Today was our tour’s “culture” day, and we traveled from Tokyo to Nikko. There is more to studying bonsai art than just looking at little trees. I believe many different areas of study or exposure, not immediately apparent to the casual student, add significantly to the overall appreciation of bonsai.

A private bus picked us up from the Bullet train in Utsunomiya and we traveled to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Nikko high in the mountains of Tochigi Prefecture. Nikko is a beautiful city featuring the famous Toshogu Shrine which was established in 1617 as the burial site of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, however there were many other shrines in Nikko, some established in 766.

One of the focal points of Nikko is a street lined with Cryptomeria leading up to the Toshogu Shrine. Over 200,000 Cryptomeria were planted in a ten year period by a member of the Matsudaira family about 400 years ago. Only about 13,000 trees remain today and are similar to the Coast redwoods of California, only smaller. Looking at these stately 400 year old trees one can see the natural growth habits which are important to consider when styling bonsai.

There were numerous sets of steep steps leading to the colorful old shrines and temples. A couple of the significant building were covered as they were being repaired to preserve or restore the beautiful detailed carvings. Large mature ancient specimens of Cryptomeria and Japanese umbrella pine were planted throughout the compounds.

The tallest tree is an ancient specimen of Japanese umbrella pine, Sciadopitys verticillata. This is a high quality garden tree used in American landscapes, but I’ve never seen one this tall.

Broad needle foliage of Japanese umbrella pine

The original carvings of the “hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil” appeared in the carvings on one of the buildings. Many of the carvings were of Chinese origin and quite colorful. Large buildings and structures were originally gifts from China, Korea, Holland and other countries.

The temperature was nearly 90F, but in the mountains it was a bit cooler, but still hot. Most of us sat out the trip to see the burial site of Tokugawa Ieyasu because there were more than 255 steep steps leading up to the site. I don’t want to break my foot again, six times is enough, my original break was in Japan several years ago.

We boarded our bus and traveled up a winding road most of us would not even attempt in a small vehicle to see Kegon Waterfall. Colorful flowering azaleas, rhododendrons and other deciduous species dotted the sides of the mountains. When we reached the top we took an elevator 100 meters down to the bottom viewing area for the waterfall, and there were still steps we had to travel. Although breathtaking to most visitors, I can drive an hour and a half to see Niagara Falls one of the seven wonders of the world. It’s interesting that Niagara Falls also has an elevator to the bottom and also the Maid of the Mist boat which takes you right up to the roaring falls. Finally we saw Lake Chuzenji before driving the large bus down the winding road.

Since this is a Satsuki bonsai tour a few bonsai photos are included. Here is a preview of three different exhibitions we visited the next day.

We had a long and enjoyable today, well, every day is full of beautiful bonsai, highlighting Satsuki azaleas. We took a subway and four taxis from our hotel to the Shunka-En Bonsai Museum of Kunio Kobayashi. He is well known for his award winning Japanese black pines and Satsuki azaleas. In fact, this is the first time we have visited him when he was not at his museum. He was judging a Satsuki exhibition in Yokohama and his senior apprentice Hiroyuki Suzuki was setting up another Satsuki exhibition at the Ueno Green Club– that’s one we will miss. Mrs. Kobayashi did a great job, as always welcoming us and serving us green tea.

Since Peter Warren is teaching in Florida and Hiroyuki is at the Ueno Green Club we had Jin Yasufumi, who speak English, translate for us and give us a grand tour of the tokonoma displays all featuring masterpiece Satsuki. He explained many things about display, and Satsuki as well.

The last few times I’ve visited Shunka-En Bonsai Museum a tremendous amount of  large new bonsai were added. Two long tables are dedicated to Japanese maples which leaf out brilliant red, as well as the common Japanese maple. Many of these trees are still in training boxes and some were inarched grafted as well.

This is the first time I’ve visited here during the summer in many years and the entire atmosphere is different than when we visit in February and November. The trees are full of green leaves! The beauty of the structure is mostly hidden for deciduous species, but a new beauty emerges. With all the new additions, and leafed out as well, the garden seems crowded, but well maintained. The three apprentices sure have a lot of work. The colorful Satsuki bonsai were distributed throughout the garden and looked wonderful with the dark green evergreen foliage and fresh green of the deciduous species.

