Kifu bonsai don’t get a lot of attention. They are the trees that are a bit larger than shohin, but shorter than the medium sized bonsai. They are generally between 8 and 12 inches tall. The increased size allows for a bit more character and complexity than shohin trees, but they still work on a […]
Exhibits
Exhibits are where we can see bonsai at their best. Explore posts from Bonsai Exhibits in the U.S. including the U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition and Japanese events including the world-famous Kokufu and Taikan-ten exhibits.
Shohin bonsai at BIB’s 17th annual exhibit
The focus of this year’s Bay Island Bonsai exhibit was on smaller trees – shohin, kifu and chuhin, or medium-sized bonsai. This meant a couple of things for members: there would be no lifting of heavy trees (easy), but we’d need far more trees than normal to fill the exhibit hall (tricky). Altogether, BIB members […]
The Artisans Cup Retrospective
Last week, the Artisans Cup launched a novel exhibit retrospective – a multi-media website that lets visitors take a closer look at the exhibited bonsai and hear, in the words of the judges, what makes each composition special. The Artisans Cup The retrospective is available for a $65 membership at the Cup website. Membership includes […]
Show trees and accents
For this year’s Bay Island Bonsai exhibit, I displayed six trees and four accents. Two of the accents were created for past exhibits while the other (smaller) two came together just before the show. The trees, on the other hand, have all been in my collection for some time. Two of the pines are the same […]
Suiseki at Genko Kai exhibit
The Genko Kai exhibit at Hoshun-in Temple featured nearly as many stones as it did bonsai. Most evoked mountains – the rest took a variety of forms from figures to huts to islands. There was good diversity of color as some stones were as bright as others were dark. As is the case with many […]