“Bill Jumps A Broad- Again”

Kora Dalager and I are back in Japan showing ten people the best of the Japanese bonsai world and the Taikan Bonsai Exhibition in Kyoto this coming weekend. We have tour members from California, Texas, Virginia, Pennsylvania New York, and Switzerland.

We had a beautiful, bright sunny day in the Tokyo area. Not a cloud in the sky which made photographing a bit difficult. BUT, it looks like I skipped town at the right time. When I left home, all my nursery stock, pre-bonsai and sales bonsai were put away for winter. Only 98 of my best trees were outside, and still are, even though Diane offered to move them in the garage. Buffalo, New York has received 50 inches of snow and are expecting ANOTHER 2-3 feet of snow now in the second wave of weather. It missed Rochester, this time, who know about the next few days…

I brought a large and heavy box of four suiseki for the 2^nd Japan Suiseki Exhibition which will be held during part 2 of the Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition in February. The stones need to be here now to be photographed for the exhibition album. I brought suiseki from Sean Smith, Mike Pollock, Jake Wilson as well as mine all carefully packed. I was afraid TSA would open the box, as it was well taped and sealed and I know they could never seal it again. The box was even labeled “Rocks” because it is X-rayed. It arrived in perfect condition at Narita, then I had to take it through customs.

The customs agent wanted to know what is in the box. I said four stones. She said stones? Why? I told her they were suiseki. She said what’s that? OK, so I needed to explain what a suiseki is and how they are displayed with bonsai and even wrote out the two Japanese kanji characters for suiseki. She was still clueless. Why are they here? For an exhibition, and they are not staying in Japan. Where is the commercial invoice? There is no invoice. How about a flyer? No flyer. Well, what is your occupation? I learned years ago it was too difficult to explain that I’m a bonsai artist and educator, so simply say “publisher” which is correct too. Then I showed her my name card and she said “Bonsai!” OK, just leave….

We first visited S-Cube, the bonsai garden of Seiji Morimae, who is always a gracious host. We visited his garden first, rather than last on our schedule and the sun was great.

In October I attended an auction at the Ueno Green Club for professional bonsai artists where Mr. Morimae purchased an old expensive famous Japanese five-needle pine. The tree needed wiring and shaping. I recognized the tree and when I went home found an old photo of it 70 years ago in my bonsai reference library. Mr. Morimae said Hotsumi Terakawa shaped the tree for him and it’s arriving soon. A few minutes later Mr. Terakawa unloaded the bonsai and it’s beautiful. It took him three days to wire and only removed one small branch. Of course Mr. Morimae had to adjust a couple of branches. He will now transplant the masterpiece into an antique Chinese mirror shaped container so the tree could be viewed from different sides.

As purchased at auction

After shaping

Seiji Morimae and Hotsumi Terakawa

Our group next visited Masahiko Kimura where Marco Invernizzi is currently studying. I noticed a new unusual rock planting on an angle constructed of clay. Also new is a metal fence behind Mr. Kimura’s main display area. All the trees were immaculate and several were being prepared for display at the Taikan Bonsai Exhibition this weekend.

Omiya Bonsai Museum was our next stop and we were lucky to come during BONSAN- A Special Exhibition. Bonsan is the practice of growing trees and flowering plants in hollows or depressions of stones; a practice presently called “ishitsuki”, or rock plantings today. An album was published showing old paintings of how bonsan were used in the 13^th Century Japan. Entering the museum were two beautiful rock plantings, a Trident maple and Sargent juniper which was from Mansei-en Bonsai Garden of Hatsuji Kato.

Tomio Yamada displayed his Trident maple and I remember watching him create it in June 1970, nearly 45 years ago. Other bonsai in the gallery all featured bonsai with stones as well.

Mansei-en was our next stop in Omiya Bonsai Village. As usual there were many famous masterpieces and some were being prepared for the Taikan Bonsai Exhibition. Masashi Hirao was there placing moss on a large Kiyo Hime Japanese maple bonsai. The sunlight was quite bright and the container could not be easily seen, but I noticed that it was unglazed brown. I asked Mr. Hirao about the container because this bonsai won one of the coveted Kokufu prizes in February and was in an Antique blue Chinese container. Why was the container changed? He said that the blue container just for the exhibition. It was transplanted afterwards into another container. There was no need to put it in such a valuable container now since it already won the highest prize in Japan and is no longer eligible for winning.

Masashi Hirao placing moss for the exhibition. I’ll take a proper photo this weekend showing the brown container.

Tomio Yamada’s Seiko-en Bonsai Garden was next and his bonsai were quite colorful. I was immediately attracted to a Fingered citron bonsai with large, strange yellow fruit. Two other specimens of the same species were also displayed in Hiroshi Takeyama’s garden also.

