Japanese Flower Arrangement - IKEBANA

Japanese Flower Arrangement or also known as IKEBANA is more than simply putting flower in a container. It is Japanese traditional of art about decorating as well creating a harmony between human and nature. In Ikebana the art is include the vase or container, stems, leave, branches and flowers. Each of them has meaning.

Ikebana decorating can reflected our mood, it can be made which such theme line, for example when we are happy the decorating can be made as merry as we want just like our mood.

The history of Japanese flower arrangement can be track back when Buddhism was introduced to Japan.  Ikebana evolved from the Buddhist ritual of offering flowers to the spirits of the dead on the altar as part of worship.

At the beginning Ikebana was very simple, it was constructed only a very few stems of flowers and evergreen branches. This kind of decorating called Kuge. A more sophisticated style of Japanese flower arrangement, called Rikka (standing flowers), appeared in the fifteenth century. Ikebana with Rikka style reflects the magnificence of nature and its display.

Basically, IKEBANA has some styles:

Rikka Style, using 9 main branches. Ikebana – Rikka has one core basic branch and from this core can be made simply just like our mood during the time.

Shoka Style, using 3 main branches. Ikebana – Shoka was found as the development of Rikka which was considered to be more complicated. Seika or Shōka style consists of only three main branches, known as ten (heaven), 'chi' (earth), and 'jin' (human). It is a simple style that is designed to show the beauty and uniqueness of the plant itself.

Nagaire Style. The typical of Ikebana – Nagaire is using a tall container or vase. The style is characterized by a tight bundle of stems that form a triangular three-branched asymmetrical arrangement which was considered classic.

Moribana Style.  It was born when Meiji restoration. The typical of Ikebana – Moribana is using a lower or medium container.

Nowadays Japanese flower arrangement not only made by fresh flowers but also silk flower. Ikebana not only confined with flowers but every material can be used such as plastic, metal, stone.   

Uniquely Japan

Talking about Japan is like a never ending story, so many interesting things to talk about. It’s cuisine, beautiful scene, art, technology, language, fashion, their strong tradition and many things. Just like its name “ The land of the Rising Sun”, they say it was created by the God’s of Sun, and the Japanese Emperor is the Son of Sun God. Japan’s flag picture is also from the legend.

Tokyo is the capital city of Japan which is the largest metropolitan area in the world. Japan has the world’s tenth-largest population, with 6852 islands and greatly varies climate. Japan also the leading of scientific research particularly technology.

In related to their strong culture, you can easily find things in many countries related to their culture, Ikebana, Sushi, Origami, Aikido, Anime and many other things.

Japan diversity and its unique can simply attracted people to learn more about it or just to try it. One good example is sushi, this famous cuisine has variety taste and it serves with spick and span. A unique fact about sushi that most of the chefs are men as it’s related to body temperature, research shows that men temperature is lower than women. Temperature influences the making of sushi because raw seafood is susceptible to temperature changing.

Another famous thing from Japan is Cherry Tree, this flower is a very important symbol for Japanese, cherry tree is like a metaphor to immortal life. The flower only blossom in spring. So if you have any intention to visit Japan for a holiday and the beauty of cherry blossom come around April.

Let's Make Sushi

Executive Summary About How To Make Sushi By Maggie Tan

Sushi is much much more than raw fish. I have been a victim to my addiction for sushi and had paid silly prices in sushi bars and restaurants. These are 5 Steps to the Perfect Sushi:

1) Sushi Rice
This is the essentially the heart of sushi, so if you get this right, you are 80% to making the perfect sushi! It is therefore not surprising that Sushi Experts place so much emphasis on how to prepare Sushi Rice.
Unlike normal long grains, sushi rice grains are a lot starchier. Use a damp clean cloth to cover the bowl to prevent the sushi rice from losing moisture.
*Important* Never store sushi rice in the fridge as the sushi rice will lose its moisture and taste exactly like the hard and gunny sushi that you get from supermarkets or even some sushi restaurants and bars

2) Nori
Very often, we think of nori as just the seaweed sheet for rolling sushi. However, nori plays a very important role in delivering the flavor and aroma of sushi.
Toasted nori are also more aromatic.
Over handling of the nori is a mistake that many sushi amateurs made.

3) Rolling the Roll
A pretty sushi looking sushi will whet a person's appetite even before he/she bite into the sushi. Hence, care must be taken in rolling the sushi.
Rolling the sushi roll is actually not difficult. The key to this is not to overstuff the sushi with rice and ingredients. A thin layer of sushi rice that covers the surface of the nori is sufficient.

4) Cutting the Roll
What you need is a sharpen knife so you can avoid excessive sawing motion and more critically, you need a slightly wet knife so that it will run smoothly through the roll. The knife needs to be lightly wet for every single cut.

5) Garnish & Decorations
When it comes to packaging, Japanese is King. Just use small vegetable cutters to cut out flower from carrots and cucumbers. To give it more colours, you can use red, green or yellow capsicums as well. Even just strips of these colourful vegetables will spice up your platter tremendously.

 Sushi is a very neat dish, so don't scatter your garnishing all over, but place them neatly along side the sushi. So Good Luck with your own SUSHI ^_^

How To Make Flower Origami

Executive Summary About Origami Flowers by Erich Simko

Origami is a Japanese word meaning the art of folding papers into shapes to create decorative objects. Learning how to make origami flowers will give you a sense of pride and accomplishment.

Any local hobby, or art store would carry the specific color or colors of origami paper that you may need to construct your flowers. You can use regular newspaper but it is usually too thick for the folding process, however the specialized origami paper is thin enough and cut to the right size and shape.

One of the easiest origami flowers to make is the rose. Four sheets of origami paper are needed, one sheet for the leaves (green) and three sheets for the flower (red). Origami square base is the pattern that will be used to fold all three of the red pieces. Take one square and fold it on the diagonals, then on the East-West line and the North-south line.

Make an imaginary line through the paper, then fold and unfold the right corner of the base to the middle of the imaginary line. Perform the same steps on the other two pieces of red origami paper. Origami flower art is an inexpensive hobby that can be very rewarding. The creation of origami flowers gets faster the more of these lovely flowers you make.

Money Origami

Money Origami  is one of kind origami which is interesting to be learned.  Even though the true spirit of money origami has always been kept hidden and being a secret from the main stream, however  we can seek a very good books about it and few been published.  

The true form of Money origami is Orikane.  Origami means to fold “paper” while Orikane means to fold “money”. Although it is still in grey area, as Orikane is a form or Origami, without Origami it would not have been created, but Orikane has art itself. 

Many people assume that was japanese immigrant who brought this art when they came to America in the late of 70’s, they began folding One Dollar Bills in to works or art, but the exact origin is remain unknown up until now. It’s spread very fast throughout middle class of America due to its exciting new craze, by the time the immigrant started to mingle in a higher society so did the money origami.

It’s always been an up hill struggle to learn for a perfect Orikane, but few mastered some exquisite origami with the Hundred Dollar Bill. This hundred dollar bill has been a rich men hobby because it requires many notes to practice and there is no quick way in learning it.

You can easily find how to learn Orikane in Video nowadays, even the online one. Some only show you the simple one and some other teaches you to the core.

To enhance the figure, you need to utilize the patterns, that what is called the true “ Money Origami”. There can be very clear and distinct eye markings on the figures as features and this is one of the obvious example. The different lies for a true Orikane folder would take these in to consideration and fold accordingly.

The dollar bill patterns stimulate thousands of people across the world as it creates a whole new fresh approach with its complex folds and clever fusions.