The big annual show ‘TheTrophy’
The big show took place on the last weekend of February ’26 in the ‘Limburg Hall’ in Genk, Belgium. Just like in the previous editions it was a great success again with an even increased number of visitors, more than 5000.
Special guest demonstrators were Shinji Suzuki and his son Hiroaki Suzuki. On stage they were assisted by two of their students, Manuel Turpin from L’île de la Reunion and Theo Zimmerman from Germany. Besides 2 days of fantastic demonstrations from the Suzuki’s ,there was a special line up of 16 Bonsai created years ago by Master Suzuki. These bonsai were imported to Europe, and were brought together at the Trophy as a tribute to the craftmanship of Mr. Suzuki. On Saturday and Sunday morning Mr. Suzuki made time to discuss these bonsai.
Peter Warren acted as translator for these talks and at the demonstrations. A second line up from 16 very mature bonsai belonging to the collection of Udo Fischer, famous Bonsai artist from Germany was on the show.
The winning Bonsai
The show was completed by a selection of high quality bonsai from all over Europe: 97 bonsai, 19 Kifu, 15 excellent Shohin compositions, and 1 special Mame composition. Moreover ,as usual we had a full row of 52 selected Suiseki and a full row of Bonsai pots, divided in two: The creations by potters and the collectors category. Glazed, unglazed and one category for decorated pots. For the first time there was a full wall of 30 meters antique scrolls from a private collection.
The Trophy is not complete without the bonsai ‘supermarket’ of 110 traders, and our gala dinner and price giving ceremony. This year, for the first time, our gala dinner was enhanced by a vocal performance from a professional mezzo-soprano, Lucia Barcelona, which was greatly appreciated. The winners and nominates were selected by Shinji Suzuki and Hiroaki Suzuki. The pots were selected by Mr. Senzan, Mr. German Soler from medi bonsai and Mr. Harald Lehner. We hope to see you all back at the next edition of the Trophy 2027.
Results of the European Bonsai Potters contest
The nominated Bonsai