Kyuka-en Bonsai Garden was around the corner and that’s were I first apprenticed bonsai in Japan in 1970. Third generation proprietor Yukio Murata was watering and had a tooth brush in his hand. I thought he might be washing trunks as he went through his garden. But, after I asked him he said the toothbrush was used to clean out the nozzle because it gets clogged with debris from the deep well. He removed the nozzle to show me and also said he sometimes brushes his teeth as well while watering.

Mr. Takeyama’s garden featuring deciduous and unusual bonsai was not quite a colorful as in the past, but it was a bit early for his garden. There were a few Japanese maples in bright red coloring and the Korean hornbeams were past prime. The autumn coloring during next few weeks are going to be spectacular in this garden.

The excellent exchange rate is making for great buying and traveling in Japan now. Currently we are getting 118 Yen/ 1US Dollar. Have not seen that rate for years. This is an excellent time to visit Japan. Join us in February to see TWO Kokufu Bonsai Exhibitions, the 2^nd Japan Suiseki Exhibition and also bonsai gardens in the Tokyo/Omiya/Hanyu area. Tour flyer can be found in my web site or e-mail me for a copy at: wnv@internationalbonsai.com

Join bonsai lovers throughout the east in Kannapolis, NC, on December 6-7,2014 for the second Winter Bonsai Silhouette Expo.

Last year Steve Zeisel organized the highly successful event in an elegant venue and I’m certain this year’s event will be even more crowded with people wanting to see the beauty of naked bonsai, but there might be a few clothed as well to avoid a peep show.

Artists are provided with a table and it’s up to them to come up with an attractive display of bonsai, although some simply place their trees next to each other in a row. But, the emphasis of this exhibition is the beauty of bonsai and how it can be effectively presented to the public.

The unusual venue in a rotunda complete with inlay marble floors and tall pillars provides the perfect setting for displaying bonsai.

Additionally, a room filled with vendors bringing their finest bonsai, pre-bonsai, containers, tools and supplies will tempt people to add to their bonsai collection or help in their maintenance and enjoyment.

On Saturday, December 7^th, I’ll be presenting an educational program on Chinese Quince Bonsai showing its beauty, how they are trained and tips to develop your own specimens. To complete this comprehensive program a Chinese quince seedling which was field grown, then established in a container will be shaped. Since some people don’t have areas to develop trees in the ground, another container grown specimen will also be shaped.

On Sunday, bonsai artist Owen Reich, Bonsai Unearthed from Nashville, TN, will be presenting a lecture/demo on Pitch pine bonsai. This should be a great program because his demo tree has an interesting story, I think.

On Saturday evening a dinner and auction will be held in the second floor area of the rotunda. Vendors will be donating interesting items for the auction to help this important bonsai event for the east coast. Last year’s dinner, even without the auction was fun.

Check out last year’s blog entry for the first Winter Bonsai Silhouette Expo:

BONSAI WINTER SILHOUETTE EXHIBITION

I hope to see many long time friends, many with their bonsai and make new friends as well. Let’s hope for good weather this year. So after you celebrate Thanksgiving and before you finish your holiday shopping, visit the Winter Bonsai Silhouette Expo. You can purchase gifts for your family, friends and even yourself too in the sales area!

For detailed information on the venue, accommodations, demonstrations and more check out:

http://stevenzeisel.wix.com/winterbonsai

Geo Feng High School

The China National Penjing exhibition was held on the grounds of the Geo Feng High School which is a private boarding school owed by Mr. Ma. The grounds are exquisite with trained garden trees throughout the campus.

Most of the taller trees are Podocarpus which are trained and regularly trimmed. The value of these trees is at least USD $20,000 each, and there are countless number. Also there are a great number of trained Japanese five-needle pines, which look like they were imported from Japan, also expensive. Additionally large penjing are placed around the field track, swimming pool and around pathways. I wonder if the students realize the beauty they are surrounded with and also their value. The huge garden stones were easily taller than most people. Around back one could enjoy a beautiful pond full of prize winning koi fish.

These grounds are far superior to many Japanese gardens I’ve seen in the United States. They are well maintained and I was told the gardeners are paid more than the high school teachers. We had a few lunches in one of the several cafeterias. The food was institute served on metal trays.

