Many a master has been feted at the KSCA Clubhouse, but this master's feat set him apart. As Katsuhito Kurata, from the Ikenobo Ikebana School, Kyoto, snipped his way through Jiyuka, Rikka and Shoka arrangements in all their nine-component glory of blazing birds of paradise and pink-tongued heliconia, all eyes remained riveted on this little master.
Clad in a navy-blue Kimono, the Sensei took little time to churn out umpteen Jiyuka styles in quick dexterous movements, his only implements, a tiny pair of shears and some copper wire to wrap around woody stems in order to bend them in the desired direction. Some of the arrangements made use of artificial material such as acrylic wire and foam, a contemporary twist to this original Ikebana style.
“It is used to contrast the beauty of the natural material,” Sensei says slowly, in English. He bends pink and green acrylic wire into a pair of butterfly wings, and throws in some spikes of anthurium, making it look like child's play.
In a way, that is how it started for the professor, who began learning Ikenobo at the age of 11, highly influenced by a neighbour, who was also an Ikebana teacher. Now 44, he has 33 years of experience in the art, and is a member of the Ikenobo Headquarters Secretariat and the Central Governing Board of the Ikenobo Society of Floral Art. From August to December 2006, the sensei was appointed as a visiting professor to the U.S. and Canada to give demonstrations and conduct workshops.
“Americans and Canadians admire Ikebana for the simplicity of its beauty,” he says from his experience . There are also the obvious comparisons between Western floral arrangement and the styles of Ikebana, a topic we discuss over coffee along Bangalore Ikenobo Chapter president Vivek Rao and Ikebana enthusiast Vimala Srinivasan. “They like the meanings Ikebana represent like a ‘cascading style' represents the flow of time,” the sensei adds, a point that Vivek Rao elaborates: “Ikebana uses the beauty of a full bloom as much as it uses a withered leaf or a bud. Ikebana arrangements sometimes take 18-24 hours to make, it's different from taking an oasis and putting stalks of roses together in symmetry.”
However, Ikebana does borrow from the West, particularly after World War II when Americans first discovered many of the Japanese arts and learnt them. It is also ever-evolving.
The style, Shimputai, was created only in 1999, by the present Ikenobo headmaster, Senei Ikenobo, which comprises the traditional nine components of the older Shofutai, but which may not be visible to the untrained eye. “The components sometime disappear, and only I can see them,” Prof. Kurata says, explaining the synergy that is achieved.
Vimala Srinivasan, a dynamic septuagenarian, also explains how freestyle or Jiyuka, which emerged about 80 years ago, is a style that can be attempted by those who are firmly rooted in their basics. “You have to have the traditional framework to fall back on, and to guide you.”
As if in tandem with this remark, the professor moves from demonstrating the Jiyuka styles to the classical Rikka and Shoka, using a blend of market flowers and stems picked out from the garden.
I ask about the need to have a keen and perceptive eye to pick out the flowers and get a mundane, “You get flowers in the market” in response. It is the explanation by Vivek Rao that sets the record straight, “ After all, Ikebana imitates nature; when we use twigs and branches, it pays to know which direction it grew in, in relation to the sun, because the arrangement will take on the same direction”.
After Bangalore, the sensei will fly to Pune and then to Kolkata for a series of exhibitions and workshops.
Meanwhile, I ask him what direction his professional life is leading, “I'm still studying, learning never ends,” he remarks, as Vivek Rao echoes: “We are always gakusei (students).”
