Things found in deep mountains
<”Noh no Ikebana” is an art of arranging agricultural products together with agricultural implements and other familiar instruments. It’s a type of Ikebana but mainly for farmers. The series “Noh no Ikebana” will show you how to best feature the materials and containers you choose, with the help of fans of this style of Ikebana nationwide.>
Shizue Kikuchi, Oshu, Iwate Prefecture
For No no Ikebana, we use every kind of farming tools and instruments such as wooden hammers, baskets, weeders, and threshers including those in old days.
Using big items like threshers, you can create an arrangement with depth by putting vegetables and wild plants in front. They are also suitable for creating an arrangement with a story. For example, by combining them with matching materials, you can create an image of how those tools are actually used in the fields.
Small items with unique shapes, such as wooden hammers or umbrellas, can be used to add more characters to your arrangement. All you have to do is just to put them on the side of your arrangement.
Flowers and vegetables can be arranged in may different ways. They can be in, on or even on the side of the container. It’s also ok to put them against the container. Putting them on the rim or in some openings is also fine. There may be a container with drawers, something sticking out, holes or lids. In that case, let’s make use of those special characters and you’ll get a very interesting result. If your container is unable to hold water, please put a cup, a vase or a plastic bottle in, or behind, the container.
Keep it in mind that the tools should not be the main characters and the balance between materials and tools is important. Please move around your items and materials, placing them in different angles, to get the best result.
The theme of this arrangement is a happy childhood autumn memory. I used to help my parents draw water from wells and beat straws to soften them while having fun walking in the mountains, gathering nuts and making masks out of big leaves of magnolia.
＜Container＞
well bucket, straw beater and gunnysack
＜Materials＞
Vegetables and plants: chestnuts, Japanese big-leaf magnolia, garden hackle berries, Japanese angelica tree, small chrysanthemums, etc.
＜profile＞
Shizue Kikuchi, 66, began No no Ikebana twenty years ago as a member of No no Ikebana Club in Iwate Prefecture. Simple is best is her motto in
Flowers peeking out from the holes
Make use of special characters of the tool