The Japanese Embassy in Ukraine has organized ikebana masterclasses in Kyiv for the past 15 years. This event usually takes place in autumn, and every time a different “professor,” as the Japanese call experts at this floristic art, conducts the class, offering new ideas and compositions.
This year the presentation of ikebana took place in the Ukrainian House as part of “Month of Japan in Ukraine” festival, which will continue for another couple of weeks. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Ukraine Tadashi Idzava opened the presentation, saying that each year presentations of ikebana attract increasing numbers of visitors. It means that more and more Ukrainians are interested in this kind of art and in Japanese culture. This cultural demand will also be met by a festival of Japanese cinematography and a demonstration of the tea ceremony in the framework of the “Month of Japan in Ukraine” project.
The Japanese Embassy invited Yoshiko Kobayashi, a well-known florist and a famous ikebana guru from Japan. She led the masterclass assisted by her first teacher, Yamada Midori, who now heads the CIS branch of the Ikenobo School of Ikebana, and her Ukrainian student Angela Lobastova, head of the Ikenobo Moldova and Ukraine divisions.
Kobayashi says that in order to create a dialogue with flowers, you should listen carefully to their voices and pick those plants that appeal to you the most. Kobayashi admitted that she does not know the names of all the flowers because what really matters is the pleasure of working with flowers. It was obvious that she meant it: she smiled during the entire 90-minute presentation.
That night the professor created 11 compositions in different styles. She first started to familiarize herself with the art of ikebana when she was only 15. Kobayashi says that it may take a lifetime to learn the art of ikebana: learn to feel the plants, reproduce in compositions the conditions in which the plants has grown, choose the right angle at which to position the stem so it can be seen from every side, and so on. She can produce a veritable masterpiece in 10 minutes and speak about the subtleties of ikebana for hours on end.
