August Flower Arrangement

This beautiful arrangement features a branch from a willow tree (shidare) and flowers from a mulberry bush (kuwa).

The vase adds to the very modern feel of the arrangement.

Spring Ikebana Exhibition

Ninna-ji is the iemoto (head school) of the Omuro School of flower arrangement. Every year students and teachers display arrangements all throughout Goten. Here are a couple of pictures from this spring’s exhibition!

Two very gorgeous and impressive arrangements on display in the entrance to Goten.

Rooms that are usually off-limits to visitors are opened up and filled with flower arrangements.

There are many kinds of flowers and both classical and free-form styles on display every year! If you are in Kyoto next spring, keep this exhibition in mind!

Goten Flower Arrangements

         

The seika arrangement on the left features Japanese mountain ash, or urajiro no ki. It is a plant native to Japan and is named in Japanese for the white-ish color of the underside of the leaves.

On the right is a jiyū-ka arrangement that uses Peonies (shakuyaku), statice, and leaves of a variety of maple tree. This was a very tall arrangement in a very unique vase.

February 12th Seika Arrangement

A beautiful arrangement featuring a variety of cherry blossom! The Omuro Cherries won’t be blooming for quite a few more weeks, but it was lovely to be able to enjoy some cherry blossoms inside of Goten!

November 13th Arrangement

This arrangement features chrysanthemums and a pine tree branch.

October 13th Arrangement

This beautiful arrangement is overflowing with plants that represent autumn! The four plants used in this jiyū-ka arrangement are: two varieties of chrysanthemums, red leaves from a variety of maple (kaede), and oriental staff vine (tsuru umedoki). 

See the photograph below for a closer look!

Goten Arrangement September 22nd: Seika

This arrangement utilizes a two-level bamboo vase to display some finely trimmed and shaped Chinese juniper as well as a sprig of yellow cockscomb.

Goten Arrangement September 22nd: Jiyū-ka

This creative style (sōsaku-ka) arrangement features four varieties of plants: chrysanthemum, cockscomb, Japanese gentian, and branches of burning bush. The creative style is truly a very unrestricted style! This arrangement was quite unlike the other arrangements I have seen in Goten so far.

Goten Arrangement September 15th: Jiyū-ka

This jiyū-ka arrangement, to be more specific sōsakubana (創作花) or “creative style” arrangement, consists of four plants. The delicate, leafy branches on the left are Thunberg’s meadow-sweet, or yukiyanagi in Japanese. Yukiyanagi means “winter willow,” and the plant was given this name for the white blossoms that adorn it in spring. The thin stems with bulbs on the ends are from the leopard lily. If you look closely at the image below, you should just be able to see a few berries sitting in one of the open bulbs. The fuchsia you see peeking from behind the yukiyanagi is cockscomb, it has made quite a few appearances in Goten arrangements lately! And finally, to the right side you can see several shades of ornamental peppers (kanshōyō tōgarashi).

Click the image below for a better view!

Goten Arrangement September 15th: Seika

This stately seika arrangement is made with branches from a Burning Bush (scientific name: Euonymus alatus), known in Japanese as nishikigi. The plant is known as “Burning Bush” in English because of the vivid red color the leaves take on during autumn. As you can see, in this arrangement the leaves have been removed so as to focus on the ridged stems of the plant. See the close-up shot below to get a better view of the stems!

Unfortunately, this arrangement does not photograph nearly as nicely as it looks in person, but I hope you enjoy the photographs anyway!