Workshop Kado/The Path of Flowers

As I wrote in my last blogpost I joined a Kado workshop last weekend: Kado is originally a Chinese word meaning The Path or The Way of Flowers. During the workshop our teacher Marcia Shibata introduced us to this ancient art.

Kado: Basic upright Left arrangement

The guidebook that was available contains a couple of guidelines. The flower-arrangements are built up according to clear standard guidelines. The first two days we worked with 'Basic Upright Left', shown above (sorry for the crappy photograph). The title means that it is a basic form, the orientation is located to the left of the sun and Heaven is positioned upright (towards the sun). At Kado you always start with the Heaven principle as Heaven is guiding. The Heaven-Earth-Man principle is a natural hierarchy. "It is about the ability to respond so that everything benefits. Heaven moves towards the light", explains Marcia Shibata.

my first Kado arrangement with white gladioli

The Earth principle is something with a bit of body like the full white flowers of the gladioli in the photograph above. Its proportion is half of Heaven, the Man principle is about 2/3 of Heaven. Shown below is the placement of Heaven, Earth and Man in the kenzan.

placement of Heaven, Earth and Man in a kenzan

Marcia Shibata showing the second arrangement

The 'helpers' are in the middle of the triangle Heaven-Earth-Man. Helpers have the purpose of bringing together Heaven-Earth-Man as well as to invite the space around them; helpers are used to what is necessary and last but no least there should be no competition between the helpers and Heaven-Earth-Man nor amongst themselves.

my second Kado arrangement, with purple irises

practice room for Kado

Our third flower-arrangement was a Basic Upright Right and for this piece 'wood' was introduced to us. All hard materials are considered wood, wood lives longer and is stronger, tougher. Grass is considered soft. Bamboo is half grass half wood.

Kado participants at work

I quite enjoyed these days, they were relaxing and fun. Every day we started with a half hour meditation Shambhala style. It makes the mind calm and focused, which is just what we need for Kado. The cloth or coaster underneath the container is called a dai, it is a reminder that in case our mind goes wondering we can go back any minute to where we were and to what we were doing. Marcia compared the Kado-practice to our every day of life, she called our flower-arrangement our 'world'. And yes, I can see the comparison: it's all about relationship, space, communication and the environment not only in our little flower-piece but also in our daily life.