Urushibata’s garden is somewhat of a hot-spot these days. Known for dramatic collected material and outstanding shohin, there’s plenty around to capture the imagination. Shimpaku The day we visited 3 foreign students (from Germany, Spain and Poland) and 2 Japanese were hard at work on trees in large workshops at the end of the lot. […]
Black Pine
Daiju En
The following photo is a clue to the location of our next stop: Pine bark You guessed it – Daiju En, one of the world’s more famous pine bonsai gardens. And it’s the family home of my teacher’s teacher’s teacher. My teacher, Boon Manakitivipart, studied in Japan with Kihachiro Kamiya, student of Toshinori Sukuki. Daiju […]
Shohin black pine from scratch
This is the one black pine I’ve started to date that will end up shohin sized. The bottom branches are off to a good start – the rest of the tree has a ways to go. I actually was planning on moving the tree along two years ago. I cut off most of the roots […]
Exposed root black pine
This is one of the exposed root black pines I started in 1994. This is the one tree of that group that I’ve planned on keeping for some time now. Of the 50+ I started, I now only have 3. Front – before Front – after Left side – before After Right side – before […]
Recent pine work
This is one of the pines I started from seed in 1994. Most of these trees were grown as exposed root style, but a few ended up more conventionally shaped. A few years ago I cut it back to one branch and one bud – these remaining shoots have developed quickly. Front Back Left Right […]