Towards the end of every month, bonsai professionals gather at a selected nursery for a night auction. The night auction is local to Central Japan and features material a step up from the 8 Auction, or Youkakai. Night auction The first thing I noticed is that trees and pots to be auctioned sat in a fairly […]
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Black pine bonsai on display at Gomangoku
The 21st Gomangoku, Daiju-en’s annual bonsai exhibit in Okazaki, Aichi, featured some great Japanese black pines. The Suzuki family, and the apprentices who studied with them, are well known for their pine work. Getting to see the trees up close, to carry them, study them, and think about them, was a great experience. I’ve long […]
Gomangoku – the Daiju-en family bonsai exhibit
Gomangoku is the Daiju-en family’s annual bonsai exhibit – it was held a few weeks ago over the first weekend in November. The phrase “Daiju-en family” refers, in this case, to Toru Suzuki, head of the Daiju-en garden in Okazaki, Aichi, and all of the available bonsai professionals who have studied there with Suzuki. Daiju-en […]
Preparing trees for show
Late fall through early winter is show season in Japan. Depending on how many trees a bonsai professional has to show – or sell – October through February can be a busy time. Within just three weeks, I helped with trees bound for four different events. Show preparation can entail anything from needle plucking to […]
Million dollar bonsai
There was a lot of talk about a large white pine at the 11th Asia-Pacific Bonsai and Suiseki Convention & Exhibition (ASPAC 2011) offered for 100,000,000 yen. At today’s exchange rate, that’s close to 1.3 million dollars. Million dollar bonsai The tree was offered by S-CUBE, the bonsai organization headed by Seiji Morimae. The tree […]