy, and I was drawn to the idea of creating something that really stands out and has a strong presence.”

Oskar

“I really liked the horizontal aspect of the demonstration, which is why I chose this branch. I was also drawn to the yellow because we hung an artwork at home this morning that had yellow in it. After exploring some green, fluffy materials, I realised I also really liked the bottle brush.”

Brenda

“Thank you so much for explaining the history. I found it really valuable. In terms of my arrangement, I was drawn to the structural elements, particularly the idea of the branch protecting the other elements. Initially, I thought I would keep to just a couple of colours, like yellow and white, but then I felt that might be a little too cool, so I wanted to explore something more.”

Lisa

“The history of the Japanese shogun was fascinating. The idea of a fully rounded individual goes back to Greek philosophy, where being educated and physically fit were equally important aspects of a person's development.”

Nigel

“It brought back memories of coming here to the salon in Melbourne a few years ago, perhaps four years back, when a pianist was improvising during a performance while Shoso was creating something quite extraordinary.”

Madeleine

“I didn't have many words going through my head, but I was really enjoying the idea of the triangle and how it could feel so grounded while still maintaining the airiness of the branches.”

Rehana

“To begin with, I felt really confident. I thought, ‘Who can't make a triangle?’ But then you put your first two pieces in and suddenly you lose all that confidence. Your mind goes blank. There's the guessing, the uncertainty and the not knowing. And then, at some point, something shifts and you just know. I don't know how that happens, but suddenly you find it.”

Francis

“Shoso explained the origins of ikebana, and I wanted to express the samurai, the confusion, the chaos and the fighting. But that time has passed. Five hundred years ago, things began to change, and women started to take over the art. I found that history really interesting.”

Justine

“I actually studied ikebana when I lived in Japan, but I never really understood what the teacher was teaching. I would have a go at arranging the flowers, and she would come along, take everything out and redo it. Eventually, I just cut out the middleman and let her do it!

“But today was the first time I feel I've truly learned about ikebana. I loved creating my triangle, creating my burst and learning to see things differently. I love symmetry, so it was wonderful to be challenged and to question my Western ideas about symmetry.”

Shayne

“Uncovering the mystery of the combination, trying different things and knowing that the answer is somewhere there. And then suddenly, click! It looks right. You realise that this was what was always there, just waiting for you to discover it. I loved discovering that through the process, and I loved discovering something about myself, too.”

Anitha

“I've done flower arrangements before, but this was my first time doing ikebana. I'm someone who likes to plan everything step by step, so this morning I watched a few YouTube videos to try to understand what ikebana was all about.

“But as I watched, I started to realise that I wasn't going to learn this from videos. It's such an intuitive process. You don't know what you're going to make or what the final result will be. And I thought,‘Okay, excellent! I love this. This is going to be fun!’”

Audrey

“The process was very calming. Whenever I consulted Shoso, he would start by asking, ‘Whereis your triangle? Where is your focus?’ He really helped me identify my focal points, particularlythe yellow elements, and showed me what I could remove to make the triangle more visible.”

Joy

“I was quite apprehensive about making an arrangement because I'm not naturally a very creative person in that way. But I knew I wanted to use the branches because I find them very grounding. I was also drawn to the leaves and especially the yellow, which really spoke to me.”

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New Publication: Kaikou - Introduction

Kaikou: Chance Encounters

Shoso Shimbo's Ikebana Works with Hiroe Swen's Ceramics

Book Preview / 日本語案内

Introduction

How This Book Came Into Being

In 2024, I stayed for about two weeks at the home of Hiroe in Queanbeyan, a town neighboring Canberra, and was able to devote my days entirely to arranging flowers for this collection, Kaikou: Chance Encounters. I walked along the riverbanks feeling almost absorbed into nature itself, gathering materials for arrangements. From among Hiroe's many containers, I would choose the one that felt right and immerse myself alone in the creative process. It was an extraordinarily luxurious and happy time. 