International Forum For The Development Of Penjing In China

Representatives from several foreign countries were invited to participate in a forum about the status of bonsai in their respective countries. Countries included: France, England, Italy, Taiwan, Viet Nam, Japan and the United States. We were asked about the National Penjing Exhibition, our impressions, likes and way to improve future exhibitions. Next questions came up which were quite interesting, especially comments and discussions from Susumu (Chui) Sudo from Japan. There is a new movement suggesting the development of modern, creative and innovative bonsai and display. Robert Steven from Indonesia had such a successful exhibition last weekend and reports can be found in my earlier blogs.

Uhaku Sudo from Japan

Mr. Bum from Korea

Tony Tickle from England

Su Fan, host, moderator and organizer from China

William N. Valavanis from the United States

Demonstrations

Several demonstrations took place on Friday afternoon, during the same time as the Penning Forum, so unfortunately I was not able to watch. In the morning the demo trees were displayed and an old Japanese red pine was given to Robert Steven to work on. Soon he told that his un shaped demo tree was sold for USD $15,000. It was an impressive bonsai already. So Robert selected a Japanese five-needle pine, not so old, but with a bit of character.

Original demo tree for Robert Steven, but sold before demonstration for USD $15,000

Someone shaped the tree

Kuio Kobayashi worked on an old multi trunk Japanese black pine and Mr. Cheng Cheng Kung from Taiwan worked on his specialty, carving juniper bonsai. By the time the forum concluded all the demo trees were displayed outdoors except for Mr. Cheng’s because he was still working on it under an umbrella because it began raining near the end of demos.

Kobayashi demo tree before shaping

Kobayashi demo tree after shaping

On Saturday morning the foreign guests were invited to have breakfast with the headmaster Mr. Ma. We were escorted to the tallest building on the campus and went to the 14th floor. When we got off the elevator it looked like we stepped into a fancy hotel, complete with artwork, stones and penning. There was a huge round table with a turntable in the center where the 15 foreign guests were seated. Mr. Ma entered the room a few minutes later and warmly greeted each one of us, me with a bear hug. This ”breakfast” ended up being a 21 course feast with Mr. Ma personally serving the main dishes to everyone. Delicious unusual food was enjoyed including a rare yellow fish which costs USD $1,000 each, and two were served. I just ate and was told afterwards some of the food included turtle soup, yams, sweet potatoes (small sizes so you could easily pick them up with chopsticks), many vegetables and a large whole crab. I was told mine was a male because I was eating the orange sperm.

Mr. Ma serving everyone the yellow fish

Whole crab before opening and eating

I sat next to Amy Liang from Taiwan who showed me how to eat crab

I was not allowed to announce or share photos of the winning trees until after the award ceremony. The awards were different this year from last year’s “China Ding” award for the best individual penjing. This year the awards went to the artists with the best collection of trees. Below are the top trees in the exhibition.

It’s quite interesting that all three are Japanese black pine. AND even more interesting is that some came from Japan. The China Zun Award was presented to the artist who had the top three scoring bonsai collection. When the top winner cam on stage he never smiled and later we learned that he is in business, not a hobbyist and people did not like that he or the imported tree won. It WAS a good tree. The award was brought out on stage on a rolling cart and looked quite heavy. There were two award trophies a large and small version for the winners of the top three tree collection and the smaller one for the artist who had the next best 10 tree collection.

There was an orchestra of over 100 people on stage in front of a large digital screen with two side screens, all synchronized to the music, which showed beautiful Chinese scenery. Also, many images of the penjing in the exhibition were flashed on the screen several times with no captions. The top award winning Japanese black pine was not revealed until nearly the end of the program, which also included traditional Chinese singing and solo performances.

Exhibition

On Friday everyone, guests, demonstrators and judges were bused to the exhibition. When we left the hotels it was raining and quite foggy, not too good for enjoying an exhibition in a large field track. I personally walked 5.6 miles on Wednesday when judging the penjing.

The hotel had umbrellas and as we were walking in, suddenly the rain stopped. The sun even came out later on in the morning and it got quite warm, but there was plenty of bottled water available. It seemed as though God was smiling on this world class and most important exhibition of penjing in China. During the late afternoon, after the outdoor demonstrations finished, it began raining again.

There were many signs announcing the exhibition and on the main building there were many long signs with the names of the sponsors. It looked like a bottled water company must have been a sponsor. Everywhere we looked were people handing out free bottles of water. Even in the forum later on in the day we were given water and every seat in the auditorium had water. Student from the school were all around helping people, picking up debris and handing out water.

Upon entry there were large banners with the photo and background of each judge, and in English as well. Around the corner there were three huge white signs with all the point scoring of each of the 121 bonsai and the names of the judges with their personal scores. If an exhibitor wanted to contest or discuss their scores they could simple track down the judge, remember all the judge’s photos were posted. Tony Tickle and I were not confronted and were pleased about that.

