“Colors of Early Summer”
“I made my first Noh no Ikebana arrangement almost ten years ago when I saw one of my friends in my neighborhood started to post photos of her artworks. In my first arrangement, I remember, I used red and white flowering kale and white Japanese daikon radish and put them in a big shallow ball called sawachi, which we use for local dishes.
Since then, I’m having fun making arrangements on my own, using unique materials such as funny-shaped sprouting Konjac and a monster daikon radish. In Noh no Ikebana, I can express my imagination freely, and that’s why I like it very much.
The theme of this arrangement is “Colors of Early Summer.” I chose early-summer greens and flowers and pear branches that I cut for pruning. I put the materials in a traditional woven carry basket and place the basket on a flat winnowing basket with vegetables from my farm. I placed greens like aspidistra elatior and hosta sieboldiana in the middle and added shining purple onions, potato shoots, and Japanese tree peonies to give my arrangement vivid purple colors.”
<Containers> A flat winnowing basket, a woven carry basket, and a small bamboo basket
<Materials> Purple onions, gingers, potatoes, Japanese cobra lilies, aspidistra elatior, Japanese tree peony, nandina, branches of pears, etc.