Adams Jones, originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was teaching English in several Southeastern Asia countries. In 2011 his teaching led him to Japan and his boss suggested that he visit the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum in Omiya, Japan. Having heard of bonsai he decided to visit and instantly fell in love with bonsai. In the United States he earned his Master’s Degree in art from the Alfred State University in New York state.

Evergreen bonsai are grown in a location with more sun than deciduous species

His quest to learn bonsai led him to the Mansei-en Bonsai Garden in the Omiya Bonsai Village. The Kato family proprietors were pioneers in establishing the Omiya Bonsai Village in 1925. Adam primarily studied bonsai techniques with Takahiro Kato, the fifth-generation bonsai artist of the Kato family. He spent an intense successful five-year apprenticeship and was certified by the Nippon Bonsai Association after his apprenticeship.

Upon completion of his formal apprenticeship he worked at the Mansei-en Bonsai Garden. Eventually he married a lovely lady and they now have an active three-year old son. Adam and his wife were quite lucky to find a three and a half acer property in Ibaraki Prefecture about an hour and half from Tokyo and only 30 minutes from Narita International Airport. His new property had a magnificent house and even a large garage where he teaches and his first two apprentices from the United States and South Africa train. The surrounding semi-rural area is quite picturesque. Two Buddhist temples are adjacent to his garden. He continues to provide bonsai demonstrations and workshops at the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum.

His new garden named ‘Tree House Bonsai” offers classes, workshops, seasonal intensives as well as long term study training. His web s sells bonsai, containers, stones, books display tables as other appropriate bonsai related items. He has three regulation quarantine greenhouses and can ship bonsai around the world. Two of the quarantine greenhouses have been constructed for exporting to Europe and the final house for exporting bonsai to the United States. This quarantine has more strict requirements. Students can come, learn from Adam, work on their bonsai and have their own shaped bonsai sent home. This is the first professional bonsai garden in Japan owned by a foreigner and American.

Last year he designed and had a spectacular garden and gazebo built around his home. The stream, complete with two waterfalls are now turned off for the cold winter months but will soon be turned on where the waterfalls fill a large pond and as the water wanders around his home in a series of small waterfalls then travels under the driveway to continue on the other side of the garden.

Adam organized two private bus tours to visit Tree House Bonsai during the week of the Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition in Ueno, Japan. I was fortunate to attend one of the tours and was extremely impressed with scope, layout and construction of his new garden. It is amazing what Adam has accomplished in only six years. In addition to the beautiful garden it was immaculate and one could even eat on the floor it is so clean.

I look forward to seeing how Adam continues his bonsai garden and wish him the best of good luck. A visit to Tree House Bonsai is time well spent to see the evolution of a bonsai garden, with the fine taste of Adams Jones.

TREE HOUSE BONSAI

Adams Jones

1228 Wakaguri

Ami-Machi, Ibaraki Gun

Phone: 080-4868-1521

e-mail: info@treehouse bonsai.com

Web: http://www.treehousebonsai.com

The 2024 98^th Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition is being held in two parts this year (Part 1 February 9-12, 2024 and Part 2 February 14-17, 2024.) Again, (like most years) held the exhibition in the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Ueno Park, Tokyo, Japan.

 

These are my personal thoughts; coming from a serious 62 year intense bonsai study. As a bonsai scholar I have probably attended more Kokufu Bonsai Exhibitions than any other foreigner. Although I was not present (or even born yet) at the first exhibition held in 1934, I have visited when the original museum was the venue. It was a grand building with lots of front steps outdoors. There were then two curved stair cases leading down to the ground floor where all the bonsai were displayed in one huge open room with a transparent roof which was great for allowing natural light which is desirable, for maintaining both evergreen and deciduous trees indoors for about a week. Trees must be kept at appropriate temperatures and humidity levels when displayed for health reasons. During the early days of this long-held exhibition, the shows were held both in March and November. Originally founded by Count Matsudaira and Toshio Kobayashi, this exhibition was organized and held by the Tokyo Bonsai Club, which subsequently evolved to the present Nippon Bonsai Association in 1963.

nEach bonsai in this exhibition was beautiful and most could be considered masterpieces. All the bonsai were traditionally and formally displayed. There are no “creative or modern” displays here, but can occasionally be seen in other Japanese bonsai exhibitions. Scrolls and suiseki are not used in the displays to allow the full beauty to be focused on the bonsai. In early daysyears Satsuki azaleas were not allowed to be displayed because they were merely “azaleas” not proper bonsai. But to be fair Satsuki azaleas in the olden years were not really refined as those currently displayed.          

Suiseki were not often seen in this exhibition, however there were a few. The appearance of displaying suiseki with bonsai seems to be increasing. This year there were over ten stones displayed alongside of the main bonsai.

