Ikebana and us

Our Director Reji Mrs Malathi Pandurang was invited by the Adyar Library and Research Centre, to give an ikebana demonstration. The presentation was thus named “Aesthetic Practice in the Art of Ikebana” and took place on the 9th of March.  Our Director had invited the non-Senseis in our group to assist her and also participate in the program. After introducing the origin of Ikebana and the classical Schools, she spoke on how it moved from the Buddhist temples to society and gave birth to the Modern Schools namely, Ohara and Sogetsu by about 1926 and 1927 respectively. Sogetsu maintains the 3 main Lines Shin, Soe, Hikae and by their heights and angles form a triangular structure for the students to begin mastering the technique as well as being close to natural processes. Further Art principles like Shape, Form, Colour , Rhythm, Texture,  was incorporated to define it as an Art. The Concept of ‘The Beautiful’ is a Universal one, and to create it we resort to aesthetics , which accepts a

At Our meeting in February a review of our annual exhibition was conducted by our Director Mrs Malathi Pandurang. Twelve of our members attended this meeting held at ABK on the 24th of February. Our chairperson Mrs Malathi Pandurang began the review by thanking the tremendous efforts of our members   Miss Satya, Mrs Pushkala and Mrs Chitra Thiagarajan to make the exhibition a complete success. Mrs Malathi Pandurang also acknowledged the  gracious support of Mr Gopinath, Mrs Latha and Miss Satya of   Cholamandal Artists’ village. The exemplary team spirit of the members of our Branch was lauded by Mrs Pandurang. Our senior sensei Mrs Padma Swaminathan decided to give away two of her unique ikebana containers to our members. Hence Sensei Mrs Ambika Chandrashekar conducted this informal auction and the proceeds were donated to the Branch by  Mrs Padma Swaminathan Padma Ma’m also graciously gave away her collection of ikebana books and miniature porcelain shells, to be used as accessories

Our December meeting was held at ABK on the 16th of December. 11 members attended the meeting. Our chairperson Reji Mrs Malathi Pandurang, discussed with us the arrangements for our upcoming annual exhibition in January. Various aspects of the exhibition was discussed in detail by Mrs Malathi Pandurang.We are grateful for the tireless efforts of Mrs Malathi Pandurang in organising this annual exhibition of ours. Our Sensei Mrs Meenakshi Sarin was invited as national jury for the  floral arrangement contest held by the National Abilympics Association of India in Delhi for the North Zone region. Sensei Meenakshi gave us a talk on the nature of the event. On the first day six participants with various disabilities had participated. Sensei Meenakshi explained the difficulties and the humane challenges of the participants. Delhi in December had beautiful flowers which brought out the creativity of the participants. Sensei Meenakshi had participated in this event as jury with great compassio

 Annual Sogetsu Exhibition on January 20-21 2024  The Annual Sogetsu Ikebana exhibition for the public was hosted by The Chennai Sogetsu Branch members under the guidance of the Director Riji Mrs Malathi Pandurang on Jan 21 2024 and Jan 22, 2024 at Cholamandal Artist VIllage, Injambakkam, East Coast Road, Chennai. The    exhibition also featured    two workshops titled “Weaving coconut leaf accessories for Ikebana” and “Fundamentals of Sogetsu Ikebana”. The exhibition was inaugurated on Friday, 19 January 2024 at 5pm  by Mr Taga Masayuki , Consul General of Japan in Chennai. Other special guests included Ms Teraoka Mami, Vice Consul of Japan in Chennai, Mr Damodaraswamy    Secretary-Examinations ABK- AOTS Dosakai, Mr P Gopinath, veteran artist and and President of Cholamandal Artist Village. The traditional lighting of the lamp by the visiting dignitaries was followed by a welcome address by Sensei Chitra Rajan. Riji Mrs Malathi Pandurang invited the chief guests and other special gues