“Ikebana is born from the encounter
of nature and humans;
it is the coming together of nature and human life. .
.
a clear example of perfect
harmony between man and nature. . .”
- Sōfū Teshigahara (1900-79)
Ikebana is seldom used as a motif in
movies. Watching Edmund Yeo’s latest short film Springtime
Nostalgia (残香/Zankō, 2013), it occurred to me that
the art of filmmaking and the art of ikebana actually have many things in
common. Both capture the ephemerality of
the natural world in a structured way and invite us to observe and reflect upon
these aspects of the world that we live in.
Edmund Yeo’s short films give the
impression that the filmmaker judiciously plans each frame and edit of his
films just as carefully as the ikebana artist selects flowers and branches and
meticulously trims and arranges them. Just
as ikebana shuns the ribbons and bows of European floral design, there are no unnecessary
adornments in Springtime Nostalgia. The emphasis is on the actors and the settings.
The lack of music focusses our attention on the subtlety of the soundtrack with
natural sounds such as the sound of the sea and local birds adding nuance to
the poetic visuals. My birder husband remarked upon the
sound of the Japanese bush warbler whose “hō-hoke-kyo” call is one of the
iconic sounds of spring.
The central narrative concerns a
woman (Kiki Sugino) who loses her
sense of smell after her lover (Akira
Orihara) disappears. The man had
loved ikebana and as part of her search for him she joins an ikebana
class. Here the woman’s story crosses
paths with the lives of an elegant ikebana teacher (Quoko Kudo) and her daughter (Eriko
Ono) who may have a connection with the missing man.
Words are inadequate to describe Springtime Nostalgia because so much of
the story concerns ideas and feelings evoked by the visual metaphors of the
film: the flower arrangements placed in
scenes, the petals on the ground, actress and producer Kiki Sugino’s expressive
face as she contemplates the flowers that she cannot smell, and so on. Past and present overlap one another in this
mysterious tale of love and loss, time and memory. Even the central protagonist herself is
uncertain which parts of her story are real and which are a dream, like a “lovely,
lingering scent” (the zankō of the
official Japanese title) stirring distant memories from the recesses of one’s
mind.
Trailer:
Afterthought
The most famous connection between
ikebana and film can be found in the films of Hiroshi Teshigahara, whose father Sōfū Teshigahara established the famous Sōgetsu School of Ikebana
whose daughter Akane Teshigahara
heads the school today. Teshigahara profiled his father and the Sōgetsu
School in his 1956 documentary Ikebana (蒼風とオブジェ いけばな / Sōfū
to Objet Ikebana). Edmund Yeo talks
about his rediscovery of the films of Teshigahara during the making of Springtime Nostalgia on
his website. Would love to hear from
readers about other films that feature ikebana.
Let me know in the comments.
Catherine Munroe Hotes 2013
Edmund Yeo Filmography
Chicken Rice Mystery (2008)
Fleeting
Images (2008)
Love
Suicides (2009)
kingyo
(2009)
The White Flower (2010)
Afternoon River, Evening Sky (2010)
NOW (2010)
Inhalation (2010)
Exhalation (2010)
Last
Fragments of Winter (2011)
Springtime Nostalgia (2013)
