Stories from the fair - Japanese woman in love with Romania and her unique flower arrangements

BIFE-SIM 2019 has passed! We are left with new contacts, discussions and meetings with partners and fond memories. One of these beautiful memories is the meeting with Ayako Funatsu, a Japanese woman hopelessly in love with Romania. Ayako makes handmade flower arrangements from special paper brought from Japan or the USA. She uses a unique technique, a combination of origami art and American technique. One such arrangement was on the Arboritm Workshopanother beautiful story for which you need a little more patience. She will come, but this time it's about Ayako.

Meeting with Romania

I met Ayako by chance at the fair. A floral arrangement she created decorated the Arboritm stand, where we were to be interviewed. I was struck by the beautiful relationship she had established with the young wood enthusiasts attending the fair. Mihai Irimescu - IDUTANG (another story from the fair) spoke very nicely about it, drawing our attention. Ayako has lived in Romania for a long time and loves it here. This made us curious and we decided to chat.

She is very exuberant, excited and happy when she talks about Romania. I know, happy is a big word, but it's used when she says how she feels about us. She loves it here so much that she says she feels this love on her skin.

Ayako was born in Yokohama, Japan and first came to Romania in 1995 on a backpacking trip. Some time ago, she had set out to visit a country less familiar to Japanese people. He found an article in a Japanese newspaper about the revolution in Romania and the changes that followed. For more information he bought a travel guide. From there she learned that the locals are welcoming, that you can eat and stay overnight. He decided to come and spent two weeks travelling around the country. In Bucovina it was exactly as the guidebook said, he ate at the table of the locals in the Bucovina villages and stayed in their houses.

Everything was so wonderful for her that she decided to come back the next year and the year after that. By 1999 she already wanted to live in Romania. She told her boss in Japan that if she could find work in Romania, she would stay only three months and then leave. In February 2000 she found a job and, as agreed, after 3 months she left her job in Japan and settled permanently in Romania. At 30, he decided to start again in the country he fell in love with.

19 years of Romania - the attraction endures!

It's been 19 years since then and Ayako speaks with the same passion about Romania and Romanians. She tells me how kind, welcoming and polite Romanians are, about their clean houses in the countryside, about the wonderful friends who have helped her, about how much Romania has offered her. She tells me that Romania is the country where she is happy all the time and where she is always smiling.

A few years ago she decided to get involved in volunteer work. She says she has received a lot from this country, a lot of love from friends and feels she needs to return some of that love. So she got involved in volunteering activities in the Paper Mill Ensemble and the Craftsmen's Village in Comana, where she co-founded a friend. She also organizes origami workshops for the Hospice Casa Speranței foundation. And this despite the fact that there is almost no free time for her.

He loves Romanian culture and spirituality and when he has the opportunity he combines the two cultures. That's what he did this year, on March 1st, when he created origami paper, a combination of origami art and Romanian marțișoare. She chose the crane, a symbol of attachment and fidelity, which she miniaturised and added the twisted red and white string, turning it into a bead.

Origami & Paper Flowers Natsuko - the company Ayako founded last year

After 3 jobs that helped her learn Romanian and make lots of friends, Ayako decided last year to become her own boss. She set up the company Origami & Paper Flowers Natsuko, an international brand that offers customers handmade 100% flower arrangements made from special paper brought from Japan and the USA. The flowers created by Ayako are the epitome of Japanese craftsmanship and attention to detail. The arrangements, bouquets are simple and delicate. Brides were the first customers, because Ayako's bouquets are unique and timeless.

For her passion Ayako works from early morning until late at night. She is a patron, employee, designer, driver, distributor. She loves being in creative environments, associating with other creatives, being part of events where imagination, creativity and good taste meet. Somewhere, deep down inside, she is sure to find Japanese woodworking tradition. It is, perhaps, the simple explanation for the presence alongside young wood creators at the fair.

Fima's clients are both companies that order or rent floral arrangements for events or offices, and private individuals who want exotic arrangements for their events (parties, christenings, weddings). Clients appreciate the uniqueness of each arrangement, the delicacy, sensitivity and care with which they are made. In fact, Ayako says that what she does is unique in the world, a combination of techniques she learned as a child in Japan and those she picked up studying in the US and at home. Her dream is that in years to come, her work will be on display at the National Art Museum of Romania.

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Ayako convinced me of this. She manages to see the beauty of the country and discover the goodness in people where we have tired or forgotten to do so. I think we need to learn from her to rediscover the beauty of places and people.

Thank you, Ayako, for the love, but also for the lesson! Arigato!