The only Zen garden in a Buddhist Temple is located in the Daitoku-ji Temple complex in Kyoto, Japan. It is quite close to the world-famous Daisen-in garden. Now photos are allowed!

The Hoshu-in Bonsai Garden which displays about 30 masterpiece bonsai selected and managed by Seiji Morimae and his S-Cube staff. They are frequently rotated and new masterpieces from private collections are highlighted. 

This is a MUST to visit when in Kyoto, you will not be disappointed.

YES I did!…. still in one piece!

Today we visited the Daiju-en Bonsai Garden of Toru Suzuki, third generation bonsai artist. 

Saichi Suzuki (1902 – 1991)

Toshinori Suzuki (1925 – 2007)

Toru Suzuki (1954 –

Takuya Suzuki (1984 –

The Suzuki family is one of the longest, most prominent and well-respected bonsai family in Japan.

Saichi Suzuki established his Daiju-En Bonsai Garden, in Okazaki, Japan in 1931. The Suzuki family has been studying and refining pine bonsai for nearly 100 years. Many of the common and current pine training and trimming techniques were discovered and refined at the Daiju-En Bonsai Garden.

Historically, Saichi Suzuki introduced the Dwarf Zuisho Japanese Five-needle pine in 1934. Together with his family, they actively promoted it as a new dwarf cultivar ideally suited for bonsai training and has thin, straight, short and light-green needles. It has a fast-growing character and elegant appeal. Masahiko Kimura actively grows and shapes Zuisho and often uses this cultivar when presenting demonstrations for the Zuisho Bonsai Society. Often, many of his Zuisho bonsai he has trained are displayed in Zuisho only exhibitions.

Daiju-en Bonsai Garden is not large, but rather compact filled with beautifully displayed bonsai and filled with masterpiece Japanese five-needle pine, Japanese red pine and Japanese black pine bonsai in all sizes.

This is a unique bonsai garden with several huge stones framing the trees. The Suzuki family maintains several private bonsai collections as well. Scattered throughout the garden are numerous Princess persimmons and a few colorful maple bonsai shinning with their autumn dress.

A cascade Ginkgo? There is a weeping cultivar, butI don’t think this it. Started by cutting off a hanging aerial root and rooting it

Mr. Suzuki likes to share his family’s research on developing pine bonsai around the world. Recently in September he traveled to Rochester, New York to demonstrate his techniques and judge the 2025 9^th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition.

Last week during our visit to Kunio Kobayashi’s Shunka-en Bonsai Museum I watched as he prepared his demo tree, which “was” quite large with a hefty trunk and thick plated dark bark. The Japanese black pine was originally from Takamatsu, the pine bonsai capital of the world. Mr. Kobayashi mentioned that he only purchased the tree last week at one of Mr. Morimae’s frequent auctions held at his large bonsai complex. When Mr. Kobayashi bid on this tree all the Chinese buyers kept raising their bids because it must be a good tree if Mr. Kobayashi wanted it. Well, Mr. Kobayashi won the tree and went for over the value. But he said, after I shape the tree it will be worth a small fortune.

He was assisted four apprentices and graduate apprentices who came to assist their teacher. Former student Jin Yasufumi is the curator of Mr. Kobayashi’s museum and speaks excellent English, and knows bonsai too. Both of these talented artists kept a fast-moving program and all questions were answered in both Japanese and English. They both have a friendly personality and worked well together, including some humor too.

I have seen quite a number of bonsai demonstrations around the world and seen the best artists create magic with their trees. I have to truthfully state that I did not leave the demo room for two hours. Even Mr. Kimura’s many times watched demos could not keep me in the room. Last year Shinji Suzuki also presented one of the finest programs I’ve seen, but did get up a few times.

People were captivated with the use of two different size chainsaws to eliminate unneeded branches and roots too. We use Sawzall reciprocating tools at home, especially to quickly reduce root balls, then refine the roots using common bonsai tools.

