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Well, following on from the last interesting but somewhat downer of a post, I thought I’d do a bit of an update / introduction for a tree that hasn’t been on the blog before.
The tree in question is a bit of a rarity in Australia as you don’t see many (if any) Japanese white beech or Fagus crenata around, particularly any that are developed bonsai.
This example was imported from Japan when it was much easier to bring things into the country. There were still stringent processes to follow but it was somewhat less expensive or as regulated as it is today. This tree came in along with many others during this era, many of which are still out there if one looks hard enough.
Recently I was lucky to get some photos of the tree riding the subway back when it was first purchased in Feb 1999, some 25 years ago. Getting these images spurred me to look back over the few photos i had of the tree showing it’s history while under my care.
I was very lucky to get the opportunity to purchase the tree back in 2014 or 2015. Unfortunately the tree had weakened and lost its head along with quite a few branches. I must have been over excited at the time as i didn’t take any pictures on purchase but below is a picture from 2015 after I had removed much of the dead branches, twigs and apex.
Turns out i was in a bit of a hurry to get it into a nice pot. I also changed the original front as the die-back had effected both the major branching and top 1/3rd of the tree forcing a re-think. (if you look closely at the above image you can see the large scar from where the old continuation of the trunk line that died was.)
I hadn’t grown beech before and was shocked after my first season at just how slowly trees that only have a single flush of growth were to develop.
It’s first year it didn’t really gain much vigor so it got up-potted into a large terracotta pot so it had some more room for roots in the hope this would speed up the recovery.
From there it did slowly gain some strength but it always felt so painfully slow as i tried to rebuild a canopy and branch structure.
It did improve though, i wired it a few times and set about trying to get some thickness into the lower branches as i rebuilt the top of the tree. I think when i shifted from town supply to rainwater was when the tree really strengthened and built up some real momentum, although it was still slow compared to deciduous trees with multiple flushes of growth.
Which gets us to today. The tree is finally strong and even had a second flush of growth in some areas this year.
It has taken 10 years to this point just to get to the above image. Looking at it when it was purchased in 1999 i think it was more ramified than today so i am probably a few years off where it was on original purchase 25+ years ago.
It unfortunately does still carry a number of large pruning scars on the trunk. They are healing, but slowly. I think this spring i will re-cut the edges and encourage them to roll over more quickly. The scars will likely be a ‘fault’ on the otherwise smooth and silky white trunk line for years to come but i can live with them.
I am not entirely sure when it will get it back into a bonsai pot. Ideally i would like to triple the ramification before hand but we will see. It will likely still be several years away. People are always in a hurry to get things into bonsai pots but there is something cool about good trees in training pots. It’s quite a flex.
I think the below sketch is what i am shooting for prior to it going back into a bonsai pot. I think it’s achievable in 3 more years. I’ll try to check back in then and see if my theory proves correct. That should see the branch structure fully built out, then moving the tree into a shallow bonsai pot should then help to build a finer layer of ramification to really fill out the canopy.
While a long process thus far, it is now fairly satisfying looking back at the earlier images and seeing how much closer to being repaired the tree is. I am also pretty excited to move it towards the above sketch which i think would signify a completed rebuild. I could then try to take the tree beyond where it was 25 years ago back in Japan.
It’s been nice looking after a tree that has a long history like this. It’s been in Australia for at least 25 years and who knows how long it was developed in Japan prior to export (perhaps 30 or 40 years?). We as a country are only really recently starting to see second generation trees being passed from one caretaker to another. There was a time when this was regarded as cheating suggesting you needed to grow everything from a tree’s beginning as stock, seed or cutting. Thankfully this attitude seems to have fully disappeared which i think marks a real maturing of the bonsai community in this country.
A tree like the above really reinforces this as its has passed through several growers, each adding their mark and looking after it ensuring it moves forward through time.
Does anyone out in the internets know of any other Fagus crenata bonsai in Australia? I’d love to hear about them in the comments or via email. Does anyone have old exhibition images of this tree? I know it was shown in Melbourne from time to time. I would love to collect some more of it’s history if it’s out there.
Just a quick post for today. I was going through some old holiday photos (mainly bonsai pics) and came across a small Japanese White Pine I had worked on in Japan.
I am really getting more and more into shohin sized trees. They are really challenging to grow well yet are easy to handle and take up much less bench space, which is a plus.
