08/25/2026
Our meeting is September 8 at 9:30 a.m., Olbrich Botanical Gardens, in the Atrium. A piece of information: Milwaukee Ikebana chapter will be having an exhibition at the Milwaukee Domes this weekend called “Glass under glass”. They do extraordinary work and is a delight to see. If you have time and can visit, do so. I think there is an entrance fee. Friday through Sunday.
from Michael Pohlman: I hope everyone is making it through the “dog days of summer.” I will be demonstrating a new arrangement that we haven’t done before, Hana-Kanade.
Last year we did Hana-Mai arrangements that were three vases/containers working in unison to convey “dancing flowers”. In Hana-Kanade, Hana means flowers and Kanade means something like playing an instrument, or intersecting lines.
Hiroki Ohara is the Fifth Headmaster (1995-present) to lead the Ohara School. He has made efforts to bring the school into the on - line world, capturing the attention of of diverse cultural and artistic circles worldwide. To help accomplish this he created the Hana-Kanade arrangement, continuing the modern, minimalist form initiated by his predecessor. It has been said that this is a groundbreaking style designed to show flowers artistically in what has become an increasingly limited modern space.
Thus, this is the latest Ikebana expression in the Ohara school. Traditionally, Ikebana has been arranged to spread outward. Hana-Kanade up-ends that basic method by using the materials facing inward, creating a unique shape from the intersecting flowers and bringing a three-dimensional form to the arrangement.
This style is a three-dimensional arrangement that expresses the beauty of crossing principal stems and as such it is different from the Hana-Mai style. There are some rules regarding the length of the principle elements.
a. subject should be one and half times the container measurement (width plus depth)
b. secondary should be from 3/4 to the equal the length of the subject.
c object should be 1/2 to 3/4 of subject.
With three major branches set in the kenzans (pin holders) around the diameter of the container in a triangle, each element may cross each other from two to three times. The tips of the branches should then form a triangle. Small short flowers and leaves cover the kenzans at the base.
