Celebrating the 555th birthday of Ikebana Ikenobo School, Ikebana Ikenobo Indonesia Chapter (I3) teamed up with Japan Foundation to hold one of the most special exhibitions ever.
Early in March, the Japan Foundation hall in Sumitmas Building, Jakarta, was filled in joyous mood. The veteran 5 Teachers of Ikebana Ikenobo: Mrs. Herliana Wiharsa, Mrs. Lusy Wahyudi, Mr. Andy Djati Utomo, Mrs. Wendy Mandik, Mrs. Lily H. Sutanto assembled to create and display their special rikka (classic) arrangements for Celebrating the 555th Year of Ikenobo: The Origin of Ikebana exhibition.
LEFT-RIGHT : Lily Sutanto, Herliana Wiharsa, Lusy Wahyudi, Wendy Mandik
The exhibition also included dozens arrangements ranging from rikka, shoka, to jiyuka styles. These were not only presented by the teachers and veterans, but also by students from novice to advanced level. Other than 2-day exhibition, guests may join the ikebana arrangement demonstration as presented by the veteran 5 teachers themselves.
Jiyuka Arrangements by Teachers and Students of Ikenobo
The major celebration, as marked by Ikebana Ikenobo Indonesia (I3) President Herliana S. Wiharsa, is to fetch the big family of Ikebana Ikebono teachings together. The flower arranging demonstration was made as easy as possible to follow, and we only demonstrate types of arrangement that looks interesting for people in general,” Lily Sutanto added, “We’d like to prove that ikebana is not all oldish, difficult, and too serious. It develops over time and it can be fun, too.”
Rikka Arrangements from Five Teachers of Ikenobo Indonesia
We are very much pleased to see the exhibited arrangements, mostly the one from teacher Andy Djati Utomo. He arranged his rikka in a wall-vase, a very atypical choice for the most conventional arrangement rikka. He told us that he picked wall-vase to represent modern housings which do not always have open space to place a vase, implying creativity and flexibility in ikebana tradition.
PHOTOS Larasati Oetomo
