Japanese Art, Friday, Period Two

[shiroi_tiger]

This week, students (and possibly the usual contingent of curious teachers) would step into Nathan's classroom to find a large assortment of flowers, decorative grasses, leaves, and twigs, all spread out on the low table with a variety of containers set to the side.

"This week," Nathan said, already seated and with a sparse-looking arrangement of flowers and twigs set out in front of him, "we're going to explore ikebana. Flower arranging."

So this was going to be another one of those things that you could really only appreciate while it lasted, folks.

"Ikebana is another one of those arts that looks deceptively simple at a glance, but can take years to master. Because I've only started doing this one myself about a month ago... I am not that master. But since the saying is 'those who cannot do, teach,' that isn't going to stop me from telling you a bit about it and setting you loose on a pile of flowers regardless."

You're welcome, class.

"There's a lot of symbolism in the Japanese art of flower arranging. Arrangements put less focus on color and more focus on shape, line, and form, with maybe a couple of blooms to help accent a structure that puts stronger focus on other parts of the plant. The intent of an artist is often to portray a particular mood, or a scene from nature. There are hundreds of schools and styles of the art form, incorporating different dishes, plant materials, and types of symbolism. Standing flowers or sloping twigs might be used to portray mountains, or a few small blooms interspersed among standing grasses or leaves might be intended to evoke fish swimming among the weeds in a pond. Some ikebana arrangements consist of only three parts; a tall part drawing the attention upwards in order to represent ten, or heaven, something that hangs low in the arrangement or even points downward in order to symbolize chi, the earth, and something in the middle, pointing outward or simply existing between, for humans, jin."

He gestured to the assortment of cuttings on the table.

"We won't focus on any one particular form today. An hour is hardly enough time to get too far into it, really. But while you're working on your arrangements, try to keep in mind a mood or an image that you want to represent, rather than simply heaping more flowers in for show."

Comments

Sign In

[shiroi_tiger]

Minimalist.

Re: Sign In

[cracksmostly]

Merrill

Re: Sign In

[spell_chucker]

Khadgar

Lecture

[shiroi_tiger]

There's a lot about ikebana that Nathan doesn't even touch on. That would take years. But he does at least attempt to give a couple basics.

Re: Lecture

[cracksmostly]

Ooooh, flowers! Suffice to say Merrill was fascinated, the entire lecture.

Ikebana

[shiroi_tiger]

You can feel free to pick a shallow dish, a clay pot, a piece of driftwood sitting on a plate, a vase... whatever works best with the materials you'd like to work with.

And there are plenty of moddable materials to work with. Nathan works at the flower shop and took a stroll through the preserve for twigs and such, giving the screaming goat a wide berth.

Re: Ikebana

[spell_chucker]

Khadgar debated between the vase and the pot for a while before going with the pot, deciding he wanted to make something short if they were going for a single emotion. He picked a handful of small flowers, and one taller flower, rising above the rest. It was definitely something that came about as he was making it.

Talk to Algren

[shiroi_tiger]

Yeah, he's probably going to spend a good twenty minutes just picking out what he wants to use in his next arrangement, never mind actually putting it together.

Re: Talk to Algren

[2_old_for_this]

It was hard to miss that there was a class about flowers going on when you were the one supplying the flowers.

Peter poked his head in the door and gave Nathan a little wave. "How's it going?"

Re: Talk to Algren

[shiroi_tiger]

Nathan glanced up at Peter and gave him a small grin in turn.

"Well, the flowers haven't randomly started screaming," like that damn goat, "and nobody's become animals today or randomly found themselves without their shirts, so I'm going to consider it a win so far."

No matter what the arrangements ended up looking like.

"Care to join us?"

He'd brought an awful lot of flowers along for four minimalist arrangements, okay?

Re: Talk to Algren

[2_old_for_this]

"Sure." Peter waved at the students as he came in. "At least I'm not randomly stuck being a teenager anymore. That was annoying."

More for the language barrier than anything.

"You working on anything in particular?"

Re: Talk to Algren

[shiroi_tiger]

Yeah, and Nathan was good at communicating around a language barrier, but it would be difficult to explain paychecks with a guy who spoke a language he was fairly unfamiliar with.

"In particular?" He looked down at the selection of twigs and flowers in front of him. "Something with cherry blossoms, apparently."

That part had been important.

Re: Talk to Algren

[2_old_for_this]

"They're pretty." Peter sat down. "I've always liked roses. I know it's cliche, but." He shrugged. "There were wild roses in Constantinople. I still remember the smell."

Re: Talk to Algren

[shiroi_tiger]

"If being fond of what reminds you of home is cliche, then so be it," Nathan decided. "I haven't spent long in Japan, but being stuck here makes me appreciate the little reminders of what I love about it all the more."

Sharing and caring time with Captain Nathan Algren.

Re: Talk to Algren

[2_old_for_this]

Peter nodded and smiled. "Home isn't just where I grew up, either." And he still missed it, too.

"So." He picked up a spare dish. "I've read a few of the books, but this mostly seemed more about symbolism than appearance."

Re: Talk to Algren

[shiroi_tiger]

"It's a little bit of both," Nathan replied, shrugging. "Symbolism in simplicity, aesthetically pleasing arrangements that don't just rely on slapping a bunch of flowers together... there's some balancing to be done between the two."

Re: Talk to Algren

[heroic_jawline]

Steve was back and loitering in the doorway again this week.

Re: Talk to Algren

[shiroi_tiger]

And you had better believe Nathan was keeping an eye out for loiterers by now. He turned a smile in Steve's direction, and waved for him to come into the room.

"Good morning, Steve. How do you feel about flowers?"

Well. They were no mudballs.

Re: Talk to Algren

[heroic_jawline]

"They're pretty?" Steve offered. "I'm not one who's great at arranging 'em or anything, though."

Re: Talk to Algren

[shiroi_tiger]

"Nobody said you have to be good at it," Nathan pointed out, smirking faintly. "If everybody was a master at this sort of thing, I wouldn't be here teaching it, would I?"

It would be a rather redundant class, really.

Re: Talk to Algren

[heroic_jawline]

"That's a good point," Steve admitted. "Kind of feels like once you're an adult you should be immediately good at everything though, huh?"

Re: Talk to Algren

[shiroi_tiger]

"Feels like it." Nathan picked up a pair of clippers and snipped a few inches off the bottom of a willow twig. "Which might very well be the point of half of the things we've done in class so far. We want instant results, and so much of this depends on patience. The reminder now and again is probably good for us."

Re: Talk to Algren

[heroic_jawline]

"Patience isn't exactly my strong suit," Steve understated wildly.

Talk to the TA

[shiroi_tiger]

When she tags in!

OOC

[shiroi_tiger]

Preeeetty.