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, 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.”

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

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.

The Bay Area Bonsai Associates, affectionately known as “BABA,” held their 30th annual exhibit last weekend at the Lake Merritt Garden Center in Oakland, California.  BABA is one of the best known Bonsai organizations in the Bay Area and their exhibit lived up to expectations. Their trees have improved rapidly in the past few years, evidence of club members’ dedication to bonsai. Notably absent, however, from this year’s exhibit, was longtime member Ruben Guzman. Guzman, an active participant in the Northern California bonsai community since long before I started almost 20 years ago, recently passed away. Some of his trees, including the San Jose juniper below, were displayed in his memory.

San Jose juniper – in memory of Ruben Guzman

BABA chose an early winter date for the event which gave visitors a good opportunity to appreciate the many deciduous trees on display.

Trident maple

Korean hornbeam

Japanese maple

Flowering apricot

Mountain of moss

Crabapple – Malus zumi, Golden Hornet

Flowering apricot

There was also a good selection of broadleaf evergreens and conifers, including the large California juniper below.

California juniper

California juniper

Japanese black pine

Coast redwood

Ficus

As always, BABA presented a good selection of good bonsai, making the event one I can look forward to year after year. Congratulations for the past 30 years!

After hosting ten exhibits in Hayward and two in Pleasanton, Bay Island Bonsai moved its annual exhibit to the Lake Merritt Garden Center in Oakland, California. The 13th annual event was a big success, drawing crowds of experienced bonsai folk as well as many who are new to the art. As the Garden Center contains two large rooms, we displayed all large bonsai in one room and all small and medium sized bonsai in the other. I really liked the split. At previous exhibits, large, impressive, trees like the black pine below would invariably end up next to much smaller trees. It was tough for the smaller trees to compete. By presenting like-sized trees together, following the convention employed at the Kokufu exhibit in Japan, it was easier to appreciate every tree in the room.

At the center of the exhibit was an old roughbark Japanese black pine that belonged to Mas Imazumi. It has long been a favorite of mine.

Roughbark black pine – Chinese antique pot

About ten years ago the tree was much weaker than it is now. I expect its renewed health will lead to some styling enhancements in coming years.

One of the fullest trees in the exhibit was a prostrata juniper. The tree is large – and heavy! It is also well-balanced, suggesting clear movement to the right.

Prostrata juniper

A Western juniper, only a few years out of the ground, made an interesting contrast to the prostrata juniper. Its young foliage hints at the tree’s future shape, leaving the viewer to appreciate the interesting movement and deadwood characteristic of many collected Westerns.

Western juniper

Japanese black pine

Shimpaku

The blue atlas cedar below has been a fun project. I helped repot it more than ten years ago during its initial styling. Planted in a 20-plus gallon container, the tree taught me how useful a reciprocating saw can be during repotting season. Now far more refined, the tree is well on its way to become an impressive cedar bonsai.

Blue atlas cedar

Cork bark black pine

White pine

The semi-cascade white pine below is another favorite of mine. The delicate foliage provides a nice contrast to the heavy trunk. One of two white pines once affixed to a large stone by Yasuo Mitsuya, the pine has more recently found its home in a custom-built pot by Michael Hagedorn.

White pine – Michael Hagedorn pot

Scots pine

Shimpaku – old Yamaaki pot, Kinkazouin

Japanese black pine

Shimpaku – Chinese antique pot, check out the feet!

Japanese black pine

Japanese black pine – Chinese antique pot

Exposed root red pine

The exhibit featured deciduous bonsai as well. Although not as well-represented as the coniferous trees in the exhibit, the bare trees suggested that BIB members appreciate a wide variety of bonsai.

Stewartia – Michael Hagedorn pot

Trident maple

Ume

Ginkgo

Catlin elm

Star magnolia – Chinese antique pot

Japanese maple

Trident maple – Koyo pot

Japanese maple

The broadleaf evergreens, on the other hand, were simply not well-represented at this year’s exhibit. That will change in future exhibits. For now, here’s an olive that has only been trained as bonsai for a few years.

Olive – off to a great start

Mas Nakajima provided an installation of his suiseki art for the exhibit. I heard several explanations behind the arrangement, but my favorite comment about these stories belongs to Mas: “Too much story,” he said. The painting, and the stones, were a welcome addition to the exhibit.

Suiseki art by Mas Nakajima

I had a lot of fun setting up Bay Island Bonsai’s exhibit this year. Having recently returned from Japan, I found myself looking at trees in a very different light than I had before the visit. I now get much more enjoyment from flowering and fruiting trees, and I’m even more fascinated by the idea of balance in bonsai. On that note, I’ve really appreciated the recent discussions about whether certain trees point left or right. If an idea as simple as direction can lead to such rich discussions, either the trees in question – or our understanding of said trees – offer opportunities for improvement.

The crabapple below provided some much appreciated color to BIB’s exhibit. Discussion arose, however, as to the direction of the tree. More and more, I skip past the idea of which way a given tree points and start asking which way the tree could or should point. In other words, what can be done to a tree to enhance its balance or to clarify its direction?

Crabapple

The main branches on my trident maple are fairly horizontal and somewhat similar in size. Over time I plan to vary the angles at which the primary branches extend from the trunk and create more differentiation in branch size to improve the tree’s balance. I hope that in time to make it clear that the tree moves to the left.

Trident maple – antique Chinese pot

A number of nice shimpaku made it into this year’s exhibit, including the two well-balanced trees below. Both get their sense of direction from the trunk more than from the foliage. Although people often respond strongly to direction of the upper part of the trunk or the foliage, it’s typically not enough to outweigh the sense of direction provided by the lower trunk.

