Japan Cultural Festival @ ABK-AOTS Dosokai, Chennai
Today morning, I went to the Japan Cultural Festival which is being organized by the Consulate General of Japan and ABK-AOTS Dosokai (Chennai) at the later’s premises in Neslon Manickam Road, Chennai. This festival is on from 22nd March to 24th March, 2013 and is open to the public.
As a part of this festival, the organizers have arranged various demonstrations, workshops and exhibitions that highlight the various popular forms of Japanese marshal arts, dolls and crafts.
Today, I happened to attend the Nendo No Tetsukuri demonstration, which is an art that focuses on creating colorful and life-like objects like flowers, bouquets and other decorative objects in clay. Ms. Jenifer Rajkumar showed us how to make the following types of flowers using our hands.
Can you believe that all the flowers in the below decoration were made of clay?
Of course, in half an hour, I couldn’t become an expert in clay flower making or anything! Then I proceeded to the exhibition venue where they had put up many exhibits. One section focused on exhibits depicting a few world heritage sites in Japan. Have a look at a monument called Himejijo (I will do a separate post on the other sites exhibited here).
Oh, how I wish I could visit the actual place!! I could have got so many beautiful photos 🙂 It seems, the Japanese celebrate a festival called Hinamatsuri on March 3rd, every year. ‘Hina’ means dolls and ‘Matsuri’ means festival. On this festival, Hina dolls are displayed by families and people pray for the happiness and healthy growth of young girls. Have a look at some dolls on display, at this exhibition –
Also on exhibit were various origami works. Origami is a Japanese art that involves creating a figure of an object by folding a paper, in creative ways. ‘Ori’ means fold and ‘gami’ means paper, in Japanese. An Origami demonstration will be conducted by Mr. TS Subash & Mr. VR Karthik (of the Origami Society of Madras) at 3:00 PM today (22nd March) and 11:00 AM tomorrow (23rd March). Have a look at some origami exhibits on display –
There was a separate section for bonsai (art of planting and growing miniature trees in tray-like containers) and cacti exhibits. Various techniques including leaf trimming, pruning and wiring are used to create unique aesthetics of the bonsai plants. A bonsai demonstration will be held on 24th March, 11:00 AM. Have a look at a bonsai exhibit and a miniature cacti exhibit below –
Ibekana is the Japanese flower arrangement technique. It’s more than just arranging flowers in a decorative way, as this art form focuses on arranging living branches, leaves, grasses and flowers in a creative way in order to symbolize nature and humanity being brought together. Have a look at one beautiful Ibekana arrangement below –
Other than these, there will also be Judo, Karate and Kobudo (ancient Japanese martial art forms) tomorrow at 2:00 PM, 4:00 PM & 5:00 PM respectively. If you are in Chennai, you might want to attend any of these demonstrations or just have a look at the exhibition. The exhibition is open for general public from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM on 22nd to 24th March, 2013.
Destination Infinity
Photos: Destination8Infinity. All photos published under this creative commons license.
Fascinating! All the crafts are simply beautiful. I would love to learn ikebana and the art of bonsai, someday… Where is your clay flower?
I didn’t even touch any clay 🙂 We were just shown how to do it, if we are interested we could buy colourful clay and make these things at home. Obviously, this is not going to happen with me 🙂
Destination Infinity
Beautiful pics DI. I love Origami and have tried it couple of times too. And Bonsai is something that my mom loves. You are lucky, you got a chance to visit this place.
These days, places I need to visit come to me rather than me searching for them!
Destination Infinity
Unbelievable that those flowers are made of clay! The dolls are cute
Wish I could check this festival if conducted in future again. The bonsai always leaves me at amaze! Hope there is many to lean through this festival on Japanese culture.
Yes, we need to learn a lot from Japanese. Fortunately, they are reaching out to other countries through shows and exhibitions like these. Japan is one of my favorite countries and I hope to learn a lot from there, in the near future.
Destination Infinity
I love Japanese Artworks. But my favorite one is missing in the pics :O……Anime/Manga. Where are those ?? 😛
I have heard of Manga. But what is this Anime? I need to familiarize myself with Japanese comics!!
Destination Infinity
Manga is the comics & Anime is the animated movies. Sometimes they are used inter-changeably. 🙂
If I can recommend- try watching Ghibli Studio movies.They are amazing.
I will definitely watch the Anime animated movies as recommended by you 🙂
Destination Infinity
The Kokeshi dolls, the Origami and the Japanese artworks are definitely worth visiting for 🙂
Yes 🙂
Destination Infinity
Amazing! Loved the works here. Japan has such a rich culture. I love everything about them! 🙂
That modular swan (Origami) is one my wishful projects. Soon 🙂 Thanks for the lovely review!
Clay is soemthing I dabbkle wtih but this is taking it to an entirely new level! Wow!
Oh, you are taking up the biggest challenge first (modular swan)? All the best 🙂
Destination Infinity