Bonsai nurseries are rarely found in high-rent districts. Many are isolated blocks within residential neighborhoods or semi-rural areas, especially those with agricultural activity nearby. Ishii’s nursery is in the latter category. While there are plenty of nice houses in the area, there’s plenty of farmland too. And great vegetable gardens! Here are some more trees […]
Japan
Ebihara’s maples
While Boon, Peter Tea and I were poking around Ishii’s nursery outside of Nagoya last year, we came across a number of great Japanese maples. They looked familiar to us, but we didn’t immediately figure out why. Japanese maple Great root base Another substantial root base A pair of maples It was the first time […]
Ishii
It was almost a year ago that I was preparing to visit Japan for what turned out to be my best vacation to date – a bonsai adventure that lasted almost two months. I shot far more photos on this trip than I was able to share last year so I will now return to […]
Shopping at the Asia-Pacific Bonsai and Suiseki Convention
Ever wonder what it’s like to wander around a world-class bonsai convention held in Japan? It’s pretty great. Everywhere I turned I saw wonderful trees, tools, pots, stands and other bonsai paraphernalia. It was fun to see which trees came from which gardens and how much they cost. And because the quality was so high, it […]
Bonsai demonstrations at the 11th ASPAC
I’d been curious how demonstrations in Japan differ from the demos I’ve attended closer to home. It turns out they aren’t that different. Bonsai professionals took breaks from their work to talk about the trees while assistants kept busy. Kimura’s demo involved some minor carving and a few large bends that resulted in a pleasing […]