Human Flower Project

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Toko Adachi—Sailing Off

A grandmaster of ikebana—Japanese flower arranging—dies in Tokyo.

Arrangement by Toko Adachi
Photo: Ikebana—Creative Galerie

Toko Adachi, floral designer and artist, has succumbed to liver failure in Tokyo, at age 69.

“Born into the family of a flower arrangement grandmaster in Tokyo, Adachi became independent from her father to establish her own original style known as ‘Kagei-Adachi-Ryu’ in 1973 by melding Japan’s traditional flower arrangement with Western-style arts.”

Toko Adachi
Photo: Kyodo

We haven’t been able to find too much information of about Adachi, but her arrangements can speak for her. To our eyes, they are “moving” pieces—not in the emotional Western way—but more literally; they look wind-blown, even like sailing boats that are heading away. (Thanks to Masashi Yamaguchi for his recent piece here, on kimonos, sensitizing us to these things.)

Adachi’s father Choka Adachi (1887–1969) was one of several important modernists who refreshed the centuries-old ikebana tradition with new approaches.  Choka was just twenty years younger than master innovator Ohara Unshin.

Arrangement by Toko Adachi
Photo: Ikebana—Creative Galerie

“Whereas in all traditional styles (of ikebana) the materials were gathered to emerge from the container at a single point, Ohara used various kinds of supports to arrange cut plants over an extended surface in wide, shallow containers called suiban, literally ‘water basin.’ This allowed for the use of new, imported materials that could not be accommodated to traditional styles. It also permitted the creation of landscape styles, shakei, that depicted scenes from nature in a naturalistic rather than symbolic fashion.”

We believe that Choka Adachi introduced the “kenzan” to Japan. Placed at the bottom of a vase, this paperweight-like object with sharp metal uprights holds flowers in place. (Some translate kenzan as “flower hedgehog.” In the U.S. we call it a “frog.”)

In addition, Choka Adachi became an avid camellia collector. The Shisedo company, which takes this flower as its emblem, acquired the collection, now located and open to the public at Yokohama’s “Kodomo no Kuni” (Children’s Land) park. In his connoisseurship, Choka Adachi’s even discerned the scents of some varieties of camellia. (We’d always thought these amazing blooms were odorless!)

Arrangement by Toko Adachi, with camellias
Photo: Ikebana—Creative Galerie

It’s hard for Westerners to imagine Toko Adachi’s situation or her legacy. In the West, there do exist schools of flower arranging but neither florists nor their customers are really cognizant of them. In Japan, “More than two thousand different schools of ikebana are registered with the Japanese Ministry of Education.” Having grown up in one of the most renowned such traditions, Toko Adachi found her own way—moving beautifully on.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Holi—Flower Splattered and Equal

Caste and class differences disappear under festive camouflage: smears of orange, green and yellow. Celebrate Holi!

A local “Radha” throws flower petals during celebrations of
Holi in Khatraj, India
Photo: Ajit Solanki, for AP

With the first full moon of springtime, India lights its bonfires and pours on color. Holi, the most exuberant of Hindu festivals, begins today. The holiday celebrates the powers of faith and fecundity—how happy can you get?

Holi celebrates the survival of Prince Prahlada who, in defiance of his father,  worshipped Lord Vishnu. To kill the prince, the old king plotted with his sister Holika, who claimed to be immune from burning. He sent his pious son to sit with her in a bonfire. But the devoted Prahlada survived as Holika was incinerated. Ding-dong the witch is dead!

On the first night of Holi, there will be bonfires lit, banishing evil and wintertime in one blaze. And on the second day, Dhuleti, the festival of colors erupts. The celebration is especially fervent in Northern India—Jaipur, Mathura, Vrindavan… Though Holi has followed Hindus across the world. Here are some photos of this year’s festivity in Dubai.

Holi also remembers the love between Krishna and Radha. It’s said that Krishna, of the blue complexion, “complained to his mother Yashoda about why Radha was so fair and he so dark. Yashoda advised him to apply colour on Radha’s face and see how her complexion would change.” In keeping with this suggestion, celebrants shower one another with bright colors. When everyone’s smeared with purple and yellow, it’s hard to see castes, genders, and ages, to tell the big shot from the small fry.

Dressed for Dhuleti
Photo: Grandpoohbah

Providing this social camouflage, street vendors sell colored powders called gulal.  But more and more Holi-rollers have discovered that synthetic colors can cause problems—burning the skin or irritating the eyes.

(For obvious reasons, people are also seeking safer, flower-based colorings for their traditional Holi foods.)

There’s increased demand for natural dyes this Holi season, and of course that means a return to flowers.

Here’s a wonderful site that explains how to make your own pigments for this year’s Holi flinging. There are recipes for every color of the rainbow.

Tesu (Butea monosperma)
Photo: Plant Creations

We are especially excited to learn about the beautiful palash blossom, also known as “Flame of the Forest” and Tesu. Butea monosperma is an Indian native that makes a marvelous orange-yellow dye. Suited to the season, the palash tree flowers in March. Its blossoms look like lively flames.

“Legend says that Lord Krishna used to play Holi with Tesu flowers,” so there you have it. “The flowers are soaked overnight in water and can also be boiled to obtain a fragrant yellowish – orange colored water. The dried flowers can be dried and powdered for a orange powder.”

We wish all our friends in India and Hindu readers everywhere happy Holi. And we pass along a Holi greeting—jollier than the West’s “Get over yourself,” kinder and airier than “lighten up.”

