In this series, we are introducing our many Chapters and Study Groups who love, learn and practice Ikenobo ikebana with passion. The second Chapter we will introduce is Ikenobo Hong Kong Chapter where only take four hours from Osaka, Japan by flight. Mr. Verdy Leung, the Chapter President introduce the Ikenobo Hong Kong Chapter.
Q: What is Hong Kong like?
A: Hong Kong is a city with a population about 7.5 million, located at the Southern coast of China. It had been a British colony for 100 years and have received great influence from the Western culture. With its long history of connection with the West, Hong Kong is characterized as a hybrid of East and Wes.
Hong Kong is a popular place for tourists. The beautiful city has earned herself a name “The Pearl of Orient.” The night view in Honk Kong is ranked as one of the top 3 in the world. It also has the largest number of skyscrapers of any city in the world. You will never get bored in this lively city even until late night.
Q: Please introduce the Chapter.
A: Ikenobo Hong Kong Chapter was launched by Ms. Yuhua Xie, the former president, as a Study Group in 1996, and in 2012, the Study Group promoted to the Ikenobo Hong Kong Chapter.
Our members range from 8 years old to almost 80 years old, so we have wide range of members in the Chapter. Most of our members are from the 30s – 50s, and many young generations are belonging the Chapter.
The Chapter hold two regular activities every year. The first is the Hong Kong Flower Show. It is a 10-day long annual flower show organized by the Hong Kong government to show different works of gardening, bonsai, flower arrangement and ikebana. It is the biggest flower show in Hong Kong and attract hundred thousand of audience every year. Our Chapter has been invited to set up an exhibition booth in the show for 10 years and have got numerous awards in the shows. We exhibit about 50 ikebana works by our members every year.
The another activity of the Chapter is Special member workshop. The professor from Ikenobo Central Institute of Ikebana visit Hong Kong every year and hold workshop for our Special Members. We all treasure this annual opportunity to learn from the professor from the Headquarters.
Q: What kind of floral materials are normally used in classes?
A: Because we do not have much farms in Hong Kong, almost all of the flowers used in class have to be imported from other places, such as Holland, Taiwan, Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia, China, etc. As some materials used in ikebana are different from those in Western flower arrangement, we need to make special orders from Japan, Taiwan or China for some materials used in ikebana. For example, even for material as common as Iris Ochroleuca, we usually do not see them in the flower market. We need to make special order from Taiwan or Japan if we want to use it.
Q: Do you have any plan for future ikebana promotion?
A: We want to introduce ikebana to more people in Hong Kong, especially to the young people. We started ikebana class in secondary school more than 6 years ago. In 2020, we sent a group of secondary school students to join Hana-no-Koshien competition (Ikebana competition for high school students). Hopefully we can organize ikebana class in more schools in the future.
Please access here to check more about Hong Kong Chapter.
This time we have introduced the Ikenobo Hong Kong Chapter from Hong Kong. Next time we will introduce another Chapter or Study Group from different country. We hope are looking forward to share this with you.