霜月November
かつてよく通ったことのある坂道の途中に、誰の目にも印象に残るであろう鬼子母神真成寺（きしぼじんしんじょうじ）と深く刻まれた石柱がドンと立っている。こんどはお寺を訪ねてみようと足腰を労りながら坂道を登ると、石柱と並んで赤く染まった柘榴が旬をむかえていた。山門を跨ぎ、「どうぞご自由にお入りください」という貼紙を見て本堂の戸を開けると願かけ千羽鶴が沢山、目に仕舞い。住職のお出ましを願う。
五百人とも千人とも云われている子供を持ちながら、他人（ひと）の子供を食べるという仏伝に極めつきの鬼母が、ある日お釈迦さまに大切な子供の一人を隠される。鬼母は気も狂わんばかりの悲嘆に暮れ、お釈迦様におすがりする。「子供を失った母親の気持ちはいかばかりか」と悟され慈悲心に目覚める。それからは子安形の鬼子母神として左手に赤ん坊、右手に子宝を象徴する吉祥果柘榴を携えて人々を救済する姿になられた。
鬼子母神真成寺の須弥壇の中央に安置された座像には、子授けや安産が適った母親たちから百徳の着物として奉納されるようになり、「ここには百徳を積んだ着物が300着余り保存されていますよ」とお聞きして活けた柘榴です。
花材：柘榴、小菊、石蕗（ツワブキ）、野菊、ツルウメモドキ
器：江崎 満 焼〆
On the way along the sloping path that I used to walk often, there stands a highly-visible stone column, on which the letters of ‘Kishibojin Shinjoji Temple’ are deeply engraved.When I walked up the slope, watching out for my back and legs yet thinking to visit the temple next time, red pomegranate at the peak of its season alongside another stone column welcomed me. Crossing the temple gate, I read a notice on the door to the main hall saying ‘please feel free to come in’. On opening the door, my eyes were overwhelmed by many strings of one-thousand origami cranes, made for prayer. I asked the chief priest to come out.
In the biographies of Buddha, there is a story of the most notorious mother, who eats other people’s children even though she herself has many – 500 or maybe 1,000 – children. One day Buddha hid one of her precious children. It gave her so much suffering and sorrow that she went to Buddha to implore for help. ‘How do you think about the feeling of mothers who lost their child?’ Buddha asked her, awakening her to mercy. The mother thereafter became Hariti, the goddess of childbirth and children, holding a baby in the left hand and a pomegranate, a lucky omen fruit, in the right.
The sitting figure placed in the centre of the Shumidan(*1) of Kishibojin Shinjoji Temple became the place where mothers, whose wishes for childbirth or safe delivery were delivered, came to offer their Hyakutoku Kimono(*2). As I heard that ‘there are around 300 Hyakutoku Kimono preserved here’, I made this arrangement of pomegranate.
*1) Platform to enshrine Buddha in Buddhist altar.
*2) Kimono made by patching one hundred pieces of Kimono cloth given by neighbours, friends or family members, with the wish of ‘having one hundred pieces of luck’. One of the old childbirth-related customs in Kanazawa since the Edo period.
Materials used in the flower arrangement
Pomegranate, small chrysanthemum, leopard plant, wild chrysanthemum, oriental bittersweet
Pottery
Yakishime (unglazed earthenware fired at a high temperature) by Mitsuru Ezaki
道念邦子 Kuniko Donen
14歳より生け花をはじめる。
花仕事「季刊誌・動橋（いぶりばし）」
酒歳時記「山乃尾」（やまのお）「金城楼」（きんじょうろう）
「コンテンポラリーいけばな作品集」婦人画報社 掲載
「葉蘭」（はらん）「松」主婦の友社 掲載
2006年より曹洞宗廣誓寺（こうせいじ）の行事の花を生ける
2007年より韓国にて草藁（くさわら）工芸をはじめる
個展・グループ展多数
Started Ikebana practice at age of 14.
Worked with: the quarterly magazine ‘Iburibashi’;
‘Sake Poetry: Yamanoo restaurant; Kinjyoro restaurant;
among others. Featured in ‘Contemporary Ikebana Collection’ (publisher: Fujingaho).
Featured in ‘Haran’ and ‘Matsu’ (publisher: SHUFUNOTOMO Co., Ltd.).
Has been making arrangements for events at Kouseiji Buddhism temple since 2006.
Started Kusawara Craft in South Korea from 2007.
Has been exhibiting in a number of solo and group exhibitions.
photo:Nik van der Giesen