We took another four taxis to Tokyo Station to board another Bullet train to Shizuoka to visit Taisho-En Bonsai Garden. Although it was cloudy we were able to see Mt. Fuji which means we will return to Japan again. Nobuichi Urushibata is the proprietor who specializes in shohin bonsai. His son Taiga also works with him and is a graduate apprentice of Masahiko Kimura. He speaks fluent English and traveled to one of my symposia in 2009 to teach shohin bonsai in Rochester, New York. Both father and son work on large size trees as well as the tiny mame size trees. Together they are a great team and I wonder how they care for all those small size bonsai with only a couple people. Nobuichi Urushibata was away with a client so Taiga showed us around his wonderful garden.

Japanese dogwood, Cornus kousa

A new house has been added since I last visited and the nursery area rearranged. To me this garden is just as neat as that of Shinji Suzuki. You could eat off the floor, all the containers were parallel to the table edge, no weeds, well a couple. A new quarantine greenhouse has been added as well and its full too.

Taiga welcomed us and introduced us to his student from Holland and apprentice from Spain. As we looked around Taiga freely answered all questions. My friend Joe Noga is traveling with me and had numerous questions on one of our favorite species, Chojubai Japanese flowering quince. Joe propagates this rare cultivar and got some good information from Taiga. We only saw a couple of Satsuki bonsai in this garden but loads of fine quality shoo-in and mame bonsai.

Taiga has a pair of lemurs

Our visit to Taisho-En Bonsai Garden finished when it began to sprinkle, good planning Kora! Taiga and his apprentices gave us all a lift to the train station , but we had to squeeze 14 people into three cars. Brianne Wong and I rode in the back of a nice new car, well it smelled new. We took another Bullet train back to our Tokyo hotel.

We visited the opening of the 2014 Satsuki Festival sponsored by the Japan Satsuki Association in Ueno Park. The location of the exhibition is near the entry way to the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Gallery where the now annual Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition is held. Our group arrived early to avoid crowds and take photos.

Several large open-air structures housed more than two hundred Satsuki bonsai. On the last row vendors set up selling Satsuki pre-bonsai as well as small and large trained masterpieces. Some tools and supplies were also offered. The display area was on a smooth white granite floor, which reflected the intense heat up to the visitors. It’s a good thing there was a Starbuck coffee shop adjacent to the exhibition, where many took a few moments to become refreshed before returning to study the bonsai.

In the sales area I noticed two different Satsuki cultivars with most unusual blossoms, one with dissected pink petals and the other with light yellow, almost green small flowers.

Of particular interest were the beautiful and varied companion plantings, some with common perennials and others with unknown species. The fresh spring green grasses were most impressive and added to the aesthetic appreciation of the colorful Satsuki bonsai.

MASAHIKO KIMURA

Saitama City

Our first stop today was at the private garden of Masahiko Kimura where we saw magnificent, mostly large size bonsai. Nearly every tree was an evergreen, many with dead wood, but not all. Three were numerous famous masterpieces as well as Important Bonsai Masterpieces and award winning trees from the Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition.

Mr. Kimura was a gracious host and all of group were served tea and Japanese cookies. Of interest to most of our members was not a large size tree, nor evergreen, but rather a small tropical tree. A few knew the name was “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” but could not think of the botanical name. So, I took out my iPhone and searched and discovered the name is Brunfelsia pauciflora, a small plant native to Brazil. I’ve seen it in Florida and it’s beautiful with purple, white and pink flowers on the plant at the same time.

As we were studying the bonsai Joe Noga saw something unusual. There were a couple of common looking Shimpaku junipers being grafted at the bottom of a famous, award winning larger Shimpaku juniper. I could not think of the reason because the tree had some roots and lots of dead wood on the bottom of the trunk. So, I found Mr. Kimura and he explained he wants to shorten the tree and grafting new roots so he can successfully remove the lower trunk and original root system.

Throughout the display area, if one looks closely, you can see numerous approach grafts to add branches or change the variety of juniper. There was one tree where the small potted plants were visible so it was photographed. This approach grafting technique to change the variety is quite common in Japan. Most of the collected Champak junipers have coarse foliage and a finer textured cultivar is grafted to completely change the variety of the bonsai. Many of the famous Shimpaku juniper bonsai in Japan have been grafted to improve the foliage which is not widely known.

