The exhibition featured flower arrangements created according to the canons of the Ikenobo school by Professor Yamada Midori and her students. Speaking at the exhibition's opening ceremony, the First Counselor of the Japanese Embassy in Ukraine, Mr. Shusuke Watanabe, noted that for Ukrainians, as for Japanese, love of flowers is a trait of national character. Flowers in the hands of Ukrainian women, balconies of city residents entwined with wild grapes, Ukrainian villages drowning in greenery and marigolds – all this indicates that the Japanese traditions of admiring flowers are close and understandable to us.
According to Professor Yamada Midori, “Ikebana is our search for ideal beauty. We make compositions from flowers, rather than simply ‘arrange’ them. This means revealing the beauty inherent in flowers while also revealing the beauty of one’s own soul.”
For more than forty years, this small, modest woman has been professionally engaged in ikebana of the Ikenobo school. She has been teaching at the Ikenobo Institute in Tokyo for seventeen years. In 1998, at the ikebana competition held among Ikenobo professors in Japan, Professor Yamada Midori took first place. In Russia, Yamada Midori founded the first ikebana school in 1991, and in 1996 this school received official status as a branch of the Ikenobo Institute. Now the branch has its own departments both in Russia and abroad – in Kyiv, Chisinau, and Alma-Ata. It is not surprising that the art of Japanese ikebana is now widely used in designing custom bouquets, and it does not matter where the flower delivery Novosibirsk, Khabarovsk, or Kaliningrad will be carried out. In total, more than 500 people constantly study at the branch’s departments.
The Kyiv department – ikebana courses at the Japanese Embassy in Ukraine – was established in 1999. Education is free, and classes are held twice a month. The premises, tools, and teaching materials are all provided to students thanks to the support of the Japanese Embassy. The Kyiv ikebana courses are taught by one of Professor Yamada Midori’s best students, Angela Lobastova, who has been studying at the Moscow Ikenobo School for nine years.
Ikebana is the art of elegance and concentration. Gradually, ikebana masters themselves acquire refinement and harmony of movements. It is no coincidence that the majority of Kyiv students of the ikebana courses are young women. It is worth attending even a few lessons – and you will feel what true femininity means and what it is worth...
The exhibition introduced us not only to the art of ikebana. Visitors could admire haiga – pictorial and poetic miniatures – created by Professor Yamada Midori. Japanese language teacher Ten Shinichi provided his calligraphic works for the exhibition. And the Kyiv Origami Club introduced us to the art of origami.