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 […]
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.
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 […]
A snapshot of Shunka-en bonsai garden
One of the most common stops on bonsai tours in Japan is Shunka-en, the garden of Kunio Kobayashi. By car or train it’s about 20 minutes east of Ueno Park, home to the Kokufu exhibit, in Edogawa. I first visited Shunka-en, or “spring flower garden,” twenty-seven years ago. Since that trip, the garden has changed […]
A visit to the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum
The Omiya Bonsai Art Museum is a favorite stop of mine on bonsai tours. It provides visitors with a little history about the Omiya Bonsai Village – a collection of historic gardens, several of which are still operating today – and features a courtyard garden with a rotating selection of bonsai. Most of these trees […]
Special trees at the 100th Kokufu exhibit
Last month the Japanese Bonsai Association hosted the 100th national exhibit, the Kokufu, at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Ueno Park, Tokyo. The event was busier than it has been in recent years, and a larger percentage of the visitors were foreign. As for the bonsai, there was a good number of special trees […]