As people were putting away their umbrellas the fog was lifting and people could enjoy the beauty of each large scale impressive penning. In a large building, out of the weather were three smaller exhibitions:

Ornamental Stones

The largest of the indoor exhibitions featured over 100 valuable stones. At first my impression was like a fancy jewelry store. Beautiful and fantastic stones were well displayed and professionally well late. Many were large and people touched the stones to feel their texture. Smaller stones were behind individual glass cases. Down the center of the room were several large round tables, typical of Chinese restaurants. They were completely filled with small plates which looked like real food, but they were actually all stones and quite realistic.

Calligraphy

The famous calligrapher, Chen Xishan, was featured in a three room exhibition. Many of the strokes were bold and distinctive, while a few were delicate. There were over 50 works of art including several multi scroll displays featuring a poem or story written on many scrolls, all hung together with the frame on the outside scrolls. All I could think of is if the artist spent considerable time, talent and work to write a poem on a scroll and suddenly he was distracted and goofed up the last character. The 11 scrolls make up a single presentation was quite unusual to me.

Furniture

Although I did not see it advertised, there was a section of a gymnasium converted into a Chinese room filled with hand made, high quality rosewood furniture. On one table the artist showed the construction of a table with all the holes and slots for the hard wood to be joined together, with no nails of course. That’s the reason for high prices on quality display tables for bonsai as well because their makers use many of the same techniques.

Sales Area

Last year the Chinese National Penjing Exhibition did not include a large sales area. Well, they made up for it this year by setting up in a parking lot next to the exhibition building. There were vendors offering containers, penjing, pre-penjing, tools, rocks and more. Many of the vendors set up pop up tents which are common at art shows and festivals in the United States. With the rain and heat they became welcome shelters. There were huge penjing as well as much smaller specimens.

To me the Japanese bonsai “imported” stuck out like a sore thumb and were more refined than the Chinese penjing. But, unless you were familiar with Japanese bonsai one would never know. They have a different beauty than Chinese penjing. Japanese soil and books were also sold. On the judging day I saw an artist selling fine-quality expensive small display tables. There were several root stands, which I was interested in, but he was not there on the opening day and another vendor selling containers was in his tent.

Buy my Ginkgo please or take my wife!

Trident maple stumps. All sold out quickly at USD $2,000 each.

The same grower also displayed a tree he developed from a stump. Although beautiful this bonsai lacks the twigs and maturity of an older tree.

a  

The China Zuni– 2014 (Yuyao) National Exhibition of Collections of Chinese Penjing Collectors will be held on October 31- November 2, 2014 in Yuyao City, near Shanghai, China. I was honored to be invited to attend and help with the complicated judging of the most important penjing exhibition in China for 2014.

The exhibition opens to the public on Friday while the complicated and detailed judging began on Wednesday morning at 8am. There were a total of ten judges, eight from China and Taiwan and two foreigners, Tony Tickle from England and me representing the United States. We were bused to the event and had a meeting to explain the complicated process. Fortunately, the 14 page “Evaluation Scheme” was in both Chinese and English, but we still had questions which needed to be answered. Lots of regulations, no discussing penjing with other judges and more.

There were supervisors watching us at all times. Everyone was given a clipboard with the judging forms plus a hat and even an umbrella because of the impending rain. It sprinkled for a few minutes, but did it not slow anyone down. Each of the 41 judging pages needed to be signed and dated by each artist. I believe all the scores will be published and displayed to the public and artists can dispute scores, but have not seen this yet and hope I don’t enjoy that experience.

There were 121 individual penjing to be point judged, plus about a dozen more. We had a few meetings, one to discuss a beautiful two part rock planting of Japanese five-needle pine (6 trees by the way, and beautiful) which was simply placed on the display table. It looked great, but some judges inquired about the missing tray because the “basin and basin appearance quality” constituted for 6 points.

It was interesting that if a tree had metal wires a minimum of 5 points must be deducted from the score. As we were beginning to judge some last minute trees were being “installed” on the tables.

Removing wire

The exhibition was held at a junior high school in the track, a large one. Each penjing was displayed on a custom made table with one background for two trees on each side. The white backgrounds had a subtle scene printed which was effective for some of the trees. The trees were on two different levels and each fit inside the background, except for a few extra long branches. All the trees were displayed on the huge oval track while the center field was empty.

Around noon the judges were rounded up and had lunch together in two groups, vegetarians and meat eaters. Then we returned back to work to complete the judging process. Most of us finished up this part around 4 pm. We were then taken back to the hotel for dinner and returned at 7pm to watch the final tabulations, then go outside in the dark to see the top three winning trees. Finally, after another meeting it was decided to allow the calculated winners to be accepted. Back inside we all needed to sign again, twice. By the time we returned to the hotel it was 10 pm.

