With its origins entwined in Kyoto at the Rokkakudo temple, Ikenobo is one of the oldest schools of ikebana flower arrangement in Japan. Around 1400 years ago, priests made floral offerings to the Buddha. These priests lived near a pond ( ‘ike’) in a small hut (‘bo’) and thus began to be called by the name ‘Ikenobo’

Kimiko Gunji Sensei, Associate Professor of Japanese Arts and Culture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has joined us in the past as a respected teacher of Japanese tea and kokoro (‘heart’, ‘mind,’ or ‘spirit’) for the International Japanese Garden Training Center.  We are honored that Gunji Sensei will be joining us again, this time to give a demonstration of Ikenobo ikebana as part of the bamboo basket and flower exhibition, Hanakago: The Art of Bamboo and Flowers.