We are pleased to announce that our guest headmaster will be
Wafu Teshigahara of the Wafukai School.
BIOGRAPHY
| Headmaster, Wafu School of Ikebana Like his father and grandfather before him, Mr. Wafu Teshigahara is the headmaster of the internationally recognized Wafu School of Ikebana, which is one of the major styles in the highly refined Japanese art of flower arrangement. In 1896, his grandfather, the first Wafu Teshigahara, established the Wafu School's naturalistic approach to ikebana design and set in motion a new method of teaching the art. Upon his death in 1931, the School's leadership passed to his son, the second Wafu Teshigahara, under whose guidance the School attracted advocates worldwide. Among other international activities, the second Wafu Teshigahara conducted a demonstration tour across the U.S. in 1964, which included demonstrations at the United Nations, Columbia University, and culminated in a joint demonstration with headmasters of the Ikenobo and Ohara schools for the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of Ikebana International. Since 1967, the Wafu School of Ikebana has been certified a Juridical Foundation by the government of Japan’s Ministry of Education, being one of only four ikebana schools to earn this official recognition. Since 1992, the third Wafu Teshigahara has led the School, continuing his two predecessors’ international work. Born in 1949 in Kamakura, Japan, his ikebana artistry is enhanced by his talents in photography and graphic design. Using his skills in photo direction, computer-based design, and writing, he produced a beautiful full-color textbook in 1996 entitled Wafu School of Ikebana” published in 1996 by Million-Kogei Company of Japan. He also writes about Wafu ikebana for Kodansha Company, a well-respected publisher of books about Japan and Japanese cultural arts |
In recognition of the link between physical and spiritual wellbeing, Headmaster Teshigahara was the featured demonstrator/lecturer at the social program for the 1992 World Clinical Pharmacology Forum in Yokohama and at the 1997 International Forum for Studies of Inflammatory Diseases in Tokyo. In October 2005, he was the featured demonstrator at Ikebana International, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter. |
ARTIST’S STATEMENT On the Subject of the Essence of Wafu Ikebana: “Humans have a natural instinct to bring beautiful things into their personal surroundings and to strive to maintain the beauty for as long as possible. Gentle sensitivity that sustains flowers’ life, combined with the individual artist’s sense of beauty and knowledge of techniques to enhance natural beauty: That is ikebana.” On the Subject of Ikebana in Recent Years: “Our mission as Wafu ikebana artists is to arrange Nature’s precious plants and flowers in a manner to move those who view the resulting composition. Our objective is to convey a kind of cosmic peace to the viewers’ hearts, to reach them with a special kind of spiritual healing. We must not use living things as if they were spiritless and inanimate – that is, merely a can of house paint or a blob of some pigment. That unempathetic practice or, worse still, robbing them of their vital environment by depriving them of water does not achieve the higher power of ikebana: to unite our collective hearts. We humans gain in a transcendental way by respectfully interacting with Nature’s living things as they are in the field. Pure things require pure treatment. And the result is true art.” On the Subject of Artistic Harmony: “Wherever I am invited to demonstrate, I use only materials and containers that are selected for me by my hosts; I do not bring my own. The reason is that locally-available flowers and branches combined with containers from the collections of my hosts will work so naturally together for that particular location. My ultimate goal is intrinsic harmony among the local materials, container, and environment. Thus, I have never even considered bringing alien materials or containers from Japan. Of course, I do bring my own scissors!” |
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 Arrangements by Wafu Teshigaharai |
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