Pines and junipers at Meifu-ten
Pines and junipers at Meifu-ten
Central Japan will not run out of pine or juniper bonsai anytime soon. The trees below comprise about a fifth of the bonsai displayed at this year’s Meifu-ten in Nagoya, Japan. As a hobbyist exhibit, Meifu-ten shows off some of the best work done by local hobbyists and collectors. Although many of trees were prepped for the exhibit by professionals, the general quality isn’t quite what one finds at Taiken-ten or Kokufu-ten. That said, the material and much of the work is wonderful.
Cascade shimpaku on root stand
Shimpaku
Black pine
Black pine
The following six trees belong to Aichi-en customers. All of us at the nursery that week – Mr. Tanaka, the other Mr. Tanaka, Peter Tea and I, all helped pluck errant needles, wire unruly branches, oil dirty pots and arrange small tufts of moss.
Black pine – Peter Tea prep – a very nice tree
Black pine – one of the trees I helped prep for the exhibit
Black pine – the tree belongs to Mr. Tanaka, a 3rd year apprentice at Aichi-en – Peter Tea prep
Black pine – the other tree I prepped
Black pine – Peter Tea prep
White pine – Mr. Tanaka and Peter Tea wired this tree late into the evening
Black pine
White pine
Black pine
Black pine
Black pine
Black pine
Shimapaku
Red pine
Needle juniper
White pine
Black pine
The white pine below received some extra attention. It belongs to a Daiju-en customer and had been prepared for exhibit with the front as pictured below.
White pine – intended front
I placed the tree on the stand with this front but that wasn’t good enough for Mr. Tanaka, who turned the tree to the front pictured below. As it happens, the six-sided pot and six-sided stand made the change easy. What I don’t know, is what the customer thought when he saw the resulting photo or how the tree was actually displayed at the exhibit in January.
White pine as photographed
White pine
Twisty shimpaku!
Black pine
White pine
Black pine
White pine
Black pine
Black pine
Meifu-ten – Nagoya’s bonsai exhibit
Meifu-ten – Nagoya’s bonsai exhibit
Meifu-ten, one of Japan’s largest and oldest bonsai exhibits, was held January 14-16 in Nagoya. The 82 annual event contained scores of trees from all over Central Japan. Although I wasn’t able to attend, I had the opportunity to carry most of the exhibited bonsai during my visit to Japan last fall. The photographs for exhibited trees were taken in Inazawa on November 10-11, 2011. The trees’ owners – or designated professionals – showed up with trucks and vans, and a handful of us loaded and unloaded the trees for a day and a half.
An impressive load of trees
Kinbon managed the photo shoot, hiring two local contract photographers, each set up in adjacent warehouses. Peter Tea and I provided the labor for one of these.
Peter spots the trees for the next shot
The photographers indicated the order in which the trees were shot. Each owner was given a time slot ahead of time which helped us manage the workflow. After setting up a display, we stood back and watched the photographer work. He began by making an index shot with a DSLR to check the lighting. These shots included a numbered card to help them track information about each tree. He then took 3-5 shots with a medium camera shooting film! A Kinbon staffer recorded the tree variety, height, pot maker and owner for each shot.
Number 115 – needle juniper
The work proved surprisingly fun. We got to see an exhibit up close, and we had time to consider each tree. Some were outstanding – others made it clear that this was an exhibit for hobbyists. All told, it was a good mix of trees.
Gardenia
Japanese maple
Needle juniper
Apart from the few trees that arrived in trucks chock-full of bonsai, every other tree I carried arrived in a van. Japanese bonsai professionals seem to drive vans exclusively, and of these, the Toyota Hiace was one the more popular models. Following the general automotive fashion I witnessed in Japan, most were black, white or grey. The shot below captures atypical variety in van color and style.
Bonsaimobiles
Occasionally, Peter Tea and I learned a bit about the trees we handled. The red maple below, Acer palmatum ‘Seigen,’ was developed at Aichi-en. It’s an extraordinary example of the variety.
Japanese maple – ‘Seigen’
Great trunk and roots
We also had a chance to think about how the trees were displayed. Medium displays typically featured a larger tree and a smaller, a conifer and a deciduous or broadleaf evergreen tree. Some made great pairings.
Japanese maple and Japanese white pine
Close-up of the maple
Needle juniper on root stand
Japanese black pine and trident maple
Pine and broadleaf evergreen with fruit
The remaining trees were pleasant on their own.
