Imagine you’re in charge of maintaining the trees in the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum’s Chinese Pavilion. Your experience is with bonsai, but from a Western perspective. You begin with a tree like the black pine below. Japanese black pine The tree appears to have been trained as a literati, or bunjin bonsai, but it’s […]
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.
A visit to the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum
I spent World Bonsai Day at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum in Washington, D.C. this year – a fitting location for the event! It had been many years since my last visit to the museum which made it really fun to see how the trees had changed. It was also an opportunity to see […]
A visit to the Bonsai Collection at Longwood Gardens
When I was in town for the MidAtlantic Bonsai Society’s Spring Festival I made a side trip to Longwood Gardens. Located in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, Longwood features over 1000 acres spread over several properties of incredible gardens. It also features a bonsai collection. The collection got its start almost 70 year ago with thirteen trees […]
A visit to Masahiko Kimura’s garden
One of the most anticipated stops on our tour this year was a visit to Kimura’s garden. The section that’s open to the public is relatively small and almost exclusively filled with pines and junipers. The most famous of these is a shimpaku named Toryu no mai (“Dance of the Ascending Dragon”). Shimpaku – Toryu […]
Taisho-en: the garden of Taiga Urushibata
Among the handful of gardens I’m happy to visit every time I go to Japan, Taisho-en is a favorite. World-class trees. World-class work. Taisho-en is managed by Taiga Urushibata. His father, Nobuichi Urushibata, was a prominent shohin professional. Taiga, who apprenticed with Masahiko Kumura, is well-known for working on trees of all sizes. Walking among […]