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Masayuki Fujikawa takes things further by transforming a masterpiece
It is said that a tree displayed at Kokufu has reached a point of completion in a long journey. As the tree grows, finds a new owner, or an artist to care for it, the viewpoint of the tree will gradually change
François Jeker’s 31-year-journey growing a bonsai forest When we make a bonsai forest, we think we are the Creator. We are under the illusion that we decide everything, the choice of the trees and their placement, but nature has already done a good part of the work. When we collect…...
Carving juniper deadwood with Master Kunihiko Kanemitsu Kunihiko Kanemitsu, of the Okayama City Kanemitsu Bonsai Studio, presents a dramatic contrast between life and death within the confines of a pot. Natural raw material is almost non-existent now. Even field or container grown trees are harder to come by, like juniper,…...
A juniper masterpiece more dead than alive, is totally restored ‘Garyuu’, the history and Kakuryu-an. The oldest photographic record of this tree is from 1962 when it was featured in the auction catalogue for the ‘Gyoshinya Bonsai Commemorative Book’. It was the usual auction catalogue in that photographs of both…...
It is fairly safe to say that bonsai in the West has reached a very high level because major exhibitions such as the Gingko Award and the Trophy brought together trees from many nations. And this has evolved even further over the last 25 years with shows of higher quality…...
The bonsai passion of Cindy Verstraeten As one of the lucky few, Cindy Verstraeten managed to get her bonsai (Pinus densiflora) exhibited at the famous Kokufu-ten. Reason enough to ask this bonsai-impassioned woman how it all began. What brought you into bonsai? When we created a new koi pond in…...
Andrew Sellman travels to Japan to see the shohin at the Gafu-ten Shohin has always fascinated me, there is something magical about being able to hold such an exquisite piece of living art in the palm of your hand For shohin lovers like myself, the Gafu-ten, of all Japanese shohin…...
Portland (USA) based woodworker, Austin Heitzman seeks inspiration from ancient trees I have been attempting bonsai for just as long as I have been a professional woodworker. When contacted about commissioning a bonsai stand, I thought I had won the lottery. Unfortunately, the job never went through, but the idea
José Guerao Navarro’s own pottery didn’t satisfy him and so he went to Japan to become an apprentice at the studio of famous potter Youkizou Nakano who lives in Tokoname. When I started with bonsai, about 25 years ago, few pots arrived in Spain and those that did were expensive…...
It is hot midsummer in Japan, and beneath the cooling air of the air conditioner, we meet with Masahiko Kimura to talk about his feeling for bonsai. Kimura lives twenty minutes by car from the Omiya Bonsai Village, where Saburo Kato, the chairman of the Nippon Bonsai Association and Hiroshi…...