Just as he was finishing shaping the bonsai he asked the audience what shape container would look good for is new bonsai and enhance its beauty. Well, Mr. Kobayashi had the perfect container hidden in back and was all prepared for planting. In only 30 minutes his army of assistants removed the four-man size bonsai, drastically prune the roots, transplant the tree, repositioned the tree s few times according to Mr. Kobayashi’s instructions and even covered the complete soil surface with fresh, prepared bright green moss. He did not feel this was too much stress for the tree since it has an abundance of fine feeder roots and he will protect it this coming winter.

That was one of the best two-hour learning sessions I’ve experienced and enjoyed. After visiting the men’s room at the conclusion, and I did wash my hands before congratulating Mr. Kobayashi for his stellar presentation.

The exhibition opened today at 8:45am with a ribbon cutting ceremony. Unlike other openings only two short welcoming speeches were made, in Japanese of course.

Then we proceeded with cutting the ribbon welcoming visitors. I was very surprised that the foyer of the opening ceremony was not even filled. Usually it is packed with visitors, mostly from foreign countries. There was not a great presence of foreign visitors this year because most people are waiting for the upcoming 100^th Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition in February. However, there were a good number of European visitors.

The exhibition was very sparse with visitors, but this allowed others to easily photograph the bonsai. Too bad, because this year there were quite a number of masterpiece bonsai beautifully displayed this year there and a good number of large size bonsai, Chinese huge size. There were only two or three shohin bonsai compositions, probably because this same building will be overflowing with hundreds of small-size trees in early-January. Last year I actually counted nearly 600 shohin and mame size bonsai.

The sales area was of course filled with everything should want for bonsai except for sale. I spent three days here, Thursday, Friday and Saturday and walked around in this room for 4.9 miles. We visited the exhibition until we almost dropped and had to take a short nap before dinner at our hotel resting up for the next day of bonsai study.

The 45^th edition of this national level exhibition is being held on November 21-23, 2025 at the Miyako Messe in Kyoto, Japan. This is one of my favorite exhibitions in Japan because the bonsai are commonly displayed with hanging scrolls, suiseki and other fine art, with paintings too. An entire display can suggest a special personal memory or just a good story. This style of creative bonsai display is not commonly seen in Japan.

Many years ago this exhibition had yellow, green and blue backgrounds which were difficult to photograph. A few years later some black backgrounds were introduced which were a bit easier to photograph. This year nearly the entire show has matt black backgrounds, but now fluorescent  lighting has been added, but are the trees are a bit difficult to photograph because of the uneven lighting causing glares. I could not see this problem at the exhibition, but was surprised with the image quality when the images were adjusted on my Mac laptop computer. But, I’m hoping to fix this problem because I still have two more complete days at the exhibition. However, four rows of the old yellow were still being used.

Today was the final day for set up and judging to select the prize-winning bonsai. There were about 12-15 judges and it only took us about an hour of judging. Since the contenders for awards were moved from the display areas to long rows according to the categories by species and styles to be evaluated, many of the final displays were not yet set up. My iPhone and new AI eyeglasses are working well to capture the beauty of each the bonsai and displays. After we finished judging I stayed a few more hours to photograph more bonsai.

Stay tuned for my next group of photos tomorrow so you can see the current state of Japanese bonsai refinement and display styling,

On the way to Kyoto for garden tours and the major Nippon Bonsai Taikan Exhibition this coming weekend, we stopped and enjoyed the warm hospitality of Mr. & Mrs. Kunio Kobayashi at their Bonsai Museum. Located in the Edogawa Ward of Tokyo it is visited by numerous foreigners from around the world. My good friend Megumi Kadokura from Omiya joined us for this and other visits to the Japanese bonsai world. Her grandfather had a major bonsai garden in the 1950s in Omiya, so she actually grew up with bonsai. Everywhere she joins us the bonsai community is familiar with her family’s bonsai garden.

Mr. Kobayashi is a friendly talented, skilled and creative bonsai artist who has presented over 200 demonstrations in 30 countries. He has received all the top bonsai awards in Japan. He is well known for his impressive and huge Japanese black pine bonsai. Although I last visited his garden in late April on my way home from teaching in China, I was really amazed at the large number of large-size Japanese black pines in training. Large, heavy trunked trees require unusual mechanical tools for shaping.

