May workshops, classes, and demonstrations:
Tuesdays, May 2, 9, 26, 23
Ikebana Flower Arrangement- Ikenobo School (Class)
Time: Beginners – 11am – 1pm
Intermediate – 1pm – 3pm*
Cost: $80 (Morikami Members $70) Advance Registration Required
*Intermediate courses are for students with prior experience or have taken at least three sessions of Ikebana classes.
Flower arranging, ikebana, is a traditional Japanese art form spanning centuries. Ikebana has various different schools of study, each with unique philosophies and aesthetics. Dating back to the 15th century, the IkenoboSchool is the oldest and most traditional. Students in this course learn the basic principles and style of Ikenobo, creating fresh flower arrangements each week to take home and enjoy.
Wednesdays, May 3, 10, 17, 24
Ikebana Flower Arrangement: Sogetsu School (Class)
Time: Beginners – 10:00am –12:00pm
Intermediate – 1:30pm – 3:30pm*
Cost: $80 (Morikami Members $70) Advance Registration Required
Flower arranging, ikebana, is a traditional Japanese art form spanning centuries. Ikebana has various different schools of study, each with unique philosophies and aesthetics. The Sogetsu School is a contemporary school which focuses on the creativity and individuality of ikebana. The idea is that ikebana can be done by anyone, anywhere, with almost anything. Students will learn the basics of Sogetsu and create pieces each week to take home and enjoy. *Intermediate courses are for students with prior experience.
Thursdays, May 4, 11, 18, 25
Sumi-e Ink Painting (Floral Beginner) (Class)
Time: Floral – 10:30am – 12:30pm
Cost: $70 (Morikami Members $65) Advance Registration Required
Sumi-e is a form of Japanese ink painting brought from China in the 12th century. Primarily done in black ink, the name literally means “charcoal drawing” in Japanese. Students grind their own ink using an ink stick and a grinding stone and learn to hold and utilize brushes to create the primary sumi-e brushstrokes. Floral and landscape classes will start with a review of the basic techniques before moving on to the main subject.
Fridays, May 5, 12, 19, 26
Sumi-e Ink Painting (Class)
Time: Floral – 10:30am – 12:30pm
Landscape – 1:30pm – 3:30pm
Cost: $70 (Morikami Members $65) Advance Registration Required
Sumi-e is a form of Japanese ink painting brought from China in the 12th century. Primarily done in black ink, the name literally means “charcoal drawing” in Japanese. Students grind their own ink using an ink stick and a grinding stone and learn to hold and utilize brushes to create the primary sumi-e brushstrokes. Floral and landscape classes will start with a review of the basic techniques before moving on to the main subject.
Friday, May 5
Takuichi Fujii: The Artist and the Person
Joint presentation by Curator Barbara Johns and Art Historian Sandy Kita
Sponsored by JM Family Enterprises Inc.
Time: 1:00pm
Cost: FREE with paid museum admission.
No reservations. Tickets will be given out the day of the event, at a first come, first served basis.
I. Takuichi Fujii: Artist and Wartime Witness – Talk by Barbara Johns
Barbara Johns will discuss Takuichi Fujii’s life and art in its historical context, with particular focus on the World War II experience of Japanese Americans on the West Coast. Her talk will provide a close look at Fujii’s wartime diary, which has been called “the most detailed and informative” document of its kind and provides the basis for the majority of paintings in the current exhibition.
II. II. Takuichi Fujii: A Japanese Path to Modern Art – Talk by Sandy Kita
As an immigrant from Japan, Fujii was Japanese not only in language, but also in culture. Japanese culture offered a way of becoming a modern artist that embraced, not rejected, its traditional arts back to the Heian Period (794-1185). This talk concerns how one experience that Sandy Kita’s Grandpa had in incarceration provided one step in his development towards a Japanese form of Abstract Expressionism.
Barbara Johns is an art historian, curator, and author, with a doctorate in art history from the University of Washington. She was formerly the chief curator of the Tacoma Art Museum. She previously held curatorial positions at the Seattle Art Museum, when she also managed regional projects for the Archives of America Art. Following her museum work, she served as executive director of Pilchuck Glass School. As an independent scholar, her work in the past two decades has focused on Issei, or immigrant-generation Japanese American, artist. Her books include The Hope of Another Spring: Takuichi Fujii, Artist and Wartime Witness (2017); Signs of Home: The Paintings and Wartime Diary of Kamekichi Tokita (2011); Paul Horiuchi: East and West (2008), and most recently, Kenjiro Nomura, American Modernist (2021). She is the curator of Witness to Wartime: The Painted Diary of Takuichi Fujii, which opened at the Washington State History Museum in 2017 and is touring nationally until 2025.
