Ikebana for Dummies

Tonight I went to my third ikebana class. I now know that I am studying under a sensei of the Enshu school which is famous for traditional arrangements which tend to exaggerate the natural curves of branches.

However, I am focusing on moribana style arrangements. Moribana is thankfully the simplest of the ikebana styles and therefore the most suitable for beginners like me.

In moribana, you use a shallow bowl and a kenzan instead of a tall cylindrical container like my Enshu focused classmates. I also get to use way more flowers and many fewer tree branches. Yay!

Today, I tried my hand at arranging some yellow chrysanthemums (きく), daisies, and purple & white "Toruko Kikyo"(トルコききょう) which translates to "Lisianthus Eustoma Russelianum." Good grief! The Japanese name is easier! The best part about these flowers is that they (apparently) are native to Texas. That's news to me.

Some things I learned: Ikebana has a lot of rules. I do not know many of them. My ikebana-sensei loves Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas". That, sadly, is not a crucial rule and won't be on the test.