Hanford, California

Clark Center’s Spring Festival and KAZARI: Bonsai Display Competition, May 16

 

Cultural News, 2009 April Issue

 

 

On Saturday May 16, the Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture in Hanford at the Central Valley of California will hold its 9th Spring Festival. In the past, the annual Spring Festival took place in April but this year will be held in conjunction with KAZARI, the first national competition on the art of displaying bonsai.

 

At the Spring Festival, local artists and vendors including glass blowers, potters, jewelry makers, will sell their wares. Hands-on classes will give visitors a chance to experience pottery, origami, and sand stone art. Bonsai and ikebana workshops are also part of the program as is a tea demonstration and tours through the close-by private Japanese garden.

 

The Festival will start at 10 a.m. and last until 5 p.m. Hanford's Geta Xpress will provide food and Fresno Gumyo Taiko drummers will provide the entertainment.

 

Unique this year, visitors to the Spring Festival will have the chance to enjoy KAZARI, the first national competition on the art of displaying bonsai in a tokonoma alcove. Each one of the 17 competitors will be coming from all over the state to create a unique display. Naturally, the bonsai tree is a vital part of the display but, different from other bonsai competitions, it is not the best tree that will win this event. The challenge is to consciously create a harmonious display that uses the entire allotted space.

 

KAZARI, held Saturday May 16 until Sunday May 17, is a competition that will be judged by a panel of judges. The competitors will be awarded $2,500 for first place, $1,000 for second place, and $500 for third place. Judging criteria are for example the cohesiveness of the display, the viewing enjoyment, the communication between the accessories.

 

Kazari is a general term for display or decoration. Niwa-kazari describes a display in the garden, tana-kazari a display on a shelf. Seki-kazari (lit. straw-mat display) is the term used to describe a display in a fixed space, emphasizing either on a bonsai or a suiseki, an unhewn stone formed by nature.

 

The Clark Center's KAZARI event focuses on toko-kazari, a display in a tokonoma, the traditional alcove in a Japanese house where art is

displayed according to the season. The museum gallery will be divided in 17 equal spaces, each space approximately the size of an average tokonoma.

 

The 17 competitors will be either individuals or groups, for example a club working as a team. Each competitor has freedom in the arrangement of the display. There are no fixed rules for the use of hanging scrolls and subsidiary ornaments like suiseki or shitakusa (complementary, potted plant).

 

Care must be taken not to overload and clutter the display. The traditional Japanese triangle of the bonsai representing Man, the scroll

being Heaven, and the subsidiary ornament standing for Earth, is just one way of creating an appealing toko-kazari. The schedule are following:

 

Saturday, May 16

10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Spring Festival

11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. KAZARI

5:30 - 7 p.m. KAZARI evening wine and cheese reception with

announcement of the winners ($5 for members, $10 for non-members)

 

Sunday, May 17

10:00 a.m. - 12 p.m. Lecture on the art of tokonoma display by Hideko Metaxas, President Emeritus of the Golden State Bonsai Federation ($10 for members, $20 for non-members)

12 - 3:00 p.m. KAZARI

 

For further information and registration for Spring Festival/KAZARI contact the Clark Center at (559) 582-4915 or download the RSVP form from the website www.ccjac.org.