Cracking Branches, Singing Leaves, and the Advent of Spring
A while back, as winter was still slowly whithering in spring’s wild embrace, I contracted Otitis Media for the first time in years. Hearing the muffled melody of cherry branches cracking in my hands and other leaves sliding between my fingers through my diseased left ear brought two thoughts to light.
I first remembered the horrid chlorine stench of that pool, where my fellow swimmer Mirko broke my eardrum during practice nearly sixteen years ago. Although he ran into me by mistake, I never found it in my heart to completely forgive him for the damage he wrought. Nor could I ever forget the sharpness of the pain that followed.
But strangely, the more I practiced my Kakubana and the worse my Otitis Media became, the less resentment I felt toward Mirko. This forgiving spirit surprised me a great deal, given the similarity of the pains invoked by my otitis and that old incident. By all accounts, I should have been hating the man even more fiercely.
Instead, I realized I had let this accident go in that moment of calm bewilderment at my thoughts. With every new crack in their twisted wood and every fallen petal from their flowers, the cherry branches I was bending seemed to whisper an approvingly kind melody to my near-deaf ear.
I kept delicately torturing them with my flower arrangement scissors in the spring air, lost in my craft. Then, when my kakubana finally stood in its vase, I could hear myself whisper to the petals:
“Mirko, I forgive you.”
Sometimes, even the oldest of wounds heal, after all.
April 16, 2024 : Mishoryu Ikebana Japanese Flower Arrangement Sakura Cherry 桜
Of Old Winter Friends, Seasonality and the Virtue of Patience
A consistent enough ikebana practice will cultivate two traits within your soul. First, your awareness of certain flowers in nature will increase. Second, their seasonality will become part of your own.
I have become much more observant of these vegetal beauties growing here and there each year. As I write this inaugural entry of 2024, the Narcissus’ time slowly comes to a close while the Japanese plums shyly start to blossom.
Last month, I bent the Narcissus’ delicate leaves into shape for a few sessions. I patiently rolled them on a wooden chopstick in the chilling winter air. They were different plants than last year, but the chopstick was the same one my mistress gave me the first year I got acquainted with the suisen (水仙 - the Japanese term for the Narcissus Genus).
Since then, a lifetime ago, my love of flowers has only deepened. If I think about my work again, I can’t help but wonder if these Narcissus were not, after all, a new utterance of the ones I sacrificed to my clumsy hands years prior.
Who can tell if my old winter friends do or do not possess multiple lives? All I know is I have only the one to hone my skills.
And that process seems so slow, ever so slow. Yet, I patiently bend, cut, and twist branches and stems, not unlike the seasons when they wrench time with their cycles.
February 5, 2024 : Mishoryu Ikebana Japanese Flower Arrangement Suisen Winter Flowers 水仙 Japanese plum seasonality patience
On bending the Paws of a Cat
Today, I worked on the rose-gold pussy willow (Salix gracilistyla). Its supple branches are much easier to bend than those of trees usually used in the kakubana form like the Thujopsis I talked about in my last entry. But the Salix is also much less forgiving because one cannot hide mistakes under leafage.
Whenever I caress this slender beauty that the Japanese call ネコヤナギ (Neko Yanagi or cat willow) because of the soft, cat-paw-like silk within the buds, its almost anorexic branches keep reminding me of the nervous grace that so often emanates from a woman’s naked body.
And like the skin of a lover or the fur of a wild cat, the rose-gold pussy willow will only submit to the subtlest hands.
November 7, 2023 : Mishoryu Ikebana Japanese Flower Arrangement Kakubana ネコヤナギ rose-gold pussy willow Salix gracilistyla
No Force but Forethought
Mishoryu’s traditional “Kakubana” form (in Japanese “格花”) necessitates several techniques, especially when mounted in a cylindric vase. That is because every bent branch needs to fit in a “Y” shaped piece of bamboo called “matagi” placed at water level near the top of the vase.
The over-arching point of each technique, however, is the same: force should not settle branches into position, nor should any part of the arrangement use pressure to achieve stability. In Kakubana, every element must seamlessly fit tightly to its neighbor, much like in a puzzle.
Therefore, forethought is paramount to turn that devilish Kakubana triangle into a reality.
October 29, 2023 : Mishoryu Ikebana Japanese Flower Arrangement Kakubana 黄金 ヒバ Thujopsis dolabrata
The Hands of a God
I participated in a formal Ikebana workshop given by Mishoryu’s current headmaster this morning. The English term “workshop,” however, doesn’t do justice to such an event. The Japanese call this a “家元研究会,” which translates as “Headmaster’s research session”. Such events typically occur once or twice every season and are reserved for practitioners holding a certain rank in the world of flowers, most often that of a Master.
Our headmaster applied his unbelievable skill to white and purple prairie gentians. As the rules of such workshops dictate, it was the first time the participants had worked on this somewhat fragile plant, and we soon discovered that imitating our headmaster’s hands and moves was a challenge.
His ability to seamlessly select, bend, and finally combine branches into the traditional “Kakubana” shape left us all in awe. The headmaster’s hands genuinely are those of a god, and his skill keeps fascinating me forever more each time I am blessed to see it.
As for me, I tried to let each flower live in my vase despite the nerve-wracking speed at which we had to complete the task, despite the stress of the event’s formalities. I also attempted to apply the technique my mistress had taught me for so many years.
Before I knew it, the work session was over. As I walked back to the station on the banks of the O River, the autumn chill seemed to whisper in the bright mid-day air that I had stepped a little closer to the souls of petals.
As a response, I wondered if anything else truly mattered.
October 28, 2023 : Mishoryu Ikebana Japanese Flower Arrangement Iemoto Kenkyukai Prairie Gentian Lisianthus Eustoma Kakubana
The Founder
October has taken a special place in my heart since I started learning Ikebana (Japanese Flower Arrangement) at Mishoryu. Not because this month’s death unleashes the Halloween night upon the world, nor because of the first virginal traces of Winter appearing in its days, but rather because the Mishoryu school commemorates its first headmaster during “pumpkin month.”
This year, the current headmaster has held a Shinto and a Buddhist ceremony in his ancestor’s honor since 2023 sees the 200th anniversary of his death. Appealing to both pantheons on the same day may be unorthodox, but I find it perfect to underline such a critical turning point.In this month’s issue of the Mishoryu journal, our current headmaster wrote that he didn’t know what the founder would think of him and how the school developed over two centuries. He also used the following Japanese expression to describe his approach:
精一杯
It reads “sei ippai” and means one’s best. And that is excellent advice for anyone: always act optimally, regardless of recognition. Sen no Rikyū, the great Japanese Tea Master, would say no different.
It sounds so simple, yet a lifetime of practice barely suffices to attain such an ideal. In some strange way, this anecdote reminds me of how correct Blaise Pascal’s quote is:
All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone. ― Blaise Pascal, Pensées
October 9, 2023 : Mishoryu Ikebana Japanese Flower Arrangement Sen no Rikyū Blaise Pascal 精一杯 sei ippai Japanese Tea Master