Ikebana demo, certificates awarding ceremony held

LAHORE
IKEBANA (Japanese art of flower arrangement) demonstration and certificates awarding ceremony was held at the Lahore Arts Council on Wednesday.
Begum Hameeda Waheed Uddin, Provincial Minister for Women Development, Government of Punjab, and Chargé d’Affairs ad interim of Japan in Pakistan Takeshi Katae awarded certificates to the participants of the Ikebana workshop at the concluding ceremony. An exhibition of Ikebana, which was arranged by the students of workshop, was also displayed on the occasion.
Ikebana, which literally means “flower kept alive”, developed into a distinct art form in Japan in the 15th century and was now practised all over the world including Pakistan. The attention given to the choice of flowers and containers, the placement of branches, harmonisation of flower, its leaves and stems, branches, relationship of arrangement to the container, and the surrounding space, has sublimated this work into an art distinguishing from simply decorative uses of flowers.
Chargé d’Affairs ad interim of Japan to Pakistan Takeshi Katae, expressing his views at the concluding ceremony, appreciated the services of Prof. Asifa Ataka for teaching the art of ikebana to Pakistani people, specially women, for the last many years. Prof. Asifa Ataka was specially invited from Karachi to conduct this workshop in Lahore. Asifa Ataka has taught this art in Pakistan since 1994 in the manner of Ikenobo School, one of the leading flower arrangement schools in Japan. Katae expressed his hope that students habitually made the flower arrangement at home or somewhere so that a fragrance and beauty of Pakistani flowers yet arranged in the Japanese style would make people around the flowers feel happy.
The Ikebana workshop, in which around 100 ladies participated, was held at the two venues simultaneously including Alhamra Art Gallery and Defence Public Library of DHA from March 20 to March 25, 2015. The embassy of Japan organised this workshop in collaboration with the Lahore Arts Council.