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Moorings--The World of United Nations Peoples
The April sun stood high in a powder blue sky.
"All this to see flowers?" A young man trudged alongside his girlfriend and frowned at the line that stretched down Eastern Parkway for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's 20th Annual Cherry Blossom Festival. I smiled as the couple passed.
That might have been my attitude weeks earlier. After taking Ikebana classes-the Japanese art of flower arrangements-with Nobue Miyauchi at the United Nations, my view changed. Each style-shiyoka, moribana, nageire and chabana-required strict rules for its creation. I signed up for moribana. Students were instructed to bring scissors, flower wrapper and towels. When I arrived, five classmates bustled about tables adorned in white paper. Shipping boxes lined the rear wall. Nobue, a Japanese woman with a long, black ponytail, was surrounded by flowers in ice water and branches wrapped in brown paper. "Come in. Set up."
"We have to choose a kenzan and vase", a participant who'd taken the shiyoka class explained. The kenzan or "flower frog", a heavy pronged disk, must be placed in the centre of the vase. Branches and stems are driven into it to anchor the...