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Urushibata

March 26, 2009 by Jonas Dupuich

Urushibata’s garden is somewhat of a hot-spot these days. Known for dramatic collected material and outstanding shohin, there’s plenty around to capture the imagination.

Shimpaku

Shimpaku

The day we visited 3 foreign students (from Germany, Spain and Poland) and 2 Japanese were hard at work on trees in large workshops at the end of the lot. The European students were there for visits measuring between 3 weeks and 2 months.

Shimpaku

Shimpaku

Urushibata’s son “Tiger” was on site to answer our questions. He’s a recent graduate of Kimura’s garden and the influence shows. Many large shimpaku bore signs of intense carving, sometimes to very dramatic effect. It was clear Tiger had learned well.

Shimpaku

Shimpaku

Black pine

Japanese black pine

For each large tree we may have seen 100 shohin bonsai. Below was one of very few mid-sized trees I saw that afternoon – technically a chuhin – with super movement:

Shimpaku

Shimpaku

Deadwood detail

Shimpaku – trunk detail

The sheer number of shohin in the garden was overwhelming. The photo below captures the main shohin area, but there were others scattered elsewhere.

Urushibata's shohin

Urushibata’s shohin

Trees that seemed repetitive from far away proved interesting on closer inspection. Urushibata’s was quite the miniature forest.

Black pine

Japanese black pine

White pine

Japanese white pine

✕

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Filed Under: Excursions Tagged With: Black Pine, Japan, Shimpaku, Shohin

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Scott Straley says

    March 29, 2009 at 8:32 am

    Jonas,
    Superb photography, and a wonderful garden! Thanks for making such superb entries, and sharing your trip with us.

    Scott

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