On Thursday the opening ceremony and party will be held in the evening. The exhibition opens to the public on Friday. More photos and interesting details to follow on the opening ceremony, demonstrations, sales area and stone display. But this is an exciting important event and I’m honored to be a small part of it.

Today, October 25, 2014, Marc Arpag, Fran Mahoney, Les Allen (from Erie, PA) and I, all members of the Upstate New York Suiseki Study Group drove to Marysville, PA, to attend the Suiseki Master Training Seminar with Seiji Morimae, Sir Peter Warren and Sean Smith. The intense one day seminar was held in a delightful lodge nestled deep in the woods near Sean’s home. The quiet venue was a perfect setting for this advanced seminar on suiseki which was limited to only 15 individuals who were familiar with the art and wanted to improve their understanding. People traveled from Florida, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and New York state.

Everyone was asked to bring two suiseki for the display and critique. An empty water basin and another suiseki for positioning in the water basin were necessary for the seminar. Sean provided high quality washed sand for all water basins.

Before the formal program began all participants set up their suiseki displays featuring both daiza suiseki and water basin suiseki which were arranged with accent plants or other small art objects and a few hanging scrolls. People who brought extra display tables and accent plants shared with others in order to present each display to its finest beauty.

After a few brief introductions and announcements Seiji Morimae, proprietor of S-Cube in Japan showed images to explain Japanese aesthetics with the excellent translation of Sir Peter Warren, who was well schooled in the art and understanding of Suiseki during his six year apprenticeship with Kunio Kobayashi who is the present head of the Nippon Suiseki Association. Mr. Morimae first showed images of his bonsai garden, but explained for the first time in public his thinking and philosophy on its design. The path through the garden as well as the entrance gate orientation are important and were discussed. Although I’ve had the privilege of visiting Mr. Merimee’s garden in Hanyu, Japan, numerous times during the past ten years of its opening, this is the first time he has explained in detail his thoughts. When I visit his garden again in a couple of weeks with my tour I’ll be certain to simply sit and think about Mr. Morimae’s philosophy.

Next images of Japanese art, architecture, nature, bonsai and suiseki were shown and explained how all these elements worked together to contribute to the development of Japanese aesthetics. He spoke about the importance of the two general types of bonsai and how they differ and also mentioned that there are two types of suiseki as well.

Just before a delicious catered luncheon everyone joined Mr. Morimae outside on the deck for a demonstration on how to fill water basins with gravel. He showed the sand and explained in detail the correct way of filling the water basin with sand, leveling, placing the stone, watering and finally adjusting for the best viewing position. Then everyone moved to individual tables and prepared their own water basin and suiseki compositions. Mr. Morimae, Sir Peter Warren and Sean went around helping the participants using some of the several provided tools. When everyone completed their stone arrangement, Mr. Morimae critiqued each composition and presented ideas on how to improve the stone display so the best viewing angle could be appreciated. Again here Sir Peter translated so everyone could easily understand his teaching.

After lunch a walk in the woods was led by Mr. Morimae who spoke about the relationship between nature and stones. The walk also helped to wake people up after the delicious and filling luncheon.

When we returned back in the lodge all participants lined up and were split into three groups, each to compose a formal suiseki display using the large tokonoma alcove Sean built for the event. We could use any item and although all three group displays were beautiful Mr. Morimae made suggestions on how the displays could be elevated to a higher level of appreciation.

Finally, we had a small auction with items donated from Mr. Morimae, Sean and the other participants. Several of the high quality suiseki sold for excellent low prices. Suddenly Sean remembered that there was washed sand remaining from the workshop so all of the five gallon buckets were brought inside and auctioned.

Thank you to Mr. Morimae and Sir Peter who traveled around the world and gave so much of themselves to help serious suiseki lovers to better understand the deeper elements of suiseki and how we can improve our displays. But, the biggest thank you goes to Sean Smith for his concept and execution of a most successful Master Suiseki Training Seminar, all first class and making the fifteen participants feel welcome. I learned a lot which will be shared with others and feel lucky I was invited to this unique training seminar.

Thank you Sean!

I returned home from Japan and Indonesia on late Thursday evening to find my main display garden ablaze in color, what a nice welcome home! Although the colors are beautiful, they are not quite at their peak… yet. Probably next week or the week after they should be even better.

Most people think the cold temperatures bring on the autumn colors of deciduous species. However, the onset of dormancy actually begins on June 21^st when the daylight decreases. Although the diminishing light is not immediately apparent to humans, the plants can detect the reduced light. This stimulates the onset of dormancy, but the cooler weather in September is more apparent to people. Sometimes after a hard frost or freeze colors intensify.

