Cultural Arts

I've been really excited about all the art classes that are available here at the Atsugi base.  This is a sampling of the classes I've taken over the last month.  I'm really excited about continuing some of these while I'm in Japan and beyond!

SHODO

This is the art of Japanese calligraphy.   These are the practice sheets spread across my living room floor.  The characters I was practicing are SEIKOU, which means success, in honor of my husband's first full marathon later this month and some new years words like TAKO which means "kite".

IKEBANA

Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arranging.  This arrangement was made in the MORIBANA style out of camellia, carnations, and a red branch which I don't know the name of.  

red branch detail

 CHIGIRIE

 Chigirie is the Japanese art of torn paper collage made out of WASHI paper and a rice glue.

 This festive image I made is of white and pink plum (UME) blossoms. 

 The  details above and below show the fibers of the washi paper.

ETEGAMI

"this is a pepper"

Etegami breaks down to: E = pictures and TEGAMI = letter/message.  It is a Japanese folk-art consisting of a simple hand painted drawing with a few (very few in my case) words.  My very first etegami is this bell pepper, and my second etegami creation is this yellow and orange tulip that is fully bloomed.

"spring"

I love Japan. 

xoxo

Char