“Those who deeply admire flowers, their grace, their beauty, have hearts that must be equally beautiful.” Mokichi Okada
Art & Cultural Activities enhance the spiritual sentiments of the human being. Everything on earth, including the human being, has a rich and full life-sustaining energy (spiritual energy). And this energy is demonstrated in beauty. Okada realized that if we enjoy the beauty of nature and incorporate it into our daily lives, our life-sustaining energy would become rich and our spiritual sentiments would be uplifted. Because of his understanding, he collected art pieces and built art museums.
He felt that the Japanese tea ceremony Chanoyu and art of flower arrangement were good models for incorporating beauty in harmony with nature into our daily lives. Mokichi Okada saw the civilized world as it was meant to be: a world of beauty, where everything is elevated to the level of an art form.
Flower Arranging plays a principal role in the movement to promote art and culture; a movement that builds honest interpersonal relationships and cultivates the spirit necessary to establish an artistically rich society. Okada understood that a simple flower arrangement encourages appreciation of all beautiful things. Furthermore, the effect of the vital energy emanated by the beauty of flowers has also drawn interest in the field of medical care. A variety of medical facilities have reported that physical and mental sufferings have been abated or improved through contact with flowers.
Tea Ceremony Chanoyu, or the Japanese tea ceremony, is an embodiment of wabi-sabi, an intricately and finely-nuanced emotional and spiritual appreciation of the world that is unique to Japanese culture. It manifests in daily life the sense of beauty intrinsic to the ceremony. Okada regarded the tea ceremony as a comprehensive art form, combining two aspects of traditional consciousness: beauty and awareness of nature. Regarding the tea ceremony as a vital element in Japanese art and culture, he hoped to promote further exchanges between Eastern and Western civilizations by introducing the spirit of the tea ceremony to the world.
It is practiced at the Wellness Center as a therapy to help one become more reflective of the importance of each moment which will never reoccur (ichigo ichie) and incorporate more harmony, respect, purity and tranquility (wakei seijaku) into our daily lives.