The Botanical Garden at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) hosted an event titled Beauty Under the Maple’s Shade. Visitors could experience the beauty of the plants displayed and the mysteries of Japanese traditions, BAS said on Monday.
Special guests at the event were Takayuki Shinozawa, councilor at the Embassy of Japan in Bulgaria, and Kento Muraki, cultural attaché of Japan in Bulgaria. The Botanical Garden’s Director, Prof. Dr. Svetlana Nikolova, welcomed the guests and presented the programme of the event, which included Japanese traditions (tea ceremony, demonstration of Katori Shintō-ryū, haiku, Ikebana, calligraphy, and origami) and Bulgarian folk songs.
Dr. Ina Aneva, scientific secretary of BAS’s Biodiversity, Bioresources and Ecology Division, expressed great appreciation and gratitude to the staff of the Botanical Garden for their high professionalism. Admiration for beauty has been deeply ingrained in Japanese culture since antiquity. Contemplating the beauty of nature, especially the beauty of plants, is a sublime spiritual experience aimed at personal refinement and ennoblement, purification of the heart and soul, she said.
/DS/