Shohin shimpaku

Kifu shimpaku

A small red pine provided an interesting example. The first branch indicates strong movement to the left. The foliage suggests movement to the right. It’s tough to say which way the trunk leads the eye.

Red pine – nanban pot

I’ve always enjoyed this tree. For the exhibit, it was placed on the left side of the display, but Boon suggested that in the future it could go the other way. Tilting the tree slightly to the left made it clear that the tree has good potential to point left. Some minor branch work could complete the makeover.

Red pine – tilted

Next week I’ll post photos of trees that more clearly know where they are going.

Bay Island Bonsai was fortunate this year to have Daisaku Nomoto around to help with its 13th annual exhibit.

Daisaku Nomoto

Nomoto, Boon’s senpai at Kihachi-en, wired trees, prepared moss top-dressings, and carried many trees before, during, and after the exhibit. Somewhere along the way, he took a liking to a Western juniper. So much so, it became the recipient of the first Daisaku Nomoto Bonsai Award.

The winning tree – Western Juniper

Nomoto is a fan of trees styled in this fashion. The tree has a somewhat bunjin-gi feeling, but has a more substantial trunk and silhouette than typical bunjin bonsai. The tree is full, healthy, and well balanced. I’ll add that it points to the right.

Having seen the tree develop since it was collected, I can say that it’s come a long way in a very short time. It is a deserving recipient of the first Daisaku Nomoto Bonsai Award.

The award

Bay Island Bonsai held their 13th Annual Exhibit this past weekend at the Lakeside Garden Center in Oakland, CA. The exhibit featured a well developed shimpaku juinper.

Shimpaku juniper

Before reading any further, which way do you think the tree points – to the left or to the right?

When setting up exhibits, we often start by identifying trees that point left or right and put these at the ends of each row where they can point toward the center. Cascade and semi-cascade bonsai often end up at the ends of rows as they are strongly directional trees. With the exception of formal upright bonsai, most trees tend to point or lean a bit to the left or the right. When trees point to the left, we tend to place accent or companion plants to the right in the attempt to create balanced compositions.

The apex of the shimpaku pictured above points strongly to the left, as does the first branch on that side of the tree. My inclination was to display the tree on the right and place an accent plant on the left. Daisaku Nomoto, a bonsai professional visiting from Miyazaki, Japan, however, wanted the tree placed on the left. I winced at the suggestion, and appealed to Boon. Boon seconded Nomoto’s opinion. While we stood there discussing the matter, the tree’s owner set the tree on the right. This made sense to me and I liked the resulting display.

Displayed on the right with accent and scroll

At the end of the day, I found myself very curious about the direction of the tree. Maybe if the trunk or branches were arranged differently I could see what Boon and Nomoto saw. The next morning I asked Boon and Nomoto for an explanation. Simply put, they typically find the movement in the lower part of the trunk to be the most important element in the determination of direction. What about the apex or the key branch? Not important, Nomoto replied. It really is all about the lower part of the trunk. Tilting the tree a bit to the right would increase the movement of the lower part of the trunk and move the apex to the right. Growing out the lowest branch on the right could further this movement.

What does the tree look like displayed on the left?

As displayed on the left

Turns out the tree looks good on the left too.

Armed with new knowledge, I found a new way to look at bonsai. Like the Ponderosa pine below, for instance. Surely it points to the right?

Ponderosa pine

No such luck. Nomoto insisted the tree points to the left, just as the owner had displayed it.

I hope it’s been obvious from my recent posts, but in case it isn’t, I’d like to underscore the fact that the great bonsai exhibits in Japan feature some really great trees. The Taikan-ten in Kyoto is the second largest exhibit in Japan and it always includes some outstanding trees. Special displays feature Kokufu and Sakufu prize-winners. These are typically very large and very old bonsai. It can be difficult to keep such trees healthy, let alone move them from one bench to another. Their beauty reflects not only great bonsai skill, but also great caring as their maintenance over long periods of time requires considerable resources.

Although the show isn’t organized by size or variety, I’ve taken license in presenting like groups of trees for dramatic effect. Doing this helps remind me just how many fantastic pines, for instance, the show contained.

I hope you enjoy the photos below, and I’d like to wish you all a happy new year!  I appreciate your readership and engaged comments – they mean a lot to me. To borrow a phrase from Peter Tea, thanks for reading!

Japanese black pine from Mr. Moriyama’s collection

Japanese black pine – work by a Daiju-en graduate

Japanese black pine – from Mr. Moriyama’s collection

Japanese black pine

Japanese black pine displayed at this year’s Gomangoku

Japanese black pine

Semi-cascade Japanese black pine

Japanese black pine on a rock

Cascade Japanese black pine

Japanese white pine from Mr. Moriyama’s collection – one of the trees I helped prepare for the exhibit

Japanese white pine - received 2011 Kokufu Prize and Prime Minister Award at the 2010 Taikan-ten

Japanese white pine – although the pot looks new, it’s likely over 100 years old

Japanese white pine – a great conversation piece

Japanese white pine

Hemlock – a favorite among many Taikan-ten visitors

Formal upright hinoki bonsai

Ezo spruce

Ezo spruce - received 2011 Kokufu Prize

Ezo spruce – deadwood detail

Needle juniper

Shimpaku – received 2010 Sakufu Prize

Shimpaku

Shiimpaku

Roughbark Japanese maple

Trident maple – from Mr. Moriyama’s collection

Japanese winterberry – work by a Daiju-en graduate

Japanese maple

Ginkgo

Korean hornbeam – received 2011 Kokufu Prize

Japanese maple – possibly shishigashira

Japanese flowering quince – ‘Chojubai’

Kadsura

Satsuki azalea