The challenge with this tree was to create enough detail in the foliage by means of multiple layers to give the illusion that it was in fact a much larger tree.
Before
After
Of course half the battle is starting with good stock which this little tree certainly falls into the category of.
Hopefully I can start producing some stock similar to this in the coming years.
Both my bonsai and personal life have been busy of late. I am fortunate that this year I have been invited to demonstrate and run workshops across Australia for local club, groups and the AABC National Convention. On top of this travel I just begun winter styling of clients trees. It looks like I will have a fairly full book of client trees, workshops and demonstrations that combined with a young child, a house half way through renovations and a full-time job doesn’t leave a lot of time to work my own collections.
Today’s post is actually about a tree I worked on a year ago whilst in japan.
It was a small shimpaku juniper that Oyakata asked me to wire and style prior to taking it to auction the following day to be sold.
Prior to the work
I initially wanted to tilt the tree to the right so that the first bend would come in contact with the soil giving the appearance of a much larger trunk but Oyakata didn’t want to re-pot as the auction was so close and as a result we utilised the existing angle and front.
It turned out to be a fairly straight forward re-style and Oyakata told me it sold well at the auction.
Post work.
Looking back on trees like this it really gives me the incentive to start growing my own material to this standard. I now have a backyard big enough to experiment with a whole lot more stock so I am looking forward to starting this process off this year. Who knows, in ten years time I might have a whole lot of these ready for display………..
During my last trip to Japan I worked on what might be a very special maple. Oyakata brought it to me to cut back and wire in preparation for the following springs growth.
He said it was a very famous tree that had been sold, miss-treated, had gone backwards and was now back at the nursery to be re made under Oyakata’s care.
The tree in question.
The tree had supposedly featured in the Gafu-ten special tree album “Miyabi” that recognised important shohin bonsai masterpieces and pots.
Of course, I quickly dug out the album and tried to locate the tree. But, it was not so easy.
The best match I could find was the tree below.
The same tree?
I am fairly sure this is the same tree although it has obviously changed a lot since that picture was taken. I am guessing it’s been about 10 years between the two pictures and many aspects are similar although many are also very different.
The base has obviously thickened considerably totally changing the proportions but you can just make out the link to the original form. Some of the original branches have also been lost, have thickened and or have seemed to have moved as the trunk has spread. all this make recognising the tree difficult. I am 90% sure its the same tree but of course there is a good chance I am wrong.
Any forensic bonsai detectives out there? Can you see the similarities? Is this the same tree?
After some work.
The work itself was fairly straight forward. I tried to remove thick branch tips, pruned out other unnecessary branching and wired a rough structure. The usual work for a deciduous tree in this stage.
From the back.
It’s nice to know that the tree is back on the path to one day being a great little shohin tree again. Looking over the above pics really makes you appreciate how much trees change over time and how you are forced to forever re-imagine them and adapt to mishaps as they develop and change. The nice thing about working with living things is their ability to be reworked and recovered which i think this tree is a good example of.
A year later. Thanks for the pic Kelvin!
A friend sent me some photos of this tree during his recent trip that shows another year of ramification and a change in pot. The trunk looks thicker again! It’s amazing what a year can do and only makes you think of how great this tree could have looked if it hadn’t gone backwards for a period of years after appearing in miyabi.
I often hear the term ‘Cookie cutter’ thrown around from time to time when people are talking about Japanese bonsai. For those not familiar with the term, I believe it relates to people suggesting that certain bonsai seem to come from the same mould and or ‘cookie cutter’ which produces similar or same bonsai. Personally i think that the term often is applied by those who havent really got a good understanding of what is actually out there in Japanese gardens and nurseries.
Now there are a lot of mass-produced bonsai in Japan that are grown to a rough formula but these trees are not a good representation of bonsai in Japan as a whole. On the other hand there are a lot of trees that can seem similar at first glance on benches in nurseries throughout Japan but closer inspection reveals quite dramatic differences.
Cookie Cutter?
What was one of the biggest surprises to me when I first visited japan was the huge amount of irregular styles and forms of trees that by no means could be classified as what some people dismiss as ‘cookie cutter’. In fact most of the nurseries I have visited were full of unusual and or ‘different’ bonsai. I know that when you look through various exhibition books you see some unusual trees, but its only when visiting the nurseries that you actually get a clear idea of just how many irregular bonsai are being grown.
