Demonstration of Kado/The Path of Flowers

Kado demonstation

Last weekend I participated in a four-day workshop of Kado. Kado comes from China and means 'The Path/Way of Flowers'. Ikebana is her sister and comes from Japan and means 'Natural Flowers'.

The workshop was taught by teacher Marcia Shibata, who lived in Japan to learn the art of Ikebana. According to her the Ikebana-ways have lost meditation as the core of the practice. Shambhala brings that back.

On Wednesday night Marcia gave a Kado demonstration: above on the right shows the first flower-arrangement she made. On the left is a still life that I saw during preparations. I volunteered to help preparing the rooms of the Amsterdam Shambhala Centre for the workshop which meant a lot a rearranging furniture and laying out the necessary supplies. In between assignments I had a few moments to look around me and to enjoy what was there.

"Make friendship with space, inner space," Marcia said. "Inner space cultivates outer space. Inner space has to do with our mind, our thoughts. Very often we are not here, in the moment. We miss a lot of the opportunities that are nourishing to ourselves and to others. Meditation is a way to cultivate our inner space which is the doorway to healthy life. Our obstacles will not go away, but we have more room to handle panic and anxiety."

second Kado flower-arrangement

The purple arrangement was the second flower-arrangement Marcia made during the demonstration. It was fascinating to see how she was working: she was examining the flowers, leaves and branches, looking which way they were growing and delicately arranged them on a kenzan (see below) one by one. Each flower or leaf was making a relationship with their neighbors.

cabinet with kenzans

We laid a lot of kenzans on the top of a cabinet. A kenzan is a piece of iron with lots of iron sticks on top to pin the flowers on. They come in varies sizes and shapes depending on the size of your container and the weight and length of your flowers and branches you pick one.

double Kado flower-arrangement

At the end of the demonstration Marcia made a Kado flower-arrangement consisting of two pieces. In the picture below the same piece is shown with a white background to let it stand out more than in the frame above.

double Kado flower-arrangement with white background

In the next day or so I will post more on the actual workshop itself. Lets suffice to say that those days were the most relaxing and enjoyable days since a couple of weeks. I find that Contemplative art is very appealing to me.