It’s interesting that some species always turn a certain color in autumn, like the Ginkgo which always turns clear yellow. Burning bush, Euonymus alatus, always turns red to pink in autumn. But, some species have many different coloring each autumn, like some maples.

Burning bush

I have a Chinese elm forest with about twenty seedlings and two or three always turn red-pink rather than the common yellow.

 2002  2008

Here are some photos of one of my Trident maples illustrating the different autumn coloring during the years. I’m not quite sure as I’m still experimenting, but it seems to me the fertilizer, water and sunlight combined greatly affect autumn coloring. The final autumn coloring this year is not yet complete so here are some older photos. I have one where the entire tree is bright orange, but can’t seem to find it. Not finding photos or other items which I “know” I have sometimes happens since our house BBQ a few years ago. But, I’m thankful for what we still have. Photos are difficult, if not impossible to replace.

 2001    2010

  2102

This was my main display garden yesterday. Today after I took some more photos we had a wind storm which blew many of the leaves off the trees. A few of the bonsai looked especially colorful so took a few individual photos.

This was my main display garden yesterday. Today after I took some more photos we had a wind storm which blew many of the leaves off the trees. A few of the bonsai looked especially colorful so took a few individual photos.

 Crabapple

 Crabapple

 Nippon daisy chrysanthemum

The Washington hawthorn suddenly turned orange and also had some fruit so it was taken into the studio for an autumn display with Toad lilies which just finished blossoming.

Enjoy autumn while it lasts, and I hope for a long time, because you know what is coming up….

The last three days were busy with morning demonstrations and afternoon tours. Robert Steven did a stellar job organizing the entire convention, exhibitions and especially the twelve demonstrations from ten countries. Friendly people from twenty one countries were represented at the convention.

Next to the most unusual bonsai exhibition the demonstrations were the highlight of the four day convention. There were four demonstrators working on stage together under their country’s flag. Since I was “working” on stage on Sunday it was difficult to get many photos. Sometimes there were so many people crowding the stage it was difficult to get good shots, especially when the backgrounds blended into the tree and spotlights glaring into the camera lens.

SUNDAY

Chong Yong Yap from Malaysia worked on a well developed Wrightia and showed how to lower branches and screwing them into place. This bonsai was well developed before and looked even better at the conclusion of his demonstration.

Professor Amy Liang came from Taiwan to show one of her specialties- forest style bonsai. The well developed Wrightia were drastically root pruned to fit on the shallow white marble tray. She brought two assistants from Taiwan to help her move the large size forest.

Mauro Stemberger traveled from Italy to demonstrate his techniques for shaping a very large size juniper. He removed quite a bit of the foliage and created a dead wood feature with the remaining stumps. He did not trim the branch tips to give strength to the foliage.

William N. Valavanis represented the United States and worked on a large size Dwarf ixora. This species grows quite slowly so the demonstration tree was old. This was a difficult tree to shape and Mauro immediately offered to split his juniper in half for me to use for the demo. It would have made a great small size bonsai, but going that way meant that my demo would have taken a few minutes rather than the tree hours allocated.

I was lucky and did not fall off the table!

I

MONDAY

Cheng Cheng Kung from Taiwan also worked on large juniper and carefully explained and demonstrated how to create dead wood using tools he invented. It is important to first look for the living lifeline under the bark before creating dead wood going around the trunk.

Sulistyanto Soejoso, an Indonesian native worked on a huge Phempis collected and established in a container. Four men were required to lift the tree on to the turntable and into the new container. He worked all around the tree and did not establish the front until the tree was completely shaped. Finally he potted the tree in a container he made from concrete especially for this bonsai.

Zhen Zhi came from China with one of his students to show how to create shohin bonsai. China is most famous for the large size penjing, but he started a shohin penjing organization and exhibition. He brought two junipers from China for his demonstrations and they quietly worked and created two beautiful shohin bonsai.

Mano Kumar and Shrikrshna Gagdi presented their first international demonstration outside India using several tropical trees for creating a forest bonsai. A flat container looking like a rock was used for planting the trees. Many different design ideas were presented using the same material before completing their bonsai.

TUESDAY

Isao Omachi, a recent award winning bonsai artist from Japan also worked on a large juniper. I was photographing another demo and when I looked back at his tree most of it was removed, only leaving an interesting low branch. He worked very hard stripping and carving the dead wood and created the living branches into a triangular silhouette at the end.

Robert Steven, also from Indonesia worked on a large size Dwarf black olive. It was from a cutting originally given to him from Pedro Morales from Puerto Rico. He explained in detail how he shapes a bonsai and decides on the front at the end. When completed he added a few rocks to the composition.