When our group arrived in the morning he was giving an interview to Oscar Joker from Holland who teaches under his Bonsai Empire business. As he was answering questions he moved back and forth from his studio to his reception room full of foreign guests and again into his studio.

Mr. Kobayshi is presenting a demonstration on Saturday at the Nippon Bonsai Taikan Exhibition in Kyoto. He was cleaning out his four-man size Japanese black pine demonstration tree. He used an air compressor to blow away debris from the center of tree. I also noticed a leaf blower he also probably uses.

Many of the branches were tied and labeled with raffia circles indicating which branches he intends to remove and shape on Saturday. We watched as four small-sized, but strong apprentices loaded the tree in a truck while Mr. Kobayashi directed the move. Hopefully I’ll have an opportunity to watch and learn from this creative artist and report with a few images while he shapes this large bonsai. You will not believe how he intends to shape this bonsai! Stay tuned for an update on his demonstration later on this week.

Masahiko Kimura Studio

Today’s tour was visitation to the private studio of Masahiko Kimura, the great and innovator of unusual, fine bonsai. His garden is always changing and on today’s visit I noticed a great number of new bonsai, mostly Sargent juniper, Japanese five-needle pine and Japanese black pine. One of the reasons I enjoy his garden is that many of the trees on display are still in training with heavy rebar, lots of wiring and numerous trees he is changing the foliage with superior varieties. Also, he is friendly and answers all my questions.

Omiya Bonsai Art Museum

This museum is under 15 years old and continues to change the garden design as well as the indoor exhibits. Most noticeably is a new garden pond with a gentle waterfall lined with bonsai. Many of the named famous bonsai were recently changed into slightly larger containers. Although it is easier to maintain evergreens rather than deciduous and broad-leaf evergreen species in the same style and size for decades, there comes a time when the tree must grow slightly to maintain health. Mr. Kimura’s most famous “Dragon” Sargent juniper bonsai has never been repotted in about 30 years. That’s amazing because it always looks healthy. I asked me some time back if he removed and replaced some of the soil and he said no.

Bonsai Village Gardens

We visited three most famous collections of Takahiro Kato (Mansai-en), Tomio Yamada (Seiko-en) and finally Hiroshi Takeyama (Fuyo-en.) Each of these three bonsai varied in species and styles, but all were beautifully trained and maintained. The atmosphere of each was apparent, if you could distinguish and understand the differences. Many of the most famous named masterwork bonsai were displayed but not labeled.

S-Cube, Uchiku-tei Bonsai Garden of Seiji Morimae

Hanyu, Japan

This is probably the largest bonsai garden in Japan and is loaded with fine-quality bonsai, antique and modern containers, display tables, hanging scrolls, suiseki and both Chinese and Japanese antique art used to display and appreciate bonsai. He has “everything” for sale except tools, wire and soil. He now operates two other retail shops in Tokyo.

Mr. Morimae patiently waited for our group’s visit before rushing off to Kyoto for the Taikan Bonsai Exhibition. We will be visiting on Friday the opening day. Two large semi-trucks filled with trees and other art for his sales area at the exhibition had just left for the seven to eight journey, in addition to a HiAce large van with more sales items. He is traveling by Bullet train.

For the past several years he has been producing a weekly FREE YouTube series “Wabi Channel.”When searching for it be sure to add “Channel”, as there are many videos which begin with Wabi. They are very educational. Although most topics are for more experienced hobbyists, several have been aimed for beginners. Other topics such as pricing bonsai, old famous masterpiece bonsai, suiseki (both how to display two stones together and discusses the cutting of stones), care and maintenance, how bonsai are shaped and much more.

He has about 200 different episodes. All are well-produced by his daughter Yukiko, who makes him film with only ONE take and with no script too! Although the videos are in Japanese, they are all well translated with good English captions which can be easily found. The only thing I don’t like is that I carefully must watch to read the English captions, if you don’t speak Japanese. Here is a hint from Diane to makes things easier to read the captions. Just change the speed to 50% or 75% to give you enough time to properly understand and read the captions. The Japanese audio will sound funny played slowly. But, if you don’t understand, it makes no difference how it sounds.

www.youtube.com/@WABICHANNEL-kf5xf/videos

Last week’s episode was on the “Spirit of Antique Chinese Containers.” The episodes do not drag out and most are approximately 10 to 15 minutes in length.

