Ikebana Lesson One

鶏頭の十四五本もありぬべし

Before the Garden

Cockscombs…
Must be 14,
Or 15

—Masoka Shiki,
(trans. By Janine Beichman)

けいとうのじゅうしごほんもありぬべし

鶏頭の十四五本もありぬべし

How I used to love watching my tea ceremony teacher arranging flowers for the tokonoma before our lessons. I always wanted to learn, and so felt incredibly lucky meeting a talented Sōgetsu-ryū (草月流 grass moon style) ikebana artist and teacher here in LA.

Yesterday was my first lesson and my Sensei brought willow branches and cockscomb flowers. 鶏頭 keito. Fall flowers that resemble the crowns found on roosters, they are other-worldly. Velvety and so strange looking, they are liked flowers from a different planet! Cockscombs. I did not know their name in English or Japanese. I also had never read the haiku by Shiki, but apparently it is quite well known.

Masaoka Shiki is one of my favorite poets. And he wrote this poem in September 1900. He was sick and gazing out at the garden where he saw a lot of cockscombs flowers—were there 14 or 15?

Apparently there was some controversy about the poem—was it a good poem or not? Is it even a haiku?

Well, it certainly has the seasonal reference and also the human element. Shiki later added the heading (Before the garden) to make sure people knew this was not complicated and just a poem about looking at a landscape (the garden). Although given how ill Shiki was at the time he composed the poem, the vitality of this particular flower must have touched him deeply.

Here is a lovely meditation about the poem written by a Zen practitioner.

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Another flower post: Flowers 拈花微笑

Two pieces of news:

1. I had my first ever haiku accepted for publication—not a big deal, I know… but I will share when it goes up at Dewdrop Journal later this month~~!

2. I am really excited to become the translation editor for Kyoto Journal—please send me your translations!!!

Notes:

The element shin is twice as long as the container. It tilts away from the center by 10-15 degrees. Soe tilts 45 degrees away, and is ½ to ¾ as long as shin. Lastly, hikae tilts away from the center by 75 degrees, and is ½ to ¾ as long as soe.