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Innovation is dramatic. Survival is harder.
In this second seminar, we explore how the Ohara School navigated resistance, succession, and generational change after moribana was declared—and how a fragile experiment became an enduring lineage.
Monday, May 4, 2026, 8:30 PM EST
Format: Live online seminar via Zoom
Length: 60 minutes
Presentation Style: Lecture with slides and discussion
Registered participants will receive the Zoom access link by email a few days before the event.
This seminar focuses on history, cultural context, and institutional development rather than arrangement instruction.
Moribana had a name.
The innovation was public.
Attention followed.
But invention does not guarantee stability.
After its early declaration, the Ohara movement entered a far more complex phase—one that required structure, authority, and institutional resilience.
In this seminar, we examine what happened after the revolutionary moment, when artistic experimentation had to become an enduring lineage.
We explore:
Early resistance and questions of legitimacy
The consolidation of identity under Second Headmaster Kōun
The expansion of exhibitions and public platforms
The development of Landscape Moribana
Modernist and avant-garde energy under Third Headmaster Hōun
International exposure and cultural diplomacy
The emotional rupture surrounding Natsuki
A succession structure that placed leadership on very young shoulders
This is not a recitation of headmasters.
It is an exploration of how artistic movements survive generational transition, institutional pressure, and cultural change.
Where Apples, Hardship, and a White Basin: The Human Origins of the Ohara School reveals the uncertainty before innovation took hold, this seminar examines what came after—when fragility had to become stability.
How does a radical aesthetic become tradition?
How does a school remain innovative without losing coherence?
Those are the questions at the heart of this lecture.
This seminar may be attended independently.
Ohara Study Group membership includes four online seminars per year.
If you are considering membership, please purchase membership first. Members receive a coupon code that allows registration for seminars at no additional cost.
Learn about Membership and sign up here.
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