My Tokonoma

Any connoisseur of Japanese art must surely shudder at my offering today. The hallmark of Japanese art, in my view, should be perfection in simplicity. Part of that perfection must be precision. Today's offering is not precise.

Today, I've learned that it is not enough to level the tripod. It must be facing the object to be photographed full-on, ie, at 90 degrees. Otherwise all sorts of distortions come into play.

And I shouldn't really pretend that I can do Japanese flower arranging even if I did follow the instructions in a book. But it's such a beautiful art and I so wanted to try.

A tokonoma in a Japanese house is an alcove dedicated to displaying beautiful objects, such as incense burners, candle holders, scrolls of calligraphy and flower arrangements (ikebana).

I don't have an alcove, so had to improvise with a backdrop and a low coffee table. The calligraphy on the scroll, which I bought from Japan, says 'Family.'

I wanted to match it with a flower arrangement. The pussy willow is now  flowering and not at its pristine best, which is a mark against it. The daffodils are pretty and as luck would have it, I had an onyx ashtray, bought in Oman, which did acceptable duty as a flower vase.

Ah well. Basil and I did get out to visit Sue and Kal.