Ikebana

To be able to watch the process in the span of few hours makes me hope that I will be able to doing some that good and that fast someday.

Tokonomas

• the scrolls were definitely related to ikebana
  
  
  
  • ichi go, ichi e (semi-formal) clearly reflects how fleeting the process and product of ikebana are
    
  • we will only get this chance to see the ikebana process and to view the flowers before they wilt
    
  • hana (informal) embodies a tulip or some kind of flower in the strokes
    
    
  
  

Informal, Semi-formal, and Formal

• two rectangles opened slightly in the rice paper of the sliding doors across from the entrance (informal)
  
  
• formal room also has a place to heat water
  
• rooms seem bigger and wider with the screens in the middle gone (semi-formal, formal)
  
• the ceilings of the semi-formal and formal rooms are
  
  
  
  • perpendicular to each other
    
  • but the beams are penpendicular to the grain of the wood
    
  
  
• a screen around the area for the tea utensils (semi-formal)
  
  

Other pictures and info

• smell of incense stronger than usual
  
• display of fans from last time replaced by zodiac animals
  
  

informal room

the flower arrangements

Shin, Gyo, So

I've been in Japan House many times before (more specifically, the intro to Japanese aesthetics Discovery course), but I never really looked looked at everything. It's amazing what new things you notice just by paying a little more attention.

I focused on getting the details of the room. I'm thinking of going by senses on the next few visits. The following is everything I wrote down but there are some things I only documented in images. So, I'll post and caption those.

Informal (So)

• in comparison to the other rooms, amazingly square
  
  
  
  • the tatami circles around the center of the room, where one tatami mat's end meets the other's beginning
    
  
  
• sense of hierarchy:
  
  
  
  • scroll is main focus
    
  • accessories are flowers and/or containers (barely noticeable)
    
  
  
  
  
• only florescent light comes from alcove
  
• material is rough:
  
  
  
  • bamboo aka raw material
    
  • as they are; not refined at all
    
  
  
• entire room forces you to be humble
  
  
  
  • you must be close to others; share space with them
    
  • uncomfortable to stand in since the ceiling's barely above my head
    
  • entrance is so low, must bow in order to enter
    
  
  
• ceiling skylight
  
• window is slatted, so even if opened, view is cut up
  
  

Semi-formal~Formal (Gyo)

• the tokonoma arrangement is somehow much more aggressive (?)
  
  
  
  • the branches come down at an angle and fill up a lot of the space
    
  • the central image is square and small (rising sun = new year)
    
  • i feel like my attention is drawn to the pot in the corner because of the branches
    
  • simplicity and hierarchy together makes you want to look at it more
    
  
  
  
  
• has a place to heat the water for the tea
  

Both Semi-formal (Gyo) and Formal (Shin)


• the step seems unsturdy because of the shadow under it
  
  
  
  • this in turn makes the ground of the rooms seem more solid
    
  
  
• more refined than Informal
  
  
• large ceiling light
  
  
  
  • uncomfortably low; directly above head
    
  
  
• slatted windows are at the very top
  

Other pictures and info

the Formal tokonoma