During my last trip i met with Peter Tea at Aichi-en and he explained what his Oyakata Mr. Tanaka had explained to him about unusual trees.
He said that unusual bonsai would always be worth less than ‘standard or correct’ trees during the developement stages. Once the trees reached exhibition standard however, the unusual tree would suddenly become much more valuable. There are many correct bonsai in Japan and most nurseries could sell you one. Unusual trees on the other hand are one offs and if a customer wants to buy one they must pay accordingly as they cannot simply go next door to get something similar.
Strangely we don’t get to see many of these types of trees in western magazines or literature instead these forms are associated with European and American yamadori. I was certainly surprised to see so many when I first travelled to Japan. Now I find that they are the trees that I gravitate towards when I arrive at a nursery.
Below are a few interesting trees that i saw during my travels that didn’t fit the mould (some of them look like they totally broke the mould!) I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
Dramatic movement.
A close-up of the twisted movement.
A very angular exposed root style.
I wonder if this tree was grown or collected?
Black pines shouldn’t have shari? Well this one does.
I think you will agree that it works very well in this case.
Unusual?
A very non-conforming Nebari for a non-conforming tree.
Read more about this strange trident HERE.
Bunjin, Semi-cascade or a combination?
Interesting.
I like to look at trees such as the above and think about what they must have looked like pre-styling. Material such as this requires a high level of creativity to style into a well-balanced image and often results in trees that really stick in your head. I know that it is these types of trees that I always spend the most time in front of.
So next time you are out and about evaluating future material keep an eye out for the unusual, you never know, you might get yourself a bargain!
Before I left for Japan a friend (who runs an interesting blog) asked me to take some pictures of bonsai from the side so he could get a good idea of how the trunk lines and apex were constructed.
He has begun growing some stock in the ground and was keen to see how the japanese constructed their trunks. So as I was snapping pics I sometimes remembered to take a few shots from different angles to show a more 3d view of the trunks.
He asked I photograph a wide range of trunks but I realised that the deciduous trees were the only ones that you could easily see the trunk movement and structure so those were what I focused on.
(Left image: front, Right image: Side view)
A medium-sized root over rock Trident maple.
Shohin Trident Maple
Another shohin Trident Maple
A shohin Japanese Maple
Looking back at the photos it is interesting to see just how far forward some of the apexes are. I guess this allows you to get a much more compact apex with many branches. If you imagine standing these apexes up you can picture that it would raise the height of the tree and also spread out the ramification in the top section creating a taller less dense image.
Looking over my own trees at home over the weekend I think that some of them could become more compact and dense from a simple tilting forward of their upper structure. It was a good exercise taking these pictures as I had seen hundreds if not thousands of trees over the years but have never really focused on this one detail. I think I will have to look over all my other photos and pick out individual styling details and see what they reveal.
On the last day of our recent Japan trip we managed to make a last-minute stop in at Gafu-ten while on the way to the airport at Kansai.
Gafu-ten is held in early January at the Miyako-messe building in Kyoto, Japan. The exhibit showcases some of the best shohin bonsai in Japan and the sales area attached to the exhibition has equally impressive shohin related trees, pots and goods.
This is my second time visiting Gafu-ten. I was at the exhibition last year (See HERE) and after seeing the trees on display and those for sale i was keen to get back.
This years show lived up to expectations with many high quality displays (unfortunately photos were prohibited).
A bonsai for sale at Gafu-ten.
In Japanese exhibition you can only exhibit individual trees once every 4 years. That means that every year you are guaranteed to see different trees. This years mix of bonsai had quite a different feel to those of last year with some quite unusual stylings exhibited. As we couldn’t take photos of the exhibition those wishing to see the trees might like to purchase a copy of the exhibition album.
We had a great time filtering our way through the displays and then moved into the sales area.
Some of the offerings.
For those of you that havent been to a sales area in a japanese show let me try to explain it. It is like walking into bonsai heaven. Trees, pots, stands, suiseki, tools, books, and almost anything else bonsai related you can think of can be found in the sales areas. Gafu-ten’s sales area is almost the same size as the exhibition and from the look of the people shopping there it gets the same if not more attention than the show itself.
Shoseki pots for sale.
