{"id":600,"date":"2007-10-09T22:31:29","date_gmt":"2007-10-09T13:31:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2007-10-09\/600"},"modified":"2007-10-12T14:55:38","modified_gmt":"2007-10-12T05:55:38","slug":"preschooler-ikebana-flower-arrangement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2007-10-09\/600","title":{"rendered":"Preschooler Ikebana (Flower Arranging)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n

Some of Anthony's classmates participated in an Ikebana (the art of flower\narrangement<\/a>) exhibition in Kyoto this past weekend. I normally<\/span> have\nlittle interest in such things, but when I was<\/span> invited (thanks Arthur!), I felt oddly<\/span> interested, so Anthony and I headed<\/span> over for a peek.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

The show was in a large hall that was designed for viewing, not\nphotography, and so with the mixed lighting (fluorescent, and various kinds\nof incandescent) and lack of nice backgrounds, the pictures don't come out\nwell. Still, hopefully, some of the cuteness found in any art by four and\nfive year olds comes through.<\/p>\n\n

Ikebana is an art with over a thousand years of history and refinement,\nthe whole of which is wasted on the likes of me. To me, art is like wine: I\neither<\/span> like it or I don't.<\/span> Art by preschoolers<\/span> is pretty easy to enjoy\nbecause they make it so clearly their own, infused with cuteness.<\/p>\n\n

(In the captions that follow, the “-chan” suffix indicates a girl's<\/span>\nname, while “-kun” indicates a boy's<\/span> name.)<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 32mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>90 sec, f\/5.6, ISO 500 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nFour-year-old Ami-chan's<\/span>Ballerina motif\n<\/div>\n\n

It's an inexcusable photographic mistake on my part, but I lopped<\/span> off\nmuch of the tall, white, wispy feathers that extend above the central\nflowers. You can see<\/span> them to the left in the shot below. I don't<\/span> know much\nabout art, but even I can<\/span> see that they're meant to evoke a sense<\/span> of a\nfleetingly<\/span> floating ballerina, and I totally<\/span> lopped them off in the photograph. Sorry,\nAmi-chan!<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 19mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>90 sec, f\/5.6, ISO 500 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\n(photo by Anthony)\nFive-year-old Kouki-kun's<\/span>Bug\/woodland motif\n<\/div>\n\n

Anthony exercised some of his own artistic license by taking the picture\nabove at the angle you see it. Just prior, he'd taken a level<\/span> shot that\ncame out perfectly, then took the angled shot. Clearly, he wanted the\nangled effect, so I'm honoring that by using that version.<\/p>\n\n

Kouki-kun decorated his with hand-drawn bugs that you can't see well in the shot above, so here's a closer<\/span> view....<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 28mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>45 sec, f\/5, ISO 320 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nKouki's Hand-Drawn Bugs<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 26mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>100 sec, f\/5, ISO 320 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nFour-year-old Hinano-chan's<\/span>Jellybeans and fuzzy puffs\n<\/div>\n\n

Hinano-chan's little sister, two-year-old Marina-chan, also had an\narrangement on display, but I can't<\/span> seem to find a picture<\/span> of it. (It makes\nme worry that there are others' whose pictures are missing :-()<\/p>\n\n

Marina-chan was wearing an exquisitely cute kimono — is there\nreally any other kind of kimono for a two<\/span> year old? — so we'll see a\npicture<\/span> of her<\/i> later in this post.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 31mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>160 sec, f\/5, ISO 320 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nFour-year-old Akiko-chan's<\/span>Dragonflies\n<\/div>\n\n

I'd guess that Akiko-chan made the dragonflies herself, since I know<\/span> that\nshe likes to make things with those beads. (I think<\/span> you place the beads\ninto position on a special<\/span> board, then iron them to fuse them\ntogether....)<\/p>\n\n

 <\/a><\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 26mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>125 sec, f\/5, ISO 320 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nFive-year-old Rio-chan's<\/span>Princess theme\n<\/div>\n\n

I think Rio-chan's combination of flowers gives a very<\/span> nice fairy-tale feel.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 32mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>125 sec, f\/5, ISO 320 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nFive-year-old Riko-chan's<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

I'm not sure what the theme of Riko-chan's arrangement is, but it's\nprobably my favorite of the bunch. With fall approaching, I'm a sucker<\/span> for\nthe dried leaves. Yet, the colorful flowers evoke a sense<\/span> of spring. Spring\nand fall are Kyoto's glorious<\/b> seasons, so the combination is hard to\nbeat.<\/p>\n\n

(Showing these pictures to Fumie, she tells me that the flowers are autumn flowers, but whatever the season, they're still pretty.)<\/p>\n\n

I tried to take a close-up of the fleetingly fuzzy, super-white\ncocoon-shaped things (plants?) in Riko-chan's arrangement, but there's just\nno contrast and it didn't come out well. (The white-cocoon-shaped thing I\nwas<\/span> aiming for is in the right half of the picture below.)<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 55mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>200 sec, f\/2.8, ISO 320 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nClose Up<\/span>sort of\n<\/div>\n\n

When we'd arrived, most of the moms and kids were in a downstairs<\/span> cafe\nhaving a treat,<\/span> so on the way home I stopped<\/span> by to say hi. Two-year-old\nMarina was looking cute as a button<\/span> in her kimono, sitting next to her mommy\nin hers. It was dark<\/span> and the lighting was horrid, but I gave<\/span> it a\nshot.<\/span>...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 45mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>80 sec, f\/2.8, ISO 800 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nMarina-chan<\/span>(Two Years Old)\n<\/div>\n\n

(That's Monet-chan in the background, who was featured giving her daddy\na hard<\/span> time in the post about camera geeks at the school\nbazaar<\/a> the other day.)<\/p>\n\n

I expected to enjoy the kids' flower arrangements because, as I said,<\/span>\nit's hard not to enjoy the art of a child.<\/span> To my great<\/span> surprise, I very much<\/span> enjoyed the many arrangements displayed by the serious adults\n(including the mommoy of Marina-chan and Hinano-chan, who had a very<\/span> nice\nautumn-themed arrangement of witch-hazel). I'll post some of those pictures\nanother time. (Update: here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n

(Mini milestone: this is post #600 on my blog)<\/p>\n\n

Continued here...<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of Anthony's classmates participated in an Ikebana (the art of flower arrangement) exhibition in Kyoto this past weekend. I normally have little interest in such things, but when I was invited (thanks Arthur!), I felt oddly interested, so Anthony and I headed over for a peek.<\/p>

The show was in a large hall that was designed for viewing, not photography, and so with the mixed lighting (fluorescent, and various kinds of incandescent) and lack of nice backgrounds, the pictures don't come out well. Still, hopefully, some of the cuteness found in any art by four and five year olds [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}