The Deshima AIR (Artist In Residence) project is an initiative to promote the cultural exchange between the Netherlands and Japan.
Today I joined “NATUUR & MILIEU MARKT”.
I had a booth to arrange ikebana flower and
give my information about my flower exhibition in Jun!
Many people showed their interest and it was very encouraging for me!
It was also fun to see around other booths about nature and water!
Everybody I have met in Holland is all nice,
includes the members of Sas blomiste the flower shop where I intern for a week.
Sas blomiste is in beautiful small town Edam, 20 minutes by a bus driving north of Amsterdam.
We can see fresh flowers when we first enter the shop,
and it made in glass house the back of the shop.
It is fill sunshine of whole store under the sky of Holland which has mach more long day than Japan.
The sunshine also light to well displayed vases and plants.
They have also nice garden and we can find many kind of plants there.
Those flowers, plants and vases fly off the store.
They introduce me to customers as “Japanse stagiair”.
One lady told me, “So you are in heaven now”.
I agree.
The mambers are as nice as the shop.
They are all friendly, cheerful and talk to me in English with no hesitation.
I have many things I can not do
but they rather try to focus what I can do and teach me many things as much as possible.
I always said “sorry” when I made a small mistake
like Japanese do (We say “sorry ” lightly ).
They told me “Don’t say sorry, we are proud of you”
So I tried to say “Thank you ” instead of “Sorry”
Then they told me “Don’t say thank you , we just do what we want to”.
I saw difference between cultures.
There is no right nor wrong.
I like to say and hear “thank you “.
But it is also nice that they do something for someone natural
with no “thank you”.
At the day supposed to be end of my intern,
they gave me a photo book of Holland with their messages!!
Happily, they still have something to teach me and
I will intern more in their shop!
I intern in a flower shop “Sas blomiste”
I’m very lucky that all the people I’ve met in Holland are really nice.
Het is erg mooie winkel! It was really fun to work with them!
What is the most fun was they teaching me Dutch while we were working.
Vind ik erg luek!
Of course I love music, but I have felt something like guilty to music.
Because I gave up practicing a piano after I had learned for many years.
It was the first time to quit something with my will.
So I know how difficult it is to play instruments well.
That is why I said “Flower is the same ” after a hesitation,
when I was talking with musicians about “Music breaks language barrier”
I was sure that flower is the same.
But I was not sure whether flowers I arranged had worth to a music
based on their huge efforts.
Today, I was happy to see my flower were suit to the church
and Bach.
I am very happy to go back to music
after I gave up it and found another thing.
I will present my flower work to a concert at Maarten Luther Kerk.
While the play “Sonata for violin and harpsichord No. 3, BWV 1016”,
I will exhibit arranging ikebana work.
Today, they had a rehearsal.
I took cherry blossoms, roses, and spiraeas.
And vases are created by Marten, the pianist.
I did not so much interesting “a collaboration of music and flower”.
But today, I felt it when I hold a spiraea,
“it suits with Bach”.
I was surprised what I felt and my hands stopped.
I have never felt like that.
But two musicians also stopped their hands and told me
it is beautiful.
I was moved close to crying.
The sonata of Bach they were playing was beautiful and
spiraea were really suit with it.
We all felt same things beautiful.
I always try to arrange flowers to suit each places.
Musics make an air at the place.
Now I believe there is a flower suit to the music
and that flower will break the language barriers.
Ayumi, Marten, Thank you for telling me about it.
I had looked for bamboos the last week to create ikebana vase,
then I found it in a doityourself shop yesterday!
It was so huge that I was able to hung around whole day. They had Buddha or flamingo statues and bamboos too!
It was very funny that Dutch man and Japanese woman were buying 4 bamboos
the length of which is more than 2m in the early morning!
While I was laughing, he cut them, and smoothed their edges
and created vases for ikebana!
That was amazing.
I will arrange ikebana for a concert in a church on Sunday!
Goede middag!
I went to Hotus UV looking for bamboos.
I will use bamboos to create vases for the concert in church invited by Ayumi.
Hotus VU is the part of Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam.
It was the longest tram trip for me (30 minutes though) and
The scenery was different from the center.
I didn’t get bamboos there but I was lucky to see their huge plants collections!!!
Hoi!
It was Japan Market at “Japan Cultural Exchange” ( next to my house).
I presented ikebana works there.
When I went to flower stands and markets,
willows looked pretty close to Japanese one.
So I took willows at first, then narcissusses and tulips
because they are very available here.
But I got surprised when I started arranging willows in ikebana.
They were actually from Japanese one.
They were thinner and squiggle on everywhere.
Its natural shape will be nice when I arrange into a vase
but it wasn’t a right way to force forming to exact Japanese traditional shape.
conversely narcissusses and tulips I was thinking about how to use their differences
were simply arranged.
I found that I have to see differences of flowers
and using them as they are.
Here, I am in Holland, not Japan.
We always say
ikebana should be natural as the flower is.
I caught such basic thing
after I left my country.
When I leaver there after my summer holiday when I was 19.
When I opened the door to go out,
I found rabbits at my feet!
Mayu, who is living upstairs, left them.
She said she got many chocolates of Easter in her working place.
Surprise will be the special present!
I could only bite their bottom!
I started my day with happiness with these sweet rabbits!
Thank you Mayu,
What am I going to leave at her door?
