My recent trip to Japan included a morning at The University of Tokyo’s Koishikawa Botanical Garden. The garden got its start as a medicinal herb garden in 1684 when it was established by the Tokugawa Shogunate (learn more here). Today it’s a research facility with 4000 species in the living collection, 20,000 books, and 1,000,000 […]
Excursions
Excursion posts feature visits to bonsai gardens in the U.S. and in Japan, visits to the Kyoto's Most Renown Gardens, and trips into the mountains to see junipers and pines in their natural setting.
Highlights from the Omiya Bonsai Museum’s garden
The Omiya Bonsai Museum’s garden area features a rotating selection of 40-50 trees from the museum’s collection. Many of these trees originally belonged to the Takagi Bonsai Museum. Over time, the collection has grown to become one of the more impressive bonsai gardens in Japan. The museum garden The garden is best appreciated from the […]
“Bonsai: Quest for Beauty” at the Omiya Bonsai Museum
The Omiya Bonsai Museum held an exhibit this winter featuring the work of Tomio Yamada of Seiko-en. “Bonsai: Quest for Beauty,” is the third exhibit in a series featuring the work of contemporary bonsai masters. From Yamada: It’s been over fifty years since the way of bonsai first called to me and I started creating […]
A visit to Fuyo-en, the garden of Hiroshi Takeyama
On my first visit to Japan, one of the gardens in the Omiya Bonsai Village left a particular impression – the garden of Horoshi Takeyama. Takeyama is the creator of some of the top deciduous and forest-style bonsai in Japan. Although the garden is beautiful year-round, it’s in winter when you can see the deciduous […]
A visit to Kimura’s bonsai garden
I’m glad I made it to Masahiko Kimura’s garden this year. I had an hour before the sun went down which was just enough time to visit some of my favorite trees and take a few photos. Posing with a Japanese black pine Looking closely at the trees in Kimura’s garden reveals the characteristics we […]