Have fun and learn a lot, I do, as does Diane who watches them with me.

Kora Dalager, my tour organizer and leader, Dave Steele and I arrived last week to attend the 100^thAnniversary of Omiya Bonsai Village ceremony last week, before our formal tour begins tomorrow.

Dave and I had a “free” day so we hopped on two trains to visit the Omiya Bonsai Village

“Cut leaf Japanese beech, leaf edges burned

Each layer of this pine bark represents a year’s growth!

In” the central section of the train station we found a good exhibit of Omiya Bonsai, next to a “few sales tables of Omiya Bonsai for sale, and finally a demonstration area where watched the creation of a moss ball bonsai. These were nothing like the bonsai sold in the malls..  But they did have an accessory planting of moss for sale for $116. Must have been a good container or good moss. I wonder if it sold?

Dave and I casually walked in the warm sunny weather and visited Hiroshi Takeyama’s Fuyo-en Bonsai Garden, my favorite in Japan. He, like me specializes in deciduous, forests and unusual species bonsai.

Hiromi Hamano proprietor of Toju-en Bonsai Garden passed away, The garden, was established in 1931 by his father Motosuke (Masahiko Kimura & Shinji Suzuki’s teachers.) A young, but talented, 26-year-old artist purchased the garden. Hirota Kanta became the 3^rd generation proprietor of Toju-en Bonsai Garden this past July. I have watched his well-produced informal videos on YouTube, almost every day. They are educational. Even though they are in Japanese they include full English captions, not Japanese-English.

In a recent episode he casually cooked lunch for his helpers, Katsudonbori, one of my most favorite Japanese dishes. I had first met him the day before at the 100^th Anniversary Omiya Bonsai Village Ceremony. He was pleasant and spoke some English. When Dave and I entered his garden Hirota Kanta came to welcome us. Jokingly I said where is the Katsudonburi? He said, not today, but we have curry rice and invited us to join him and his mother for lunch. I was embarrassed, because I was just kidding around! One of my friends Megumi Kadokura met us there and was also invited to a tasty lunch, complete with a salad and cold green tea. 

 www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-EC4IjzkeU

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R1m5cGRLug

I met Megumi several years ago when she posted old videos and photos of her grandfather’s bonsai garden. I actually visited his garden in 1971 and told my teacher about my new discovery. Of course, he went to visit Mr. Kadokura and according to the Japanese bonsai custom he had to purchase a bonsai. My teacher, Kakutaro Komuro asked the price for a beautiful Toyo Nishiki Japanese flowering quince bonsai. Mr. Kadokura responded with “not for sale” then my teacher said I’ll give you a million yen for it. The next words were sold. I cared for this bonsai for many months and in fact Megumi had photos of it 50 years ago.

Hirota Kanta’s YouTube videos are great and here are a couple of links you can watch:

By the way perhaps you noticed my new black rimmed glasses. Diane showed them to me and I fell in love with them. They are the new prescription Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses- AI. This one pair of glasses can take photos, video, translate (not Japanese yet) several European languages including Portuguese. I’m still learning how to use them.. All the controls are on the side rail. Even Joe Noga was amazed at the image quality. And they are blue tooth connected to my iPhone too! I can answer the phone and have conversations and even listen to my “elevator” & church music without disturbing those around me. Oh, Facebook Reels too. Several of the photos in this blog were taken with my new glasses and it really came in handy when my iPhone ran out of power.

After the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, which leveled the region, bonsai artists in the destroyed Tokyo needed to relocate. They selected an area near Omiya, north of Tokyo with clean air, good water and among a grove of tall Japanese red pines. In 1925, 100 years ago, three pioneer bonsai artists, Ritaro Shimizu, Tokuo Kuraishi and Tomekichi Kato combined their talent and effort to establish Omiya Bonsai Village in March 1925. By December 1926 19 bonsai gardens were founded and enthusiasts began moving to the Omiya Bonsai Village to grow, train and appreciate bonsai.

