• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Bonsai Tonight

An educational website about bonsai development

  • Blog
    • How-to Guides
  • Podcast
  • Shop
    • Bonsai
    • Books
    • Soil
    • Soil (wholesale)
    • Supplies
    • Tools
    • Video Consulting
    • Northern California Bonsai Resources
  • About
    • Workshops

Pines and junipers at Meifu-ten

February 17, 2012 by Jonas Dupuich

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.

Shimpaku

Cascade shimpaku on root stand

Shimpaku

Shimpaku

Black pine

Black pine

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

Black pine – Peter Tea prep – a very nice tree

Black pine

Black pine – one of the trees I helped prep for the exhibit

Black pine

Black pine – the tree belongs to Mr. Tanaka, a 3rd year apprentice at Aichi-en – Peter Tea prep

Black pine

Black pine – the other tree I prepped

Black pine

Black pine – Peter Tea prep

White pine

White pine – Mr. Tanaka and Peter Tea wired this tree late into the evening

Black pine

Black pine

White pine

White pine

Black pine

Black pine

Black pine

Black pine

Black pine

Black pine

Black pine

Black pine

Shimpaku

Shimapaku

Red pine

Red pine

Needle juniper

Needle juniper

White pine

White pine

Black 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

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

White pine as photographed

White pine

White pine

Shimpaku

Twisty shimpaku!

Black pine

Black pine

White pine

White pine

Black pine

Black pine

White pine

White pine

Black pine

Black pine

Black pine

Black pine

Subscribe to Bonsai Tonight

New Posts Delivered Every Tuesday and Friday

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by Kit

Filed Under: Exhibits Tagged With: Japan

Previous Post: « Meifu-ten – Nagoya’s bonsai exhibit
Next Post: Bonsai stamps »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Marty says

    February 17, 2012 at 6:14 pm

    Great pictures and very nice to see what are considered to be good to very good hobbyist trees in Japan. A bit closer to many of the trees we are developing than those fully developed by the pros.

Footer

Follow Bonsai Tonight

Subscribe

Instagram ● Facebook ● Twitter
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Shop
  • About

P.O. Box 6560, Alameda, CA 94501 · 510-915-2025 · jonas (at) bonsaitonight (dot) com

© Copyright 2009-2025 Bonsai Tonight · All rights reserved · Privacy · Log in

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. You can opt-out if you wish. Accept Decline Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT