Nomoto Chinshou-en

For those curious about my visits to so many Kyushu bonsai gardens, the answer is simple – Daisaku Nomoto. In addition to hosting the Kyushu portion of my recent visit to Japan, long-time friend and teacher Nomoto designed an itinerary to suit my interest in developing bonsai from scratch. So instead of visiting some of the top collections in the area, we focused on a handful of the more interesting gardens where I could see development techniques up close and ask whatever questions came to mind. This very thoughtful planning made for a outstanding visit – for this, thank you Daisaku!

Of course, many of these visits focused on techniques for developing black pine bonsai. Nomoto, who apprenticed with Kihachiro Kamiya, is well-known for his pine work. Here are some of the black pines at his Miyazaki nursery, Nomoto Chinshou-en.

Daisaku Nomoto with a cascade black pine at Nomoto Chinshou-en

Black pine

Black pine

Black pine

It was fun to see the pines in Nomoto’s nursery after visiting so many different pine growers. Many of these pines were still under development, though most were further along than the trees we’d seen elsewhere.

Young black pine

Black pine

The pines ranged from big to small, including a number of shohin.

Shohin black pine

Shohin black pine

Shohin black pine

Small black pine

Medium-sized black pine

Large black pine

There were also a number of pine projects, including grafted cork bark and Kotobuki black pines.

Cork bark pine

Young Kotobuki black pine

Exposed root black pine

As is typical of nurseries belonging to bonsai professions, many of the better pines in the garden belonged to Nomoto’s customers. With the rest, Nomoto is free to do as he wishes. And as there’s never enough time to give every tree one’s full attention, even the brief tour of the nursery provided Nomoto time to reflect about future plans for a number of the trees in his garden, including the interesting pine below.

Nomoto considers a pine’s future

Black pine

In addition to black pines, Nomoto Chinshou-en was full of different varieties – more on these next week.