Hiroe is a remarkably vigorous person. She says that she had never been conscious of any physical decline until she was past ninety years old. Each day she prepared breakfast and lunch for me. Lunch was authentic Japanese cuisine and, since she does not eat dinner, it was her main meal of the day.

After lunch, her conversations were endlessly fascinating. My wife, who came to visit and see how things were going, was impressed enough that we decided to make an interview video (YouTube: Hiroe Swen 2025 - Ikebana by Shoso Shimbo). In that interview, Hiroe spoke extensively about her philosophy of art.

She believes that art can only bear fruit when one casts aside impure thoughts and walks the proper path. Everything depends on how strictly and honestly one is able to live.

My Encounter with Hiroe

I would also like to write about my encounter with Hiroe. This was in the 1990s. I was in my thirties and had boarded a bus from Sydney to visit a friend in Canberra. That morning, I had spent hours walking along Sydney's coastline and was quite tired. I was hoping to rest quietly on the journey. However, the gentleman sitting beside me struck up a conversation. "Are you Japanese?" he asked. Usually, once such a conversation begins, the direction it will take is fairly predictable: "Where are you from?""Niigata Prefecture." "I don't know that place. I've been to Japan though. I enjoyed it very much."

But this man's conversation took a very different turn. "If you're Japanese, then surely you know my wife, Hiroe?" "I'm afraid I don't," I replied. Cornell looked astonished. "You mean you don't know the most famous Japanese artist in Australia?" From that point onward, he talked about Hiroe and himself. The conversation continued without pause until the bus arrived in Canberra. When I finally met Hiroe at the bus station, I told her: "I've already heard a great deal about you from your very talkative husband." She laughed and said, "Normally he hardly talks at all." I found that impossible to believe. "He must have taken a liking to you," she added.

Encounters in Ikebana

The starting point of ikebana is an encounter between oneself and the flower. There is also an encounter between oneself and the container. And there is an encounter between the flower and the container. Three entities come together. From there begins the search for harmony between flower and container.

One listens to the flower and listens to the container, considering how the two might be united. Yet, while making these considerations, a higher level of awareness observes one's own intentions and judgments.

During the creative process, something remarkable can occur. Personal calculation disappears, and in a state of selflessness the hands seem to create naturally on their own. Rather than "making" an ikebana arrangement, the arrangement is "born." At such moments, the act of creating ikebana becomes an experience akin to meditation.

There are also times when it becomes necessary to deliberately introduce a small measure of one's own intention into the process. In any case, personal intention never truly leads the creative process.

When personal intention takes priority, flowers and containers become nothing more than materials for self-expression. Although such positions have at times been advocated in the history of ikebana, they do not represent its essential nature. When the ego is placed first, flowers often lose their true form and seem to suffer. When the flower is given priority, traces of ego disappear from the work. The arranged flowers regain the radiance of life that they were beginning to lose as cut flowers. Indeed, they may shine more brilliantly than when they were rooted in the earth.

To restore a flower to a level of vitality surpassing even its natural state is perhaps the highest aspiration of the ikebana artist. Thus, encounters with flowers and containers form the point of departure in ikebana and guide the entire creative process.

Encountering Hiroe's Containers

I believe that many of Hiroe's finest artistic works are her containers. They make no unnecessary assertions of themselves. They simply exist. They are forms shaped by a lifetime of careful and mindful living. An ikebana artist cannot help but reach out toward them. Yet they cannot be approached casually. One must face them with a sense of tension and respect. When something is not working, they seem to say immediately "This needs to be done again." Time after time, one finds it difficult to achieve a truly satisfactory arrangement. These containers are like demanding masters. I have never encountered containers quite like them before.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Hiroe, to Brenton McGeachie the photographer, and to the many others who contributed to the realization of this book.

This book is dedicated to my mother, Yoshi Shimbo.

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