Continuing Kozan

Every other Friday, I do everything I can to get to my Ikebana class in the Kozan school. It has been an adjustment to the rules I previously learned in the Kofu school, but I am really enjoying the new school. It is all about natural arrangements and feeling the gentleness of wind as it touches nature. At the end of each class, Takenouchi Sensei has tea and a Japanese sweet of some sort to refresh us after our hard work. I’m always encouraged to take a second sweet… for the baby… and of course I never refuse. That would be rude! Plus… what dummy would refuse extra sweets?

I really have been relishing the experience of this class, because it is truly run for the Japanese and not for a group of international students. I feel like I’m getting the hard core and utterly true cultural experience, as well as picking up on a skill I hope to nurture for the rest of my life. These Fridays are quiet days for me where I have little to worry about and really can take my time breathing in my life in Japan. There really hasn’t been much to write about these days, so I just kind of skip over them. But I do love every minute of them and thought it was time to share a little of what I have been working on. So below are a few of my latest arrangements.

Plus, if you are really interested in seeing more of what the school is about, I suggest you take a look at Takenouchi sensei’s blog. Can you believe my sensei has a blog? The first time she told me about it, I seriously rushed home to look it up! Lo and behold, there was one of my recent designs on the top of the page along with my name. Certainly, I am no expert in the Kozan school of Ikebana that would rank having my work displayed like this, there for all the world to peruse, but it is quite fun to see it there along with my other, much more experienced co-student’s work. I feel like such a rock star. You know… if the Ikebana community was made up of rock stars, and not middle aged Japanese ladies who have never thrown out a curse word in their lives.