Bessie Banmi Fooks, 1st Generation Iemoto

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In her role as 1st Generation Headmaster of Banmi Shofu Ryu,  Bessie Banmi Fooks conferred the school’s first teaching certificate in 1974 to a student from her initial roster and of students in Tainan, Taiwan, Ricardo C. Carrasco.    Ric’s  propensity  with flowers  began   as  a  child  watching his  mother  arrange  ixora,  gardenia, and  jasmine flowers from the  garden ,  paricularly ,  albeit unwittingly  back  then using  kakebana  containers.   While  working  in the  Far  East as a  marketing and  advertising  executive in the 60s, Ric sought  ikenobo  ikebana  as  a  respite  from  the  rat race  of business.   Engagement  and participation in  ikebana  remained  dormant  until the  lessons  from Banmi  sensei  in Taiwan.    That was the beginning of a sustained relationship with a continuing mentorship in the way of flowers and driftwood that lasted for almost four decades.  While they taught their own students separately, exhibited and demonstrated in different venues and locations of the world, Bessie-Banmi and Ric-Bansho were always united in spirit.  In 1996, they started translating the school’s formal curriculum, based on kado manuscripts from Bansui Ohta-sensei, which until then were verbally passed from one iemoto generation to the next.  Another source of history and curriculum structure  were  Josui  Oshikawa and Hazel Gotham (1939) who provided  explicit construction instructions for creating Shofu Ryu and Ikenobo designs.  In doing so, they supplied the much needed supplementary didactic and practical foundation for Banmi Shofu Ryu. The translation and refinement of the Banmi Shofu manual is now complete, & includes updated graphic representations, Japanese and English names for each form, and dovetails with each level of Banmi Shofu study and training for future sensei.

Summer of 2014 takes Banmi Shofu Ryu across the oceans for a cultural exchange and service to Ikebana International members and officials in Japan, connecting with flower friends through a visit at the Daikakuji Temple, classical lessons from Saga Goryu, tea ceremony in Kyoto, climaxed with a demonstration, exhibition and tea at Art Laksy in Tokyo.  Image on the right features the historic Osawa Pond, which sits next door to the Daikakuji Temple.  The pond is a 1200 year old man-made body of water that is the oldest and last surviving example of a Shinden style garden.  The pond was originally built for Emperor Saga's detached palace, and was used to throw elaborate parties and for recreational activities such as boating, fishing and moon viewing. For more information about the Daikakuji Temple:  https://www.daikakuji.or.jp/english/ 

Professionally, Dr. Carrasco is an occupational therapist and a developmental neuropsychologist, and has provided clinical interventions to children, adolescents and adults with occupational dysfunction, the majority being secondary to movement and sensory processing challenges.  He is Director & Professor of the entry-level Doctor of OccupationalTherapy (OTD) program at Nova Southeastern University  at the Tampa Bay Regional Campus in Clearwater, FL in the United States of America.  He has published and presented over 500 juried articles and courses and consults across the United States and the globe.  His most recent scholarly undertaking is entitled "Flowers as Occupation: Narrative Inquiry of Shared Experiences by Ikebana Sensei," which he has presented as a juried research paper during international congresses such as World Federation of Occupational Therapists in Yokohama, Japan, and during the international research conference of the Society of the Study of Occupation, USA. Other ikebana-related studies include measuring the effect of ikebana engagement participants' anxiety-level indicated by salivary cortisol.  Dr. Carrasco also conducted a study on the difference in neurophysiological and shared experiences by ikebana sensei and deshi.

Image to the right features Dr. Carrasco capping his keynote speech during occupational therapy month celebrations at the University of El Paso-