Pedro Morales came from Puerto Rico with his son, Joel, for an assistant. He got the Dwarf ixora with trunk movement and many branches. From certain angles the bonsai looks like a single trunk tree, however he kept both trunks because of their movement.

Jun llaga traveled from the Philippines to show his design and techniques for creating a forest landscape bonsai. He had many plants to work with but at the end only two well formed trees were used. A large shallow bonsai container was used emphasizing negative space.

Group photo during a tour. I did not climb up to the beautiful temple in the background because I could not find the elevator.

Sales area

Outdoor bonsai exhibit area

OuOne evening everyone was invited to wear their country’s native costume. I had a hard time trying to figure out what that would be for the United States, but came up with one which was popular. Pedro came as a pirate.

Here is view of Robert’s “peep show” exhibit featuring hotel do not disturb door signs with holes between

Again, it must be mentioned that the International Bonsai Art & Culture Biennial 2014 was a most unusual event, which highlighted the creativity of artists using bonsai. The exhibition, demonstrations and warm hospitality made for a most successful event which will hopefully elevate bonsai as an art form and present bonsai display in a creative light. I look forward to their next convention in 2016.

Today we visited the opening day of Robert Steven’s International Bonsai Art & Culture Biennial 2014 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. There were lots of beautiful bonsai displays to appreciate in a large exhibition hall, which was divided into about ten smaller galleries, plus a Robert’s “Thinker’s Secret Studio” complete with “peep holes.” Each gallery displayed several different styles and forms of bonsai and displays. Most of the compositions were labeled belonging to Robert, but other exhibitors were listed as well.

This was not an exhibition where one goes to study the form, trunk, and roots leaves and the bark of a bonsai. The beauty of each tree was creatively used to present a new use of bonsai artistically, unlike anything that I’ve seen before, and I loved it! Although I’m accustomed to seeing bonsai displayed in Japan with a quiet and refined taste, these bonsai were dramatic, creative, exciting and innovative. I truly believe Robert has elevated the artistic appreciation and use of bonsai to a new level with his stimulating exhibition.

Of course there were many single bonsai traditionally displayed alone with a plain background, but these were greatly overshadowed by Robert’s unique displays, similar to dioramas seen in museum settings. Many had lights flashing, two displays had the clicking sounds of cameras, one was rotating showing half a missing container held together with stones and moss holding a free form bonsai. Several of the displays included traditional Indonesian batik cloths and human figures made of dried grass. A couple featured picture frames with bonsai coming “out of the box.” Most were dramatically lighted, often with different colored bulbs which made for poor photography, but lovely for an up close personal view.

These descriptions may sound garish, but they were all beautifully executed in fine taste, just not in the style most people are accustomed to. Perhaps some visitors were offended because they did not understand what Robert Stevens was attempting to present to the world– the true artistic value, appreciation and use of bonsai.

I believe one must have an open mind to see and experience many different styles of bonsai from around the world. Quite often people have a limited viewpoint and do not have, nor desire to understand other forms of bonsai appreciation. There is nothing wrong with this viewpoint, but in order for an art form to grow, I believe its necessary to expand our understanding.

Many of Robert’s displays used his native Indonesian culture and folklore as inspirations and as accessories, while others were more modern. Quite a number of the displays were large, ten feet or more. Immediately many people would say, this would never fit into my home, or the bonsai is too large for me to move alone. Well, those people have lost the entire meaning and concept of this exhibition which is to present bonsai artistically and innovatively. In order to fill the exhibition area, large pieces are necessary. There is nothing to stop anyone to recreate or even improve on these display concepts and designs on a smaller scale. By the way, as you look over these display you might not like some of them, but that does not mean that they are poor, it only means you don’t understand the design concept of Robert Steven.

Throughout the indoor exhibition halls, sand paintings of different colored gravel artistically arranged on the floor seemed to lead you from one exhibit to another, all in an Indonesian flair.

There are often discussions about the validity of bonsai as an art form. The International Bonsai Art & Culture Biennial 2014 clearly indicates that bonsai IS an art form and can be used to express both the beauty of bonsai as well as the culture of a nation, and have fun with it as well.

Purple lighting with shadows were intentional

This exhibition took over a year and one half of Robert’s life to conceptualize, assemble and finally to display with impeccable taste so the participants can have a greater understanding of bonsai as a true art form.

Well done Robert, I congratulate you on your successful exhibition and wonder what you will do in two years to improve your show.

