Your local teachers

 Emiko Suzuki is a Senior Professor 1st  grade, (Soukatoku#18) of the Ikenobo School of Ikebana, headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. Beginning her study of ikebana in 1986 with Sensei Fujii, in Aichi, Japan, Emiko was allowed to arrange flowers freely for five years and only then began traditional Ikenobo lessons, which she continued for the next 16 years. Emiko devoted one year (2006) to study the advanced rikka form with a teacher in Kyoto. For 13 years, before coming to Western North Carolina, Emiko shared her love for Ikenobo to students of all ages. Emiko's unconventional training resulted in her unique ikebana style. She obtained Tachibana prize from current Head Master , Sen'ei Ikenobo for her Free Style arrangement at Ikenobo Ikebana Institute exhibition. She not only excels in the traditional Ikenobo arrangements, but also is innovative in her free style arrangements.  

Emiko is currently President of the Blue Ridge Chapter.  As advisor and member of the chapter, Emiko served as translator for visiting professors from Japan during the past six years. She regularly presents programs for the Blue Ridge Chapter and offers lessons to a growing number of students.  Emiko led a mini study tour to Ikenobo Headquarters in Kyoto 2015, 2019, 2024 and 2025

In the past, Emiko demonstrated or exhibited ikebana at the McClung Museum at the University of Tennessee; the Franklin G. Burroughs - Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum, Myrtle Beach SC, North Carolina Museum of Art and the North Carolina Arboretum, Asheville NC.  She exhibited at Art in Bloom for the Black Mountain Center for the Arts, Gallery at Flat Rock and North Carolina Museum of Art.  Emiko presented a demonstration and two workshops for the North American Regional Conference for Ikebana International in 2014 held in Asheville, North Carolina.

In addition to ikebana, Emiko is an instructor in the art of tea ceremony, which represents the essence of Japanese culture. She gave a tea ceremony in March of 2013 at The Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina and January of 2025 at North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh.  Sometimes wearing traditional attire, Emiko enjoys sharing Japanese culture locally through the art of ikebana, tea ceremony and Japanese language lessons. Emiko graduated from Western North Carolina University with a Master of Arts in Teaching in May 2011 and a Master of Fine Arts in 2014.