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Speech:
NGV Ikebana Demonstration May
2009
Jo
Maindonald Director Kazari
Dr Frances
Lindsay, Deputy Director of the National Gallery of Victoria,
Consul General of Japan, Mr Hasegawa,Jo Maindonald, Kazari and Gwen
Delves, Ikebana International.
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Last year, when Frances Lindsay approached us with the idea of
sponsoring the work of Kawana Testunori my partner Robert Joyce and
I knew immediately that we would do so.
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What a perfect fit – two of our personal passions – Ikebana
and Sculpture ! Ikebana the Japanese art form–which
celebrates nature, lifts the soul and challenges the
mind.
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Its’ universal appeal has inspired and reinvigorated our
passion for the arts of Japan for more than 30 years.
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What a way to also celebrate Kazari’s 30 years in business and
corresponding 30 year relationship with the Sogetsu School and
Ikebana International, here in Melbourne, whose arrangements
transformed the very first Kazari exhibition of Japanese folk art
and furniture in 1978 which launched our business.
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Kawana is indeed a Master of his Art and his ability to ‘wow’ an
audience was made evident to us more than 10 years ago when he
created the most sublime arrangement in plum blossom, in our front
window which turned drivers’ heads as they drove home that night
along Malvern Rd.
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Sadly the blossoms were gone the next day but that is inherent to
the nature of Ikebana and its’ lesson: the transient nature
of all living things.
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The imperative to use fresh and organic material ensures
arrangements never become dusty tired artifacts or memorials to the
past.
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With its’ roots embedded in the flower offerings of early Animist
and Shinto customs, further influenced by altar flowers of
Buddhist, kept alive by monks’ study of classical arts of China, it
has been embraced by ALL from Emperora and the aristocracy to
feudal peasants – as an expression of reverence for
nature.
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Ikebana has seen many forms and expressions from huge arrangements
and flower parties in palaces, to simple single flower arrangements
in tea houses with the development of tea ceremony.
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Kazari is proud to sponsor this event today and 5 Elements
– Water which after two months – will also be gone but with an
audience that will hanker after another – of that I’m
sure!
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I’d like to congratulate the National Gallery of Victoria for this
event, Ikebana International, Melbourne Chapter, The Japan
Foundation and Master Kawana for supporting this event, allowing a
wider audience to taste something of the essence of Japanese
aesthetics, in art form that will surely live on as future
generations interpret and reinterpret its’ essential sacred
geometry and basic rules.
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