Hwa Kong

February 2004, Exhibition in Westin Chosun

February 2004, Exhibition in Westin Chosun

February 2004, Exhibition in Westin Chosun


Wha Kong Association

Im Wha Kong was born in Kan Weon Do, Republic of Korea in 1924. At present she serves as chairman of the board of directors of Im Wha Kong Flower Arrangement Society. The Im Wha Kong Society Hall is foreigners for its ikebana instruction and its promotion of friendship among those who share a mutual interest in flowers.

Mrs. Im is the owner of Wha Kong Weon(Garden) in the suburb of Seoul. The garden boasts an abundance of plants and flowers, and it also contains a fire-burning kiln where she produces white porcelain flower containers of her original design.




Im Wha Kong


About Im Wha Kong

Im Wha Kong was born in 1924 in Kang Won Do, Korea, where her grandfather had originally settled. Her grandfather named her Wha, which, appropriately, means "flower" in Korean. After graduating from the Kyeon-gi Public High School for Girls, Wha Kong availed herself of a chance to study from a Japanese teacher of ikebana, or flower arrangement, who was then living in Seoul.

Her first small flower art exhibition was sponsored by the United States Information Service in Seoul in October 1958, and in the same year she began teaching a regular class on flower arranging through the auspices of the publisher of a Women's Monthly magazine, Nyeo Woen.

Many of Mrs. Im's students formed the Wha Kong Hoe Flower Arrangement Society, which held its first floral exhibition in 1960. In May 1997, the group staged its 67th regular exhibition, at the numerous flower shows and exhibitions in Tokyo, Japan, and the American cities of Washington, DC, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Seattle, and she is widely recognized as one of the leaders in the field of floral arts.

Mrs. Im has held several exhibitions and demonstrations in Lima, Peru, and has been active in many other countries, including the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Singapore and Hong Kong. She fondly remembers the many admirers of flowers she has met on her international travels.

She currently holds the post of visiting professor for flower arrangement at Ewha Womans University in Korea.




Im Wha Kong's Flower Arrangement Work


In her many international exhibitions, Mrs. Im displays her original white porcelain flower containers, which she fires in her own climbing kiln, built in 1974 at the Wha Kong Woun complex outside Seoul.

Her flower arrangements are characterized by Korean materials such as pine trees, oriental flowers and so on, with old style pottery used as containers. She even wears a hanbok, Korean traditional costume, all the time, including when she works on the arrangements.

The Wha Kong Hall, located near the National Museum in Seoul, is widely used as a place of study and training for the members of the Wha Kong Hoe Flower Arrangement Society, and as a site for the exchange of goodwill among friends of flowers from around the world.



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