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More from Miyazaki

May 2, 2014 by Jonas Dupuich

In addition to growing deciduous trees by the hundreds, Mr. Adachi had taken to developing small shimpaku as well. He starts with cuttings, wires them after a few years, and encourages escape branches to thicken trunks and create interesting deadwood. Adachi said he pruned and wired his junipers in August and November. The rest of the time he watered and fertilized the trees.

Shimpaku

A small-sized shimpaku

Shimpaku

Deadwood on a shohin juniper

The trees looked funny on the benches as is they had long antennae reaching outwards.

Shimpaku

Young juniper with escape branches

These too grew by the hundred in Adachi’s backyard.

Shimpaku

Adachi’s junipers

The benches upon which these flats rested were fairly rudimentary – galvanized pipes atop beer crates.

Bench

Basic benches

Younger junipers suggested what was to come later as twisted branches would become deadwood and long shoots would become escape branches.

Shimpaku

Young juniper

The cuttings were jumbled affairs of twists and turns.

Shimpaku

Cuttings with wire

Heading back toward the house we discovered a final bench featuring specimens of a variety I had yet to see that afternoon – black pine. Turns out Adachi is a fan of pines as well.

Black pine

Japanese cork bark black pine

Before leaving, Adachi opened his front door so we could peek at a tokonoma he’d set up that morning with a black pine.

Black pine

Black pine display

Although the bonsai I saw in Kyushu was wonderful, my visit there was not limited to little trees. Some other Miyazaki highlights:

Aoshima

 Aoshima Island

Aoshima

Aoshima Shrine

Aoshima

Aoshima Island

Aoshima Island and much of Miyazaki’s coastline is defined by a unique rock formation known as the Ogre’s Washboard.

Ogre's Washboard

With Nomoto’s son at Aoshima Island

Ogre's Washboard

Close-up of the Ogre’s Washboard

The formation shows up again just south of town.

Miyazaki

Miyazaki’s famous coastline

On my last afternoon in Miyazaki, Nomoto and I visited an ume festival. The full-sized trees were beautiful, and the fragrance was unforgettable – much like the rest of my visit to Kyushu.

Ume

Ume festival

Ume

Pink ume

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Filed Under: Excursions Tagged With: Japan

Previous Post: « Adachi’s little trees
Next Post: Tête-à-tête »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Joshua Stockton says

    May 14, 2014 at 8:47 am

    I must say, those benches arent a bad idea. I’m over here building tables with plywood, why didn’t I think of that. I enjoyed your post and pictures! Thanks for sharing!

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