Chelsea Old Town Hall (Small Hall)
Kings Road, London SW3 5EE
Tel: 020 7361 2220

11:00am - 7:00pm

This event offers an exhibition of flower arrangements for tea ceremony and an opportunity to experience tea ceremony and try flower arranging.

CHABANA is the art of arranging flowers to decorate a tea ceremony room. Goyo-kai is trying to make CHABANA a part of everyday life, not just for the tea ceremony.

The essence of CHABANA is to preserve and reproduce the beauty of trees, branches, leaves and flowers as they appear in nature. In the wild, some flowers bloom for only one day. Nevertheless, they bloom proudly and confidently without any indication of the hardship they endure for many months.

It is these flowers that are the most prized in CHABANA. To make fine flower arrangements, CHABANA students must not only develop their technique, but also their hearts. The aesthetic of CHABANA is, at its deepest level, based on the sublime simplicity and tranquility of Zen, which in also the root of the tea ceremony.

Accordingly, CHABANA arrangements typically involve only one or two elements, striving to use the smallest quantity of these elements as possible. We try to cut out every dispensable part to reveal trees, and flowers at their most beautiful. This minimalist approach leads to refined lines and a profound spirituality, hidden in seemingly simple forms. Since antiquity, the Japanese people have admired the turning of the seasons, and in CHABANA, certain flowers symbolize each season. We hope you discover in CHABANA exhibition a bit of the Japanese heart and its delicate sense of beauty.

This event is supported by the Embassy of Japan.