OMIYA BONSAI ART MUSEUM

Omiya

Hydrangea

Next we visited the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum where we saw excellent educational displays indoors accompanied with beautiful bonsai. The three different styles of alcove display were demonstrated with masterpiece bonsai, all coordinated with the late spring season.

The exhibition gallery building was of most interest to me because of the display on The Story of “Bonsai”– The History of Bonsai from Ancient Times to the Present. Large photos from old historic books were mounted on the walls with English explanations. The different sections included: “Bonsai” comes to Japan, The treasurers of “Bonsan” (not bonsai), Feudal lord’s love for potted plants, Potted plant culture blossoms among the masses, Birth of the “Bonsai”– Origins of the word, “Bonsai” as culture female etiquette in Meiji Period, Sencha tea ceremony and “Bonsai”, Status symbol for persons in politics and business, Bonsai is Art! and finally The Birth of the Omiya Bonsai Village. I saw reproductions of paintings and folding screens I have never seen before. There were some old historic books on display with important pages enlarged to explain the word “bonsai”, all of which I have in my reference library. Most of our tour members briefly looked at this important display, but I studied it in detail. A small booklet describing the exhibit was available.

After our visit we had a delicious and eye appealing lunch at the new Bonsai Restaurant open in February by Yoshiro Nakamizu which is directly across the street from the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum.

MANSEI-EN BONSAI GARDEN

Hatsuju & Haruhiko Kato– Omiya Bonsai Village

Mansei-en Bonsai Garden is the only remaining original garden in the Bonsai Village which was established in 1925 by Hatsuji Kato’s grandfather. Again, this garden was filled with many famous and award winning masterpieces. Under most of the benches you could find small, medium and old containers. Several of this year’s award winning bonsai were there, but were recently transplanted into different containers.

Kiyo Hime Japanese maple May 2014

February 2014

A small shade house was filled with shohin bonsai, which is not unusual. However, the entire shade house was inside a larger shade house which is usually covered with poly when we visit in November and February each year.

It is rare for me to see bonsai in Japan during the summer when they are in full leaf. For decades I’ve enjoyed seeing fine twigs on many Trident maple bonsai. Well, this time I had the opportunity to see the trees in leaf, and boy were they tiny! It was too early in the season for leaf cutting, so they could be new. I asked Mr. Kato and he said there were a special unusual cultivar with tiny leaves… the search is on!

SEIKO-EN BONSAI GARDEN

Tomio & Kaori Yamada– Omiya Bonsai Village

This small bonsai garden specializes in fine quality literati and rock planting bonsai. Mr. Yamada’s daughter Kaori Yamada, developed a new style called “Saika Bonsai” which literally means colorful flower bonsai. It looks like a mixture of bonsai with ikebana which especially appeals to ladies. Ms. Yamada has a busy schedule teaching and performing on TV promoting saika bonsai.

At the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum I saw a Trident maple rock planting which looked familiar. Fortunately it was in the public area where photos are allowed and I was able to shoot it. In 1970 during my first apprenticeship in Omiya Bonsai Village with Kyuzo Murata I remember watching Mr. Yamada create the rock planting. I “had” photos of him bare-rooting the young thin Trident maples before planting them on the end section of the interesting stone. Unfortunately the old photos got destroyed when our home burned down in 2009. But today the rock planting looks great.

KYUKA-EN BONSAI GARDEN

Isamu & Yukio Murata– Omiya Bonsai Village

Founded by Kyuzo Murata, this garden was one of the earliest gardens in Omiya Bonsai Village established in 1926. It originally was one of the largest gardens and was home to numerous bonsai owned by prominent dignitaries. Today the garden specializes in naturalistic bonsai of unusual species and smaller size trees. Mr. Murata continues in his father’s footsteps in caring for the Imperial Bonsai Collection in Tokyo.

A well-known Zelkova bonsai, once owned by former Prime Minister Shigeo Yoshida remains in the garden. The extremely heavy trunk makes this bonsai distinctive and created controversy when first displayed in the 1950s.