Oh, there is also an outdoor exhibition which I briefly went through in the sweltering heat which I hope revisit later. Plus tomorrow begins three mornings of bonsai demonstrations from twelve prominent artists around the globe. Stay tuned for more… Tomorrow evening we will dine at the Sultan’s Palace where participants are requested to wear their countries native dress. I wonder what the native costume in the United States of America is….

Street peddler trying to sell our group a bonsai

I spent Thursday morning on my way to Narita Airport en route to Indonesia at Kunio Kobayashi’s Shunka-en Bonsai Museum in Tokyo, Japan. I’ve had numerous opportunities to visit his beautiful garden with the many bonsai tours Kora Dalager and I lead to Japan and also when photographing for our large-format book Fine Bonsai. However, it’s not often that I have the rare privilege to just wonder around his garden, alone, uninterrupted attempting to appreciate, study and absorb the beauty of Mr. Kobayashi’s bonsai, distinctive alcove displays and to look for new ideas to adapt to the western bonsai community.

Formal display of Japanese black pine bonsai

As always Mr. Kobayashi arranges eight formal alcove displays along with several others in his museum to visitors can sit and enjoy the beauty. Ever see me just sit and study a bonsai display?

Informal display of Japanese paulownia

A very simple and elegant display of a literati style Pourithia in the small tea ceremony room alcove

This year I’ve visited Shunka-en Bonsai Museum in February, June and will again in a few weeks for our bonsai tours. Each time more and more bonsai are artistically packed into this small garden. In June I personally thought, the garden if filled to capacity, no more space for additional trees. But, I was wrong! There are many more trees than what I saw in June.

For many years now Chinese collectors have been traveling to Japan, paying high prices for antique Chinese containers and returning them to their origin country. This influx of “new” money has been responsible for maintaining many Japanese bonsai gardens open while the domestic market for trees is not nearly at the level it has enjoyed in the past.

Well, it seems to me that the Chinese have purchased most of the antique Chinese containers they want from Japan and are now turning to buying bonsai.

For the past several years there has been a huge increase in large size bonsai of mostly Japanese black pine bonsai that are probably being trained for the Chinese bonsai collectors. The Chinese love large massive bonsai and the Japanese black pine is one of the easiest species for importing into China. I’ve watched the quick development of what appear to be “garden tree size bonsai” into acceptable large size bonsai in Japan. Mr. Kobayashi and other artists are masters of training bonsai, of all sizes and quality, which is necessary to produce income so they can enjoy developing and refining fine-quality masterpieces.

The six foot branch on the right is being used to thicken a major branch or will be used for inarch grafting

Another new recent addition to Shunka-en Bonsai Museum is a section devoted to maple bonsai. I believe a shade cloth might be used during the hottest part of the summer for leaf protection from intense sun and heat. There are a great number of trees that will quickly develop into masterpieces. Plus I noticed many established famous maple bonsai masterpieces back in wooden boxes or deep containers for additional training, structural repair and to improve health.

During my visit I thought Mr. Kobayashi was hosting a BBQ party with individual grills. I know he likes to BBQ, especially on rainy days. In addition to the increase of large and numerous bonsai the most impressive technique that attracted my eye was the addition of large lump charcoal (biochar) to as a surface application. While this is nothing new and has been a common horticultural and agricultural farming practice for hundreds of years. Many bonsai growers, including me, regularly incorporate charcoal INTO the soil mix. I visited Shankar-en Bonsai Museum in June and did not see the great amount of lump charcoal added to the soil surface. Yes, there were a few surface applications of small size charcoal and if you carefully looked at the soil mix it could be seen. Perhaps Mr. Kobayashi learned something new since June, or is simply experimenting with charcoal for improving plant health.

Japanese black pine with yellow-green needles

The majority of trees with large amounts of lump charcoal were pines with yellowish green needles and junipers. Charcoal provides many benefits for improving the soil mix, but perhaps the most important is that it makes plant nutrients more readily available.

For a thorough, authoritative article on the horticultural charcoal (biochar) benefits for bonsai please see the 2013/NO. 4 issue of International BONSAI on page 22. The author, Dr. Peter Hobbs, is a professor of plant crops and soil science at Cornell University. He also grows bonsai and is one of my newer students who travel from Ithaca, New York to Rochester to attend classes and workshops. What, you DON’T subscribe to International BONSAI? No problem, you can easily subscribe at the link below and back copies are also available too:

http://www.internationalbonsai.com/product/IBM

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Perhaps a bit of rusty iron might help too. I’ve frequently seen old rusty nails stuck into the soil.

Additionally, a few unusual training techniques were displayed to move and lower branches. With a great number of trees, creativity helps the bonsai artist to quickly move branches so more trees can be trained.