Press release

japanese ikebana demonstration & certificate award ceremony
held at the alhamra art centre, lahore

Islamabad: 19th March 2013

            Ikebana (Japanese art of flower arrangement) Demonstration and Certificate Presentation Ceremony was held at the Alhamra Hall, Lahore on 19th March 2013. Mr. Toshikazu Isomura, Counselor, Public Affairs Section, Embassy of Japan, together with the chief guest Mr. Muhammad Ali Baloch, Executive Director, The Lahore Arts Council, awarded certificates to the participants of the Ikebana workshop at the concluding ceremony. An exhibition of the Ikebana which was made by the students of the workshop was also displayed at the Alhamra Art Gallery.

            The Ikebana workshop was held at the Alhamra Art Gallery, from 13 March to 19 March 2013. The Embassy of Japan organized this workshop in collaboration with the Lahore Arts Council and Pakistan-Japan Cultural Association, Lahore. Mrs. Asifa Ataka, Professor of Ikebana, had been specially invited from Karachi to conduct the workshop/demonstration. Mrs. Ataka has studied this art from the Ikenobo School, one of the leading flower arrangement schools in Japan.

            Ikebana (Japanese art of flower arrangement), which literally means “flower kept alive”, developed into a distinct art form in Japan in the 15th century, and is now practiced all over the world, including Pakistan. The attention given to the choice of plant material and container, the placement of branches, and the relationship of the branches to the container and the surrounding space, has distinguished this art from simply decorative uses of flowers. The fragrance of flowers and artistic skill with creative approach gives spiritual as well as aesthetic pleasure to the viewers of this form of art. Then flowers do not look like flowers but art. (End)