Art presents a glimpse of a country’s culture and offers a window into better understanding a society.  Just as music and dance can underscore vividly different rhythms contrasting traditional Western from Eastern cultures, flower arrangements, although in silence and in stillness, make dramatic statements about cultural values. 

The kotkoji classes at the Korea Society in New York City provide a hands-on education.  Participants can learn a bit more about the traditional art of Korean flower arranging, while absorbing a quiet essence of an ancient culture that still blooms, today.   

On July 10, Meena Cho, a floral sculptor trained in Korea, gave a basic lesson titled, “Shaping Summer.”  She said that based upon cave wall paintings in North Korea, scholars date this art form back to 600 A.D. 

Soft music on a kayagum, a traditional 12-string instrument, similar to a table harp, played in the background, creating a relaxing atmosphere.  Students tasted traditional Korean pastries, including small buns filled with chestnuts, and pound cake with a thin raisin and chocolate swirl, while sipping Korean tea.  A traditional, decorative Korean silk screen, depicting spring, summer, fall and winter set the backdrop of a calming afternoon.  

Ms. Cho explained how flower arrangements honor the beauty of life.  Spring presentations often use branches with sprouts and buds.  Summer displays have large leaves that provide a sense of shade to make people feel cool.  For fall, Korean florists choose branches with small fruit, and for winter, potted dry branches reflect the barren trees outside, in nature.    

While following Ms. Cho, guided by her gentle instructions, students learned the basics of kotkoji.  The class emphasized the expression of harmony, form, balance, lines and color.

Choice of flowers and the arrangements suit different occasions.  For example, red or bright flowers would be appropriate for weddings but not funerals.  Korean flower arrangements use flowers with no more than three colors.  Ms. Cho noted that too many colors would be distracting, as too much colorful clothing on a person can at times just “not look right.”     

She purposefully chose simple, brown vases that would not overshadow the beauty of the branches and flowers supported on pin forms, flat, circular, disks with porcupine-like quills, centered, and submerged in water. 

The lesson requires three “main objects”: large calla lilies, medium-sized lisianthuses, and tiny wax flowers.  All flowers balanced colors, with varying shades of a purple pink. 

She instructed students to measure and cut the calla lilies, (the primary objects) 1 1/2 to two times the diameter of the base and to place them at a 15-degree angle from an imaginary vertical axis.  Students cut the secondary objects, the lisianthuses, to 2/3 the height of the primary flowers, placing them at a 45-degree angle from the vertical axis.   Trimming the third objects to 1/3 the height of the primary objects, the students bent tiny wax flowers to a 75-degree angle from the vertical axis.  The class of experimenting florists trimmed the branches and green leaves of the ruscus plant, pittosporum, as subordinate objects, which surrounded and visually supported each of the main three objects.  They carefully placed the leafy branches to follow each of the lines of the flowers. 

Ms. Cho said Korean arrangements emphasize structure and unlike Western arrangements, avoid symmetry.  Korean flower arrangements open with a 3/4 viewing angle, gesturing a face.  Kotkoji uses an odd numbers of flowers, often three or five, contemplating balance through lines, angles and sizes.  This contrasts with what may be more typical in the United States—bouquets with bursts of colorful flower heads, crowding a round opening of a vase, without branches or leaves—beauty but of another nature.

However, just as globalization has affected fashion, food, technology and other art, for certain occasions, Koreans prefer Western floral designs, just as people in Western countries also have gained an appreciation for the aesthetics of Korean kotkoji and Japanese ikebana. 

The one and a half hour of instruction and practice ended with students having their decorative floral creations to take home.  More importantly, the class also allowed students to take with them a shared cultural experience of an ancient artistry that still speaks of discipline, subtly and grace. 

The Korea Society hosts the second session of the kotkoji series, a more advanced class, on Saturday, July 24, 2010 at 2:00 p.m.  Space is limited and advanced registration is required.  For more information, contact Natalee Newcombe, (212) 759-7525, ext. 328 at The Korea Society, 950 Third Avenue, 8^th Floor, New York, New York and view the website www.koreasociety.org.

Betsy Kim is a writer living in New York City.