Japanese maple
Japanese maple
Cryptomeria
Trident maple
Chinese quince – great ramification
Shohin display
Shohin display
Cypress
Kinzu – wild kumquat
Broadleaf evergreen
Japanese beech
Peter Tea provided a nice write-up of the event – see his post, “82nd Meifu-ten Bonsai Show.”
The 2011 Sakufu-ten
I had long been curious about the Sakufu-ten. I’d visited Kokufu and seen the books from past Sakufu-ten, but didn’t know much about the event beyond that.
Toward the end of my visit to Japan, I learned that my flight home was scheduled for the same weekend as Sakufu. Not only did I not want to miss the event, but my ride to the airport, Junichiro Tanaka, was scheduled to be in Tokyo the same day, receiving the award for top large conifer. Before the day was out, I’d changed my flight. I was going to Tokyo.
The drive from Nagoya filled about half a day. Upon arriving in Tokyo, the three of us, Tanaka, Peter Tea and I, headed straight to the Green Club to set up Tanaka’s tree. Everyone else had set up their display before lunch – we arrived just before sundown. We walked past many beautiful displays with tree and stand in hand and found an empty display on the second floor with a photo featuring a familiar white pine. As soon as the tree stopped teetering on its stand, Peter and I took in the rest of the exhibit.
It was getting chilly when we headed to our hotel about a mile away. We checked in, relaxed for a bit, then headed out for dinner in Ueno. Dinner was a fantastic affair that entailed many delicacies that we could not identify. Sometimes it’s better that way.
Korean hornbeam with spectacularly dense branches
Cypress
Black pine
Spruce
Trident maple
White pine on a rock
Japanese maple – very good trunk
White pine
Satsuki azalea
Japanese flowering quince, ‘Chojubai’
Japanese pepper tree
White pine
Very old pot
Satsuki azalea
White pine
Shimpaku
Black pine
Jasmine
White pine
Shimpaku rock planting by Kimura
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Sakufu-ten – the bonsai professional’s exhibit
Sakufu-ten – the bonsai professional’s exhibit
Most bonsai exhibits in Japan provide enthusiasts the opportunity to show off and receive credit for their trees. One exhibit, the Sakafu-ten, provides bonsai professionals direct recognition for their work. As such, Sakufu-ten prizes are valued highly by many professionals. And unlike the multiple Kokufu prizes awarded every year, there is only one grand prize awarded at each Sakufu-ten.
Professionals submit their trees for judging in Fall and learn who the winners are soon after. The trees are photographed at this time as well. A month or two later, the trees return to Tokyo in December for the exhibit.
Last year’s exhibit was held on the first weekend of December at the Green Club in Ueno, home to the massive sales area during the Kokufu exhibit in February. The exhibit occupies the first two floors of the Green Club. A related exhibit is held on the third floor that consists solely of Important Bonsai Masterpieces. Outside the Green Club, vendors offer the usual variety of trees, pots, tools and the like.
Sakufu-ten sales area
Trees for sale – nice gardenias
The S-CUBE sales area
Cryptomeria for sale – 15万 (almost $2,000)
An award ceremony for prize winners is held on Saturday after the exhibit closes for the day. Most attendees were bonsai professionals in town for the exhibit.
2011 Sakufu-ten award ceremony
The top award is for best overall tree. By convention, this tree is a large conifer. The 2011 award went to Minoru Akiyama. Akiyama, who studied with Kunio Kobayashi at Shunka-en, was very excited to win the award.
Shinji Suzuki and impromptu hostesses supply flowers and a certificate to Minoru Akiyama
The award for large conifer is generally considered to be the number two prize at the event. The 2011 award for large conifer went to Junichiro Tanaka for a cascade white pine. Peter Tea provides a great write-up about preparing the tree for exhibit in “An Old Five Needle Pine Goes to Show.“
Junichiro Tanaka – 2011 winner, large conifer (white pine)
The number three prize is for best large deciduous tree. The 2011 award went to Takayuki Fukushima. Like Tanaka, Fukushima is a graduate of Daiju-en.
Takayuki Fukushima – 2011 winner, large deciduous bonsai (silverberry)
About nine prizes were awarded during the ceremony. The final prize went to Akio Kondo for a root over rock trident maple.
Akio Kondo – 2011 winner, Nippon Bonsai Association Award
I’ll share photos of the trees on display later this week.
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