“Local harvest festival”
HIROSHIMA, Sep. 25 – The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many events to be canceled or postponed. So, Setsuko Muneoka in Hiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture, displays her Noh no Ikebana arrangement at a local communication center in Shiwahori to celebrate the coming of the harvest festival season. “I hope people feel happier when they see my Noh no Ikebana arrangement,” Muneoka said, explaining the thought she put into the work.
・Joy of festival on full display
The theme of this arrangement is a local harvest festival. Rice stalks, lotus leaves, taro leaves, mountain grapes, persimmons, chestnuts, and all other beautiful materials from rice fields, vegetable gardens, and mountains are on display. They are arranged in rows like the dolls for the Doll Festival on March 3. This way, Muneoka shows how much people are thankful for a good harvest.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 is forcing people to stop holding autumn harvest festivals across the country. “That’s all the more reason for sharing these Noh no Ikebana arrangements, which can give people a chance to enjoy four seasons,” Muneoka said.
<Containers & Tools> field baskets, funnels, pedestaled bowls, Koimari dishes, traditional Japanese temari cotton balls, a mikoshi portable shrine float, etc.
<Materials> rice stalks, mountain grapes, Japanese maple, persimmons, chestnuts, red spider lilies, hydrangea, cosmos, taro leaves, etc.
・Marigold good-luck flower in India
“Spinning yarn, cotton flower festival”
Fumika Date was invited by Muneoka to start Noh no Ikebana. “There are no particular styles to follow. I’m free to express myself, and that’s fun,” Date said.
This arrangement has some unique items selected by Date, a professional designer of Indian embroidery accessories.
“To me, India is the country of spinning and Gandhi,” she said. So, she chose cotton, which is an indispensable material for yarn for accessories for a dress, a spinning wheel, and woven stoles.
<Containers & Tools> a spinning wheel, woven stoles, etc.
<Materials> cotton flowers, dried flowers, banana leaves, etc.