Ikenobo Swiss Central Chapter

The Ikenobo Swiss Central Chapter is the official Swiss branch of the Ikenobo Ikebana Society, Kyoto. With the permission of the headmaster Ikenobo Sen'ei, it was founded in 1999 by Shunzuen Suzue Rother-Nakaya.

Suzue Nakaya was born near Hiroshima. At the age of seven, she received her first lessons in the art of flower arranging from Sadamasa-sensei, who soon took her to seminars at the Ikenobo Academy in Kyoto. With her teaching diploma, she was given the ikebana name Shunzuen (春告園, Messenger of Spring).

After studying at Hiroshima University to become a teacher, she continued her education at the Ikenobo Academy in Kyoto. There she attained the highest degree of the Ikenobo school: Sokatoku, Senior Professor of Ikebana, 18th degree. Through numerous demonstrations and exhibitions, she became known in Japan and later in Switzerland. She has been teaching in Switzerland since the 1970s.

In the meantime, she has trained a good dozen ikebana teachers in Switzerland. She regularly gives courses for beginners and seminars for advanced students throughout German-speaking Switzerland and in Ticino. In 1995, AT Verlag Aarau published her book Ikebana. Eine Einführung in die japanische Blumenkunst (2nd edition 2002).