This edition of the exhibition did not have ANY Ezo spruce. Perhaps this species will be included in Part 2 opening on Wednesday. The number of Shishigashira Japanese maples seemed to be increasing. There were about ten specimens and showed a tremendous variation on styling. But this topic will be discussed in a featured article. There seemed to be a low number of deciduous species compared to evergreen to the evergreen species. Also, the number of visitors was not as large as in the past years. The exhibition was never really full on the first day. Upon entering the exhibition visitors were welcomed by two, sometimes one, representative directors of the Nippon Bonsai Association. Both English and Japanese language listings of bonsai were distributed along with a “People’s Choice” ballot. The English version included botanical names for each main bonsai, while the Japanese version included much more information.

98th 2024 Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition Part 1 Data:

146 display areas

2 Special Displays (Imperial bonsai collection and honorary President of the Nippon Bonsai Association)

10 Important Bonsai Masterpieces

3 Kokufu Bonsai Awards: Sargent juniper, Trident Maple and Japanese five-needle pine

10 Shohin Bonsai Compositions (55 trees)

32 Medium-size Bonsai Compositions (64 trees)

111 Large-size Bonsai

Total Displayed Bonsai (230)

Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition Award: Sargent Juniper

Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition Award: Trident Maple

Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition Award: Japanese Black Pine

Coming up next: Part 2 of the exhibition will feature a couple of hundred new bonsai. All the bonsai on display now will be replaced by a fresh assortment of different trees. In past exhibitions Part 2 often seemed to display finer bonsai than Part 1.

I look forward to Part 2 of this exhibition which will open on Wednesday.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

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Happy New Year to all. Many thanks for your past purchases and I hope your new trees are healthy and you are starting to shape them.

Although its cold (25F) and snowy (only 2” but still coming down) Its beginning to think about springtime. Now is the time to order your young plants and seedlings while everything is still available. 

Order now to avoid disappointment, last season we sold out of many select species. Just let us know when to want to ship them. We can safely keep them dormant until the end of March

You can easily order on line at: www.internationalbonsai.com/page 1442817

It’s the 38th year I have been offering bare-root seedlings by mail order and look forward to supplying you again this season. Good Luck With Your Bonsai! 

The 11th Winter Silhouette Bonsai Expo took place on December  2-3, 2023. As promised in my last blog, below are a few of the 66 photos Joe Noga took to commemorate the Expo.

A big thank you goes to Steve Zeisel who organized the event with the assistance of The Triangle Bonsai Society and Tyler Sherrod.Thank you to all the exhibitors who shared the beauty of their bonsai with others. Some traveled far to bring them to the North Carolina Research Center who hosted this important special National Exhibition.

A special note of appreciation to bonsai photographer Joe Noga and his team who spent two days moving each bonsai from the ground level to the second floor for photographing. I hope everyone enjoys looking at the fine photos Joe Noga too and adjusted. If you want to see more naked bonsai join us for the 12th Winter Silhouette Bonsai Expo will take place on December  7-8, 2024.

The highly regarded and anticipated Winter Silhouette Bonsai Expo was again held at the North Carolina Research Center in Kannapolis, outside Charlotte, NC, on December 2-3, 2023.

A well deserved thank you to Steve Zeisel for sponsoring another successful  Winter Silhouette Bonsai Expo. He was assisted by members of the Triangle Bonsai Society and Tyler Sherrod. Attached are my quick photos so you can see the expo now. Joe Noga professionally photrographed the show and his high quality images will be forthcoming,

The 12th Winter Silhouette Bonsai Expo will take place on December  7-8, 2024.

Thank you to all the exhibitors who brought their bonsai for display and to the North Carolina Research Center for hosting this important special National Exhibition.

World Heritage Kiyomizu Temple Bonsai Suiseki Exhibition, November 24-27, 2023 Kyoto, Japan.

Sponsored by Chinese Council General of Osaka, commemorating the 45th Anniversary of the signing of the peace treaty and friendship of China and Japan.

This special exhibit of bonsai and suiseki was organized and paid for by Kunio Kobayashi, (Shunka-en Bonsai Museum- Tokyo) took eight months of careful planning. Mr. Kobayashi brought six truckloads of bonsai and suiseki from his garden in Tokyo, plus a few client trees and a truckload of bonsai tables and folding screens. He brought a team of 12 apprentices to transport, set up, guard, load up and return everything back to Tokyo. Set up was required between 11pm and 4am. Mr. Kobayashi presented a demonstration at the opening ceremony and also free classes to the public conducted by his son-in-law, Minoru Akiyama.

It was very generous of Mr. Kobayashi to donate his time, funds and talents to help spread his passion and love of bonsai and suiseki to the world.

One of Mr. Kobayashi’s masterpiece Sargents Juniper was prominently featured at the opening ceremony in a special exhibit area and is valued at US $1,000,000. It has been estimated to be “approximately” 800 years old, and Mr. Kobayashi did not start it from seed…..

Nippon Bonsai Taikan Ten Exhibition- Part 2

Musk Maple, Premna japonica

Dwarf Mulberry

Nippon Bonsai Taikan Ten Exhibition, November 24-27, 2023, Miyako Messe, Kyoto

Hoshu-in Bonsai Garden at Daitoku-ji Temple complex in Kyoto, designed and maintained by Seiji Morimae

Shunka-en Bonsai Museum of Kunio Kobayashi, Edogawa-ku, Tokyo