This isn't a good angle to take a photo, but you can see a muginadeshiko flower well. These are indigenous summer flowers. Tuyukusa used to grow all over our garden like weeds, but in Los Angles, I bought a pot in a large nursery.
The name of these sweets is hydrangea. It's pink, purple, and bit blue. The ware is oribe pottery with dark green glaze.
I love the way the teacher's hands move. It relaxes me while my spine straightens by itself. Their hands always look roundish and move in the most economical way. It's perhaps the most ordinary skill to achieve, but it takes so many years of practice.
In a separate tea room, the flowers were arranged in a basket and placed on a lacquered board for a contrast and formality.
The flowers in the photos are all indigenous to Japan, but in the cities like Yokohama, it’s more difficult to find them nowadays. So ocha practitioners grow them in their gardens. I mentioned this before, but because we burn a fragrant wooden chip like agalwood in an ocha room just before guests arrive, we use only the ocha flowers which are selected for no fragrance.
I love gorgeous western bouquets of flowers in western settings, but in ocha rooms, simple and less are more effective.
