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 […]
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A twisting black pine
The back pine below appeared on the turntable and I was asked to make the tree “more beautiful.” What an unusual tree! Twisted pine Before looking very closely, I immediately got to work plucking old needles. That gave me a chance to study the tree and let me put off figuring out what to do […]
Youkakai – 8 Auction
The barker calls bids before a small crowd on a patch of dirt on a bright day in Inazawa, Aichi-ken. Lots speed by at a rate of two per minute. The trees are going fast. Youkakai Youkakai, or 8th day auction, is a local event held on the 8th day of each month at Kouyo-en. The […]
Wiring a large Japanese black pine
As summer growth hardens on Japanese black pines, the time comes to pluck needles, cut extra shoots and wire branches that need moving. I recently worked on the black pine below with Boon Manakitivipart at the Shinpukuji Temple near Okazaki in Aichi, Japan. Black pine in Fall I’m used to doing fall work on Japanese […]
New bonsai tool – dish soap
When bonsai exhibits come around, bonsai enthusiasts love moss. They drive around town with their eyes on gutters and puddles in hopes of finding patches that can be scraped up and used as top dressing for their trees. But when moss grows into pine bark, the story changes. The goal is to find a way […]