Mrs. Murata truly enjoys her bonsai and plants and has fun with them. Today we noticed small smiling faces she drew on Poppy seedpods. We also enjoyed her succulent, cacti and vegetable bonsai as well.

The lovely artist!

FUYO-EN BONSAI GARDEN

Hiroshi Takeyama– Omiya Bonsai Village

Founded over 60 years ago by Fusazo Takeyama, this garden continues today under the skilled direction of his son Hiroshi Takeyama. Although most species can be seen in this garden, Mr. Takeyama specializes in deciduous, unusual species and forest style bonsai. This garden is most beautiful in early spring and autumn with the changing color of the leaves.

Today I noticed most of the Trident maple bonsai were only leaf cut in the upper regions of the bonsai where they are most vigorous. The bonsai did look stage with foliage only on the lower sections of the trees, but they will quickly regrow with many more small twigs and foliage.

S-CUBE

Seiji Morimae– Hanyu City

The S-Cube bonsai complex is, perhaps the largest in Japan. Under the direction of bonsai and art connoisseur Seiji Morimae, one can find bonsai from young inexpensive material up to masterpieces which may cost as much as a small home. We were warmly greeted and allowed to look anywhere throughout the vast facility and photograph too.

Mr. Morimae studied with Uhaku Sudo for many decades learning the art of Keido display. Additionally to thousands of bonsai there are probably the same number of suiseki and other Asian art. There is an entire room which looks more like an art gallery than a sales area where small figurines, antique bonsai containers and display tables can be artistically seen.

The prices are quite reasonable for all items and our members enjoyed adding to their private collections.

In order to share the beauty of Satsuki azaleas with friends and introduce a bit of rarely seen areas of Japan, Kora Dalager and I introduced a new tour to Japan this week– The Satsuki Festival Tour. Our group includes 14 people from across the United States as well as Australia who want to see colorful Satsuki azalea bonsai as well as some of the finest bonsai Japan has to offer.

We arrived on Sunday evening to visit the private bonsai garden of Shinji Suzuki who lives north of Nagano on Monday. After a two hour bullet train ride we took a local train for 30 minutes. Upon arrival in Obuse, the town where the Suzuki garden is, we walked around and had a wood fired lunch in an old sake factory. Obuse is a quaint town where many wanted to simply walk around to absorb the sights and culture. There was a Hokusai Museum as well as the largest Dawn redwood I’ve ever seen.

Mr. Suzuki is a younger award winning bonsai artist who has traveled the world teaching his shaping techniques and sharing his bonsai philosophy. I was fortunate to introduce him to the foreign bonsai community when he made his first foreign appearance at a past International Bonsai Symposium years ago. At that time he brought buddy, Isao Omachi who was unknown, as an assistant.

Mr. Suzuki’s garden complex is unbelievable, not only for his distinct bonsai creations and those he maintains for clients, but the layout is unique, unlike other I’ve seen in Japan, as well as the world. Also, it’s the most immaculately kept, you could actually eat off the floors. All the bonsai are maintained in green houses or poly houses with shade cloth. Even the repotting room is in a greenhouse with heavy shade, and you could eat off that floor as well. All the tools were nearly hung up, all facing the same way, which is habit I particularity admire and love to observe.

Perhaps one reason of the unique garden layout is because Mr. Suzuki lives two hours north of Tokyo in a cold snowy part of Japan. The fist time I had the unexpected opportunity to visit his garden in February, there was 10 inches of snow on the ground. Check out my blog entry from February to see the snowy photos. The garden and trees look much better without snow. Everything looks better without snow other than Christmas cards and Christmas trees….

One of Shinji Suzuki’s apprentices is American Tyler Sherrod from North Carolina who has been studying with him for three years. He showed us around and answered all of our questions, and there were loads from our group.

It was most interesting to see Mr. Suzuki go around, looking and studying the bonsai as he went. Suddenly he told his two younger apprentices to water some pines. Now, the weather was not warm and sunny as I like, it was cloudy and looked like rain, but he still wanted his trees watered. So, out came the copper watering cans and spot watering began on the pines which were outside in the display garden. As luck would have it, it began sprinkling. Still they watered and good thing because it stopped for a while, but still not sun.