We spent a good amount of time catching up with some vendors we knew, shopping and dreaming of trees we’d like to take home before we finally had to head off to catch our flight at Kansai.
For those interested, the full collection of photos can be found HERE.
I’m Back. We had a very busy 4.5 weeks away. Apart from the family and friend catch-ups, weddings and birthdays I did manage to see my share of bonsai. As I sort my photos I will share some of the sights and interesting bonsai that I came across in the coming weeks.
In the mean time I thought i would share a picture of a fairly amazing shimpaku I found by accident. Some friends took me to a local bonsai nursery where we stumbled across the below tree.
I am not sure if the pot will fit it or not but even though it is cracked it’s the best we could find.
Shimpaku and pot
It is a little hard to gauge the scale of this tree so below is another pic with someone along side it for scale comparison.
Size comparison.
This nursery actually had a couple of exceptional garden junipers which may have to make it into future posts as like the above tree, they were too big to make it into my suitcase.
During my recent trip to Japan i managed to visit Fuyo-en. Fuyo-en is a garden that always has a high number of quality bonsai. I was a little pine-ed out by this part of my trip so it was nice to spend some time with their amazing deciduous trees. I took a number of photos which can be found HERE.
What was also nice was to see some of the recent work that was going on around the garden.
The frist bonsai i noticed of interest was what I am guessing was a flowering apricot. It had recently been grafted in a number of places. I have read that these trees often need to have young wood grafted into areas of older wood to maintain vigour and keep the bonsai compact.
The grafted bonsai.
Although the grafts looked to not have completely healed nearly all of them were producing flowers as can be seen below.
The grafting in detail.
One of the other trees that caught my eye was a maple with an enormous nebari. The bonsai was being worked on by one of the apprentices who was wiring all the branches to the tips.
An impressive nebari
I always enjoy seeing techniques done by Japanese professionals. Even seemingly simple tasks can reveal tip and tricks when performed by someone who works at these high levels.
A freshly wired branch.
One such trick that can be learnt from the above image is the use of the little wire bracket. It has been used to gently spread two sub branches. Had this not been used, the two branches would have had to been wired with quite a large diameter wire to achieve the same spreading effect. Having avoided using a heavy gauge wire, the wire that is on the branch appears far less obtrusive than it could have. A small trick with large results.
I always look out for these little tricks when ever I am around other people’s bonsai, as I find there is always something to learn.
Even though my last trip to Japan’s purpose was to get married, i still managed to find some to visit some bonsai nurseries. The nursery below was a little out of the ordinary from your normal Japanese nursery.
For those familiar with the nurseries of Omiya and other well-known growers would be used to the high level of immaculately maintained and presented bonsai. I am sure many of you who have been to japan and experienced this for them selves would be aware of the overwhelming feeling you get when you are exposed to so many high quality trees in one place. These places are obviously the top end of the business. Their trees grace the many shows around Japan that exhibit these high level trees and in my opinion cement the Japanese at the top of the bonsai pile. But surely not all of Japan’s bonsai are show ready and of the best quality. Which brings me to this post.
The Kanuma garden centre (Click the image for a larger view)
My last trip I was taken to a place where there was no doubt, a huge range of bonsai. There were magnificent trees on display but, they were the minority. For the most part the bonsai for sale were project trees. Trees with problems in one way or another. Trees that would benefit from an air layer, a branch or two removed or a restyle. I spent a good amount of time here looking over the many benches, admiring potential. It was nice to be able to see trees that were waiting for the hobby grower with some vision to come along and place their mark upon them. I would love to live near a nursery such as this. On the surface it is not as impressive as the higher end nurseries but it is budding with potential for someone who likes to work on their own trees.
A small selection of photos are below.
Some of the more developed pines.
One side of the benches. There is an equal number of benches to the left.
This seasons Satsuki dug and ready for sale.
A Satsuki on the benches
A pine in need of some refinement.
A maple with a nice base. Great beginnings for someone willing to do the branch work.
A trindent with a whole lot of problems i would love to inherit.
A modest maple that would have plenty of potential.
Kanuma garden centre is not going to be first on the list when it comes to a Japanese bonsai pilgrimage, and may not even make second, third or fourth place, but for someone who has seen all the big sights and wants a bit more insight into what is out there in Japan it is worth a look.
Nichigo Bonsai 