“Bura na mano, Holi hai”—- “Don’t feel offended, it’s Holi.”

Monday, March 13, 2006

Co-Dependents’ Corsage

A new gimcrack will suffuse you in your sweetheart’s mood—via a digital flower.

Kotohana
Photo: via Trendhunter

Are you a “clinging vine”?

Then this new accessory may be for you: it’s Kotohana, a way to inflict your mood on someone far away via wireless technology and an ersatz flower.

An electronic device shaped like a sci-fi bloom “contains a microphone that captures voice data for emotional processing, the results of which are sent via wireless LAN to the counterpoint flower. Then, the embedded LEDs in the KOTOHANAs change color—yellow for happy, blue for sad, and so on…”

So you take a licking from the boss and my lapel pin turns blue; I get whistled at on the way out of the market, and your flower turns…red?

We understand that while this new gewgaw is in production, a prototype will be shown at CeBit in Hannover, Germany. “Sensibility Technology” was developed by two Japanese companies to detect “joy, sorrow, calmness and excitement in speech patterns” and signal a distant disk on a Q-tip to change color and brightness.

Excuse our vulgarity, but for sensing someone’s feelings, what ever happened to those old fashioned methods like conversation, smiles or, for Pete’s sake, b.o.?

Those who’ve tried Kotohana, please let us know how you like it. Seems the perfect gift for the codependent who has everything, including a suffocating partner.

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Furisode: The Japanese Sense of Beauty

Many thanks to our friend Masashi Yamaguchi for another fascinating article, this one about the decorative plants and flowers on Japanese kimonos. Please visit Masashi’s Plants & Japan, a botanical and cultural feast.

Furisode (detail, with crane and chrysanthemums)
Photo: Masashi Yamaguchi

By (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Recently, a foreign friend asked me to research kimono, the Japanese traditional costume. It was then I noticed in my house several kimonos that my sister had worn in her youth, and I began studying the images and patterns on them.

This kind of kimono is known as “Furisode,” the type worn by young girls, and the most colorful of kimonos with many images and patterns.

On this kimono, you can recognize pine trees, bamboo leaves, plum flowers, wisteria flowers, chrysanthemums and a crane. Most of them are the symbols of happy fortune and often appear in Japanese crafts.
Pine tree: a symbol of long life, since the pine is a long-lived plant as well as an evergreen tree.
Bamboo: a symbol of youth or growth since bamboo shoots grow very rapidly.
Plum flower: a symbol of endurance, since it shows beautiful flowers in winter and people think that plum flowers can endure coldness (= hardship).
Chrysanthemum: a symbol of long life. It is said that you can live long if you drink water in which chrysanthemum flowers are soaked. This idea came from China in the old times.
Crane: a symbol of good and long relationship since cranes are monogamous birds and they keep strong relationship (wife and husband) for a long time.
Until recently, Japanese parents used to buy such kimonos praying for their daughters’ happy marriage and long life. Unfortunately, these days Japanese parents no longer buy kimonos for their daughters; they’ve begun to forget the Japanese sense of beauty that was cultivated since the old times. (I, too, had not noticed the beauty of kimonos until my foreign friend asked me about them.)
Furisode (detail, with seigaiha)
Photo: Masashi Yamaguchi

On this kimono you can recognize the “wave” pattern. This design is called “Seigaiha,” literally meaning “blue sea wave.” It has been used worldwide. I heard that it was first created in Egyptian crafts. In Japan, this pattern is often used to depict water flow. What do you think about the images and patterns that appear on this kimono? Can you see flowers and plants floating in flowing water?

Mr. Shuichi Kato, a famous art critic of Japan, said,
I wonder if the Japanese might have wanted to depict the moment of flow (= motion) in Japanese culture.
If you see Nihon Buyo (classical Japanese dance), you might think the dancing style looks like a slow motion picture. If you see Ukiyoe (classical Japanese print), you might think that Ukiyoe artists ignore rules of perspective. This also applies to Japanese animations and Manga. But what if you wanted to depict the moment of motion, subjectively? You might better understand these expressions of Japanese arts.
I think that one unique point in Japanese art works is asymmetry. You might have noticed on this kimono that the images and patterns appear asymmetrically. This point also applies to Japanese gardens. I know that some European gardens (not English gardens) are well organized symmetrically, like the gardens around the Palace of Versailles. However, the Japanese historically have not created such environments. It seems that the Japanese tend to be fond of asymmetrical expression in their gardens too. Here, too, perhaps the goal is “to depict the moment of flow (= motion.)” and to show the moment of nature subjectively.
Furisode (detail, with crane)
Photo: Masashi Yamaguchi

Thinking about the idea “to depict the moment of nature,” I recalled how the Japanese love to view the moment that cherry blossom petals are falling like snow. We are also fond of viewing red maple leaves falling in autumn. (Falling cherry blossom petals and falling maple leaves often appear in Japanese art.) I am happy to know that we still observe customs like Hanami (= viewing cherry blossoms) or Momijigari (viewing red maple leaves) nowadays. I wonder if nature, the plants and landscapes where we used to live, I wonder if nature, the plants and landscapes where we used to live, created the Japanese sense of beauty. Now that many people have moved from countryside to live in city-sides, I am afraid that in the future we may lose this sense of the Nature’s beauty.
(Editor’s note: Kent State University is winding up what looks like a marvelous exhibition: Raiment for Receptions: A Japanese Bride’s Last Furisode. The show closes March 12, tomorrow. If you can’t attend, make sure to see the website.)