About to spend four days in Tokyo curating her students' work for an exhibition -- "Collaboration with Nature" -- at Sogetsu Kaikan in Akasaka, Liga Pang juggles cooking lunch and packing bags as we talk.
For the last eight years, Liga has been providing a new perspective on ikebana to teachers trained in the style of Sogetsu flower arrangement. It is a four-year course, with 100 students flying in monthly from around the nation for classes, and an even larger study group ("kenkyukai").
"It won't be easy to make the selection," Liga says. "With space limited to 70 pieces, I have warned students not to be disappointed. My criteria? A piece must stand or not: In being true to the natural plant stuff from which it is made, that material is given a second life."