California Flower Art Academy

We are pleased to introduce our Brand New Program featuring Ikebana Arrangement. This program is offered at $89 including flower materials, KENZAN (needlepoint flower holder) and SUIBAN (flat type container specifically designed for Ikebana Arrangement). You can take a lesson from a well experienced Japanese Instructor who got a license and certification in Japan. Ikebana is part of Japanese traditional cultures. This arts requires even more profound and delicate sense and skills in its arrangement compared with a regular kind of flower arrangement. Although the skill,  technique and the way of arranging Ikebana is usually not utilized for typical business oriented floral decorations such as wedding or funeral flower arrangement or display and decoration at hotels etc in USA, many people still have keen interest in this particular Japanese floral art. Not only the skill and way of decorations but also tools, utensils, supplies and containers used for Ikebana are of a different kind compared with regular floral designs prevailing in Europe and USA. For Ikebana Arrangement, they use what is called “KENZAN” which is a needlepoint holder for holding flowers and flower stems. KENZAN is made of metal and it has tremendous number of needles. Due to its function and also the nature of material, it is heavy and not disposable. This is the biggest difference compared with “OASIS” which is used for a regular kind of floral arrangement. OASIS is made of chemical foam and it is very light and disposable. For holding flowers, flower stems are inserted into OASIS.  KENZAN is said to be more difficult to use for floral arrangement compared with OASIS. Another difference in utensil is a container/vase. For Ikebana arrangement, they often use flat container called “SUIBAN” which is designed specifically for Ikebana Arrangement and totally different from a regular kind of vase. Additional difference can be found in the history and a life style behind Ikebana arrangement. Most of young ladies who grew up in a decent level of society in Japan were required to earn the skill of Ikebana arrangement before getting married. Namely Ikebana was considered one of mandatory subjects young women should learn before getting married until around 40-50 years ago. By making the best use of Ikebana skills they learned before marriage, they could make interior floral decoration at home after getting married. Nowadays in Japan, European style of contemporary floral design (In Japan they call it just “Flower Arrangement” which does not mean IKEBANA but contemporary floral designs) is more popular although Ikebana used to be mainstream until about 25 to 30 years ago. By knowing above situation, if you are interested in Ikebana and want to acquire skills for making Ikebana arrangement, we are more than happy to help you by educating you based on hands on training or person to person instructions. California Flower Art Academy is pleased to announce a Brand New Program called “Ikebana Short Program” which is offered at $98 including tuition, flower materials, KENZAN and also SUIBAN introduced above. By attending this program, you will learn entry level of two kinds of Ikebana Arrangements spending about 2.5 hours. This short program is part of Ikebana Arrangement Elementary Course (offered for $210). You can join this short program as a trial lesson for evaluating our way of instruction and the quality of our lesson. If you feel comfortable and satisfied with our way of instructions, you can transfer to Ikebana Arrangement Elementary Course. By rolling over to this elementary course, you can make the best use of above mentioned KENZAN and SUIBAN you already got at Ikebana Short Program. And all you need to pay for the lesson of this elementary course is additional $151 only. California Flower Art Academy has been educating uncoutable number of students since 1990 in the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley. Our school is authorized by Flower Decorators Association which is one of the best established and prestigious floral associations in Japan. You will enjoy a training by our Ikebana Instructor who has over 30 year experience as Ikebana instructor. Lessons are offered at our San Jose main classroom and also Burlingame extension class (located in San Mateo County near San Francisco Airport). If you would like to join Ikebana Short Program, send email to info@california-academy.com We help you make a difference in floral art.