I noticed there were several short plastic collars around the soil surface which served to hold water for specimens which needed extra water or time to penetrate the soil. There were even some small drainage holes in the bottom area as well.

Looking around, and I do look around and try to study everything, I noticed an apprentice using Super glue on a tree. That was strange to me so I watched for a while and then asked why. The specimen was an old Japanese flowering apricot which had borer damage with a lot of dead wood areas. The application of Super glue strengthens the dead wood and keeps it from moving and breaking off. Also I was told that the Super glue acts as a wood hardener rather than using other commercially available products commonly used for preventing rot.

A while later the sprinkles began to return and Mr. Suzuki asked if we would like to see Tadashi Iura’s bonsai garden which was a short 10 minute car ride away. Mr. Suzuki drove us in his car and the others in our group in one of his vans.

Mr. Iura is a young award winning bonsai artist who travels around the world. In fact he was one of the headliners at the Mid-Atlantic Bonsai Festival a couple of weeks ago in New Jersey. He specializes in carving, grafting and shaping old Shimpaku juniper bonsai. Well, his garden was over loaded with old grafted Shimpaku junipers, as well as Japanese yews and Needle junipers.

Unfortunately Mr. Iura was not at home, but his parents allowed us to look around his garden and even go in the back areas where there were numerous old trees waiting to be carved and grafted. The rain began to fall harder and we were given umbrellas to keep dry. Our visit would have lasted longer but rain prevented studying and enjoying the bonsai.

There was one huge tree which was all grafted and wired, but the massive trunk was not finished carving nor treated with lime sulfur. It promises to be an award winning tree in the not so distant future. There were trees like this all over the garden. A few Japanese five-needle pines as well as a few deciduous species as well.

Mixed in with the hundreds of bonsai was a large, award winning Shimpaku juniper bonsai which was prominently displayed in a past Asia Pacific Bonsai Convention held in Takamatsu, Japan, a few years ago. There it was displayed with powerful Japanese calligraphy. Mr. Iura studied with Takeo Kawabe, one of Masahiko Kimura’s graduate apprentices from decades ago. Thus Mr. Iura specializes in grafting, carving and shaping old evergreen bonsai which continues and improves through the years and an individual’s creativity. Modern technology helps too with with rooms build for sand blasting.

Every time Kora and I lead tours to Japan we experience unexpected pleasant surprises, that’s one reason our bonsai tours are so popular with participants from around the globe. We have had tour members from Canada, Alaska, Mexico, Russia, England, Australia, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Singapore, South America, Europe as well as the good old U.S.A. Well, the surprise began at the beginning of our Japan Satsuki Festival Tour. Who knows, there may be more. The Japanese bonsai community is unique and you never know what will happen. Just because something was there last time does not mean it will be there again.

Dwarf Hinoki cypress from the Maggio (RJB) Collection received the Yoshimura Award for the Members’ Choice Award.

One of our club members, Roy Wixson, from Buffalo, NY, surprised us with a short Youtube video of the exhibition!

Enjoy the video and thanks Roy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbYyFazwahc

Everyone, near and far, is invited to visit our 41st Upstate New York Bonsai Exhibition on Saturday and Sunday, May 17-18, 2014 in Rochester, New York. The event will be hels at the Monroe Community Hospital at the corner of Westfall and E. Henrietta Roads. Rochester’s famous Lilac Festival will also be taking place down the road. The recent warm weather has enhanced the flowers to bloom.

Over 100 bonsai from society members will be on display, with a large number of shohin bonsai. Ikebana International will have an exhibit from some of their members as well. Additionally we have a good size sales area with about 8 vendors. There will be a bonsai demonstration on Saturday at 2pm by Marc Arpag and an ikebana demonstration on Sunday at 2pm by members of Ikebana International.

Admission is only $5, seniors $3.

Also, during the same weekend, the International Bonsai Arboretum is having it’s Spring Open House And Sale about 15 minutes away. Most items will be 20% off.

Details on request, in the meantime, enjoy some photos from last year’s exhibition. I look forward to welcoming you to the Upstate New York Bonsai Exhibition and the International Bonsai Spring Open House & Sale

Bill