Boon Manakitivipart’s trip to Japan this past winter included a visit to Daiju-en – one of the more amazing pine gardens in Japan. The garden is managed, today, by Tohru Suzuki. Here are some of the stand-out trees. Daiju-en (Bob King photo) Kuromatsu Goyomatsu Shimpaku Kuromatsu – “Fudo” (Bob King photo) Goyomatsu (Bob King photo) Kuromatsu (Bob King […]
Suzuki
Project trees
One thing I noticed while visiting bonsai gardens in Japan – their “project trees” are pretty good. I found these junipers in Shinji Suzuki’s garden. Shimpaku This shimpaku is young and has only one branch – but what fun design potential! Fortunately these smaller junipers are easy to grow from cutting. And although they don’t […]
From the Daiju En collection
A few more photos from the awe-inspiring collection at Daiju En. Japanese black pine This large black pine has some of the best bark one could hope for on a pine. Pines typically develop rough bark or bark that break into plates. The latter is more valuable because it is considered attractive and is typically […]
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 […]