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

flower power!

rhododendron and wild rose

A few weeks ago I made a flower arrangement out of hawthorn flowers I found at work, and discovered that they don't smell very nice. Until today, they sat on my airy front porch where they wouldn't offend anyone. After spending the whole morning tinkering about the yard today, I decided to update my vase with my own flowers and channeled some inspiration from my Grandmother in Japan (who is licensed to teach ikebana). Since it is much cooler outside , the flower arrangements last much longer than indoors. It's a cheerful sight to pull up the driveway and see the colors of spring displayed at my home.

xoxo

happy arranging.

A Declaration of Spring...

After the St Patrick's Day Dash and lunching with my sister, I drove my dad back to the farm in Elma. We went through an unpredictable pattern of every weather system imaginable: rain, hail, snow, sun, wind gusts... which, unfortunately, is typical for Pacific Northwest springs. Driving our last leg on Highway 12, we passed by countless pussy willow trees with beautiful fuzzy buds forming.

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I can remember as a young girl, on the other side of the world in Japan, a sign of spring that would get me excited was seeing fuzzy grey pussy willow flowers forming. At the time, I may not have associated the fuzzy blooms with the coming of spring, but what kid wouldn't get excited about a strange furry "flower" that seemed to be from another world?

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Even as an adult, in the seemingly never ending bitter cold winters of New York, I would feel so happy when the corner stores started selling bundles of pussy willow branches out of buckets sitting on frozen concrete. Those bundles of pussy willows meant spring was around the corner. It was well worth managing a bundle of sticks through turnstiles and onto a crowded subway car because I was bringing a bit of spring into my home.

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Before leaving Elma to head back to Oly, I chopped several branches from a pussy willow tree in the yard so I could make an arrangement at home. This arrangement consists of a plain glass vase and branches of pussy willow. There is no water in the vase because essentially I am drying out the branches to prevent the buds from fully blooming. If the branches were in water those grey buds will turn yellow with pollen, green leaves will start to form, and roots will sprout in no time.

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I've created a scalene triangle (the sides 3 different lengths, or all three angles are different degrees) which is the composition I try to make in every arrangement. This particular arrangement is in the Nageire style which means "to throw"(nage) "put in" (ire). I fussed with this arrangement quite a bit, and snipped and trimmed unnecessary branches even after placing it on my end table so "throwing the branches into the vase" isn't the most accurate description of the process. I think the outcome is a good looking dynamic composition that says "Spring is here".

xoxo

Floral Arrangements in Japan...

Rosehips + Aoki(the green stuff)

Hibiscus pod, Lilly, Chrysanthemum

orchids, chysanthemums

zinnias

My grandmother is a licensed teacher of the Ikenobou style of Ikebana (flower arranging).  These are some of the arrangements I made and she graded as A++ this fall.  I'm sure her grading was not biased... being her cute, sweet granddaughter and all...  ;)