Ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement) is one of the essential and
authentic Japanese traditions. On a rainy morning, 23 foreign students,
visiting Tohoku University for a short program called TUJP, experienced Ikebana
for the first time in their lives.
The teacher on that day was Prof. Ying Chen of the Graduate School
of Engineering. In the past, Prof. Chen studied Sogetsuryu Ikebana, which is one
school of ikebana, in Tokyo. She chose flowers such as lilies and balloon
flowers, and branches with small leaves.
The most enjoyable part of Ikebana is to cut some of the branches and
arrange the flowers according to your own sense of beauty. The students worked
in pairs, and actively discussed how to complete their arrangements. Their
cooperation bore fruit.
In the end, the room was decorated with twelve gorgeous flower pots.
At the end of the lesson, everyone looked very satisfied and some became kind
of sad at not being able to take the flowers back to where they are staying
now.