In the beginning years residents had several rules to follow: maintain at least 10 pots of bonsai, have their gardens open to the public, no two-story buildings and must include a hedge of living plants. Today the Omiya Bonsai Village includes eight bonsai gardens. One of the earliest, the Mansei-en Bonsai Garden was established by Tomekichi Kato and in 1925 is the only remaining original pioneers. Currently the garden is managed by the 5^th generation Takahiro Kato. Kyuka-en Bonsai Garden closely followed being established in 1929 by Kyuzo Murata. 

Over the next 100 years the founders established a modern-day bonsai culture, preserving the bonsai tradition despite the threat of its demise during World War II. Today Omiya Bonsai Village has come to be regarded as “The Bonsai Mecca” by people around the globe.

There have been special exhibits, sales and festivals throughout 2025 in Omiya. The pride of the current bonsai artists cumulated on November 14, 2025 at the Palace Hotel Omiya with the invitation-only 100^th Anniversary Commemorative Ceremony, well-organized by the Executive Committee lead by the Executive Chairman Takahiro Kato.

The commemorative ceremony evening event was a special and elegant for about 300 people. During the reception a side room had large historical photos enlarged and maps from 1920s showing the development of the Omiya Bonsai Village. In the large reception room approximately 30 large-size famous bonsai were displayed by the bonsai garden owners, a few from each, representing their artistry and speciality. Of course, each masterpiece bonsai was on an appropriate display table.

Mr. Kato’s famous masterpiece bonsai, an estimated 700-year old Sargent juniper was displayed on the right side of the stage in an antique Chinese container with the poetic name “Ryuoh.” The tree was so large and heavy a wooden block was placed under the sturdy display table to prevent collapse. It was carefully hidden with a brown cloth identical to the table covering it was displayed on. In fact all the bonsai were displayed on identical brown tablecloths throughout the room. On the left side of the stage was a famous large Japanese five-needle pine masterpiece named “Murakumo” displayed by Tetsu Kurosu. Looking from the back side of the room, both bonsai were well-balanced and of the same height. Although the Japanese five-needle pine was shorter in height than the huge heavy Sargent juniper, the tops of each of the bonsai were level, with the terminals at the same height. The shorter Japanese five-needle pine was sitting on a taller display table to even out the height difference between it and the taller Sargent juniper sitting on a shorter display table. It is little details like the table covering color and tree heights which elevates the art of bonsai to the refined level we now appreciate. Probably none of the 300 guests notice these small details, but I did.

Japanese koto music was playing during the reception time and there was “heavy grazing.” The official ceremony began with a welcome from Mr. Kato followed by remarks from the Governor of Saitama Prefecture and the Mayor of Saitama City (Omiya.)

The next part was most interesting and appropriate. Seven of the bonsai garden owners each spoke for a few minutes and also discussed their masterpiece trees. I think it is rare to see all of these gentlemen together, dressed in suits with white flower ribbons. In fact, they all stood in a reception line at the end thanking everyone for attending. It was a truly classic refined event

Omiya Bonsai Village Owners left to right:

Takahiro Kato, Mansei-en Bonsai Garden

Yukio Murata, Kyuka-en Bonsai Garden

Hirota Kanta, Toju-en Bonsai Garden

Tomio Yamada, Seiko-en Bonsai Garden

Hiroshi Takeyama, Fuyo-en Bonsai Garden

Teruo Kurosu, Shotetsu-en Bonsai Garden

Tadashi Ohno, Bonsai Ohno

After the garden owners spoke there were two foreign speakers, Harold Lehner from Germany representing the European bonsai community and me who represented the English-speaking bonsai world. It was appropriate for me to say a few words since I first came to Japan to study bonsai in Omiya 55 years ago and have seen many positive changes in the Japanese bonsai community.

Wm. N.Valavanis and bonsai tool maker Hirokuni Masakuni

Yukio Murata with one of his grandfather’s Hinokii cypress bonsai

The two foreign speeches concluded the event and we all wish the best of good luck and look forward to progress to Omiya’s Bonsai Village for the next 100 years.