Sandy Kita (Ph.D., Univ. of Chicago, 1981) is Professor and Senior Scholar at Chatham University, Pittsburgh, PA. He is the author of five books, 10 scholarly articles, and a dozen other publications. His The Last Tosa: IwasaKatsumochi Matabei, Bridge to Ukiyo-e (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999), won the Millard Meiss and Japan Foundation subventions and was nominated for the Charles Rufus Morey Award and twice for the Shimada Shujirō Prize. He has curated over 60 exhibitions of Japanese prints, including those of the art museums of the universities of Maryland, Oregon, Virginia, Wisconsin, Washington as well as Berea, Beloit, Union, and Chatham Colleges. For his exhibition of the Japanese print collection of the Library of Congress published in The Floating World: Shadows, Dreams, and Substance (New York: Harry N. Abrams,
Inc., Publishers, in Association with the Library of Congress, 2001), he spoke at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. He has also been the Ellen Bayrd Weedon Lecturer, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia,
and spoke yearly at the U.S. Department of State until he retired. In 1993, Dr. Kita was inducted into the Freshman Honor Society Phi Eta Sigma for the Distinguished Teaching of Undergraduates at the University of Pittsburgh and in 2001, became A Lily Center for Teaching Excellence Teaching Fellow at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD. With Shojo Honda, Chief Research Librarian in the Japanese Division of the Library of Congress, he translated the art diary of his grandfather, Takuichi Fujii, selections out of which appear in Barbara Johns’ Hope for Another Spring (University of Washington Press, 2017). He is presently writing a memoir of his grandfather.
Sunday, May 6
Family Fun: Children’s Day
Time: 10am – 4pm
Cost: FREE for members or with paid museum admission
Join us in celebrating Children’s Day by making a koinobori, a Japanese flying carp, an origami kabuto hat, or color in a Japanese kimono-inspired bookmark.
Sundays, May 7, 21 or Thursdays, May 11, 25
Sado: Tea Ceremony (Beginners) (Class)
Time: 10:15am -12:15am
Cost: $60 (Morikami Members $55) Advance Registration Required
Expand upon your knowledge of Japanese tea ceremony in this hands-on class. Perform traditional Japanese tea ceremony, with its ever-evolving seasonal subtleties, in the authentic Seishin-an Tea House under the guidance of instructor Yoshiko Hardick. The tea ceremony changes from month to month and from season to season.
Sundays, May 7, 21
Sado: Tea Ceremony (Intermediate) (Class)
Time: 1:00pm – 4:00pm
Cost: $60 (Morikami Members $55) Advance Registration Required
Expand upon your knowledge of Japanese tea ceremony in this hands-on class. Perform traditional Japanese tea ceremony, with its ever-evolving seasonal subtleties, in the authentic Seishin-an Tea House under the guidance of instructor Yoshiko Hardick. The tea ceremony changes from month to month and from season to season. Intermediate course requires approval by the instructor before registering.
Saturday, May 13
Koto (Demonstration)
Time: 12pm, 1:30pm or 3pm
Cost: $5 with paid admission to the museum
Koto is a traditional Japanese stringed instrument first introduced to Japan from China in the 7th-8th centuries. Learn the fascinating history of this exquisite instrument and listen to its captivating and tranquil sounds demonstrated by koto teacher Mrs. Yoshiko Carlton. Be introduced to the basics of how this instrument is played and receive a koto music sheet of the most famous Japanese song Sakura, “Cherry Blossom.”
Saturday, May 27
Sado: The Way of Tea (Demonstration)
Time: 12pm, 1:30pm or 3pm
Cost: $5 with paid museum admission.
Observe Japanese sadō, an ever-changing demonstration rich in seasonal subtleties. Your involvement in the true spirit of sadō — harmony (wa), reverence (kei), purity (sei), tranquility (jaku) — along with a sip of matcha green tea and a sweet will help you bring a calm perspective into your busy life.
Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens is located at 4000 Morikami Park Road, Delray Beach. For more information, call (561) 495-0233 or visit morikami.org.