In The Garden
Friday, November 5, 1999
By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
The whole is more important than individual elements when it
comes to environmental floral arrangements, such as this one
created during a Sogetsu School class at Lyon Arboretum.
ALICE Uchigakiuchi, a top ranking teacher of the Sogetsu School of ikebana, had to suspend 30 years worth of Japanese flower arrangement know-how in one afternoon. Her expertise didn't cover artistic expressions using 10-foot-tall trees with "Jungle Queen" red ginger, fan palm leaves, sprays of palm seed pods, full heads of variegated dracaena, bright red ti leaves and clusters of bamboos. Ikebana, a delicate
art jumbo-sizedAdd to the mix: impossibly muggy weather, swarms of ravenous mosquitos, slippery and mushy grassy grounds at Lyon Arboretum that served as a temporary open-air studio. And some of the ikebana materials were at least three times the size of the petite, 79-year-old Uchigakiuchi.
She knew it wasn't going to be a breeze when she signed up for an outdoor flower arrangement workshop conducted by master instructor Toshiyuki Ohki of Sogetsu's Tokyo headquarters. The time-honored Japanese art form traces its origin from refined offerings to Buddha, and ended up as part purification of the heart and mind (as it should be according to tradition,) part survival camp, part heavy-duty manual labor and -- finally but not the least -- part exercise of the artistic spirit.
Four outdoor flower arrangements by members of the Hawaii chapter of the Sogetsu School of Japanese flower arrangement. ON EXHIBIT
Where: Lyon Arboretum, 3860 Manoa Road
"Today was free-style," said Uchigakiuchi who came armed with a positive can-do attitude and an electric saw among her supplies. "We had to come up with something brand new. But when it comes to flower arrangement, every time it's a new experience. It's never the same anyway."
Indeed, the results of the workshop, four large-scale arrangements by members of the Sogetsu's Hawaii chapter, are not the same familiar ikebana. But they manage to be in good taste while keeping up the avant-garde reputation of the Sogetsu style of modern Japanese flower arrangement. Whether they comprise full-length heleconias shooting straight up from the ground, or a whole tree stuck sideways in another tree, or 20-foot-long bamboo strips arching toward the ground to suggest the spindly legs of an enormous spider, the arrangements stopped unsuspecting arboretum visitors dead in their tracks as they stumbled onto them.
"Wow, look at these," said a tourist to his companions. "Have you ever seen anything like these things before. I know there are some pretty exotic looking things in Hawaii, but I don't think they actually grow like this naturally. How Incredible!"
The arrangements are expected to last until about Wednesday, depending on weather conditions, and will be left on the grassy field near the arboretum's parking lot for public viewing.
The frontviews of the arrangements, as they are intended to be seen, face the parking lot. You can see them from the lot for a distant view or a walk down a grassy slope for a closer look.
Outdoor arrangements must be able to stand up to viewing from afar, thus making the whole more important than the parts, said Ohki, speaking through Bea Yamasaki, director of the school's Hawaii branch and translator for the day.
"In a small arrangement, you have various points that are important. But in an outdoor arrangement, its the overall look that's important."
Ohki, who has a fondness for tropical plant material, said flowers take on a less important role in outdoor arrangements. Among the tips he offered: flowers should be considered in terms of color in these outdoor works, screws are better than nails in holding the large plant materials together.
"He thinks all of (the arrangements) are very well done, and he is happy that each one is distinctive from the others," Yamasaki said. The instructor is particularly proud about the team spirit that allowed harmonious working relationships among the 20 members who attended the workshop.
The Sogetsu School was founded in 1927 by Sofu Teshigahara, whose untraditional work earned him the name of "The Picasso of Japanese Flower Arrangement." His daughter, Kasumi, followed as his successor for a short period until her death in 1980.
His son, Hiroshi, who directed the award-winning movie, "Woman in the Dunes," took over as headmaster that year. he has continued the family's philosophy of unorthodox flower arrangement and that anyone can practice the art form as an expression of individual spirit.
Gardening Calendar in Do It Electric!
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