Homage in flowers to Japan's tsunami victims

As the Japanese strive hard to put behind this monumental human tragedy of March 11 that killed over 15,000 people, words fail even more in responding to suffering and grief. ‘Silence’ turns out to be the only rational fallback.

Affirming this silence with “flowers and space” was the most profound and soulful response a group of women teachers from the Chennai chapter of the ‘Ohara School of Ikebana’ came up with in the form of an unique exhibition here recently to pray for the departed ones to rest in peace.

Ikebana in Japanese literally means, “putting flowers into a container”, says Cherry Venkatesan, leader of the Chennai Study Group of the ‘Ohara School ’ This school, nurturing a traditional Japanese art of flower arrangement, is named after its founder Unshin Ohara (1861-1916) and over long years has evolved its own style in developing a centuries-old Buddhist custom “of offering flowers to the spirits of the dead.”

Cherry and two of her colleagues of this school, Kusum Chadda and Nita Reddy, along with the International Women’s Association (IWA), put together this touching ‘Ikebana Exhibition’ on July 18, praying for the “repose” of the victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake.  

From the Queen of Hill stations in the South- Coonoor in Ooty, came spotless ‘Lily’ flowers, ‘Zebras’, ‘Carnations’ and ‘Lyzanthus’. They were brought with great care and preserved here for the exhibition at the residence of Masonori Nakano, Japan’s Consul General in Chennai. The floral pattern was then weaved as per the principles of the ‘Ohara School’ that juxtaposes the ‘subject’ of the theme at the centre with a secondary motif to its right, while its ‘object’ is to the left, Cherry told Deccan Herald.

The whole idea is to “express our feelings of sorrow” to the victims of the tsunami. “We chose only white flowers as it symbolises purity,” said Cherry. Some ‘ferns’ (a flowerless plant) bleached in Japan and white pieces of wood were also used in the exhibit to remember the quake victims.

“The floral arrangement is made to look like a Chinese painting”, even as a picture of the giant destructive Tsunami waves which went up to a height of 40.5 metres on that fateful day in Japan, forms the backdrop. That indicates the context and gravity of the natural calamity that struck Japan.

No other word is written or spoken and you are simply dumbfounded to merely stand by the arranged flowers and pray. What is significant about the ‘Ikebana’ technique is that it is not just the blooms that matter, but the exhibition also emph­asizes other aspects of the plant like stems and leaves.

The ‘Ikebana Exhibition’ evokes a quiet sense of the mystical and dimensions of the unknown in a perennially uncertain world, even as the flowers forming the pattern are a tender tribute to the departed spirits.

Buddhism may not believe in the concept of a ‘soul’ as Hinduism does, but they affirm the principle of transmigration of ‘vasanas (karmic impressions)’. Are these flowers symbolic of those ‘Vasanas’? It’s anybody’s guess, but the Buddha was not interested in such Metaphysics.

Recalling how four months had elapsed since the devastating earthquake and Tsunami hit Japan , Nakono had just one insight to offer on what suffering in such scale meant to their people after Hiroshima and Nagasaki .

“Even today over 5000 people are still to be accounted for. Several survivors are not willing to accept the cash assistance until they find the remains of their beloved ones with their own eyes!” excla­imed the Japan Consul General to drive home the point that you don’t live off the dead. “I believe they can overcome with their own strength and wisdom,” he added.