Shohin Mecca...and soggy sightseeing.

Continuing the delayed trip report, on the morning of the third day we had one appointment which would take up half the day. A trip to Koju-en, which along with Yorozu-en, Yamato-en and Taisho-en are the must see nurseries for any shohin or small pot enthusiast. Located about ten minutes walk from Kyoto station it is pretty much the only nursery in the old capital and is run by Masumi-san Senior and Junior who are both very talented and all round good blokes (especially if you buy stuff from them).

The range and quality of trees is very impressive and here are some highlights...

A batallion of Itoigawa Junipers...I can feel John Armitage getting excited as I type this....

One of my favourites from the group. It is a large shohin, a tree fairly typical of how the shohin world is moving...either above the generally accepted 20cm limit and encroaching into Kifu territory, or getting smaller and smaller into Bob Bailey mame territory.

If you hadn't already realised, I go for fairly atypical trees. With a bot of work this will be a very dynamic tree, with foliage mass and movement contrary to trunk and deadwood. Trees such as this can create a lot of dramatic tension.

As opposed to the fairly standard black pine image...not that I'm criticising this, far from it. Trees such as this, spot on 20cm tall, thick, well ramified and aged bark are the most highly sought after and are relatively expensive.

A very good example of creating yamadori styling from a container grown tree. Trees like this were originally created around the start of the shohin boom, around 20/30 years ago. Clearly a lot of forethought and planning has gone into them.

Black Pines this size, aged and well ramified are rare. The price on this is more than a spare kidney on the black market. These are destined for Hong Kong apparently...the trees that is, not my kidneys.

I was told this was a yamadori black pine...looking at the deadwood, you would be hard pressed to argue...mmm.

What I didnt get a picture of was all the pots they had. Matt Ouwinga, a Japanese pot collector extraordinaire was in heaven, and Masumi-san spent close to an hour bring pot after pot out of his cupboard and was very happy to find an appreciative audience. He kept saying how suprised he was that foreigners knew so much about them and were interested. My response was... "There are geeks everywhere."

After exhausting ourselves there, a half day in light rain of sightseeing was in order, although the boys were tired and wanted to sleep. I dragged them out saying it was a wasted opportunity to not see anything having flown half way around the world...however after traipsing around in the rain, maybe we should have slept.

One of the good things about Japanese summers...Hasu no hana, or lotus flowers. Which I talked about ages ago. From the murky, stinky depths comes such beauty.

Here is a wonderful pine from the entrance to Kiyomizudera. Aged, entirely pruned and worked, but such natural (?) character. Inspirational trees a plenty in old temple gardens.

The one thing that amazes me about the temple architecture, especially at Kiyomizu is the construction of the rooves. That line is just sublime and very difficult to contruct. A bit spoilt by the scaffolding in the background, but that was nothing compared to the braying masses of mainly Chinese tourists who were clearly well into the "Zen" spirituality of the place.

Continuing the hasu no hana theme, the display at one of my favourite Kyoto galleries...sadly I ruin the picture...

I didnt take any more pictures...but I can assure you we got wet. Thankfully the evening found us all full of various parts of chicken as we visited my favourite yakitori restaurant, a reccomendation from Mr. Morimae. Bellys full, we slept the righteous sleep before a big day tomorrow...to Osaka and beyond.

 

The trip is over..

And it proved very hard to update as I went along...perhaps something to do with the baking heat and 1800 km I drove. The rental car place (and to be fair, me) was pretty surprised when I finally got it back in one piece. All good fun though.
So after the first day in Kanagawa and Shizuoka visiting a few shohin nurseries, we ventured on to Okazaki for a day in and around Nagoya which is home to the Daijyuen crew. Daijyuen is an old nursery dating back three generations, with the current master Mr. Toru Suzuki at the helm. Our guide for the day was Ken Fujiwara, a pretty cool dude who studied at Daijyuen after being a surfer around the world. Click his name for a link.

This was the only tree I took a picture of there, a very nice cascade white pine. I spent most of the time talking with Ken, so there you have it. A tree.
Next we went to Shinpuku-ji, a nearby temple that has a bonsai loving head abbot. There is an area for trees on display and we got a peek into the back garden.

Some trees

A very hot Matt Ouwinga. The big daddy of the trip.

I spent a while contemplating the meaning of the scroll, before I figured that it was just a pulley for the blinds above.

An interesting juniper. The trees at Shinpuku-ji were originally looked after by Mr. Kamiya, (or so I was told by the chief) who was in his day a pretty pimp-ass bonsai professional. His son was an apprentice at Shunkaen before my time, and I met him a couple of times before his untimely early departure from this earthly coil. His father made some great trees and you can see the influence here.

I think this made the biggest impression on me. A superb lump of wood.
After a brief lunch stop it was onto Aichi-en, the home of Junichiro Tanaka, where Peter Tea studied for two years before returning to become a professional. At the moment there are three foreign apprentices there including the all round good egg, John Milton, a fellow Brit, who has just started his studies. We had. Chat about the Ashes, the off season and Snooker...I could tell he still had that homesick longing that takes six months to get rid of. I remember it well...wait until you have Sushi for your first Christmas day dinner away, then you know what homesick is about...still, I'm sure he will do well, and Mr. Tanaka is a good bloke it seems, so good luck to you.
Aichi-en is very much a growers garden, it isn't pretty and well laid out, but it is full of trees in various stages of development. Mr. Tanaka is a maker of trees as opposed to just a seller of trees...in fact ot was quite hard to get him to sell some.

This was a truly funky tree that I very much enjoyed. Could be viewed from 360 degrees and you were still trying to figure out where it looked best from

Obviously with a bit of work done to it mind...

A very powerfuly just about chuhin sized Miyajima White Pine...a clients tree.

And a wave like exposed root white pine, with great Shari and deadwood. A little over heavy on the upper trunk section which is a common feature with exposed root trees like this. A perfectly balanced one is are and you tend to get inverse taper. One without would command a royal price.
One of the main reasons for meeting up with Ken and going to Achi-en was so that Matt could see the tree that he put into Kokufu this year. A trident over rock which had been started by Aichi-en many years ago. Here is a terrible picture of Matt, Ken and John trying to stay out of shot.

I'm an awesome cameraman. Thankfully one of the group took lots of pictures so I will get those one day.
The day was rounded off with a trip to Inazawa which is a growing area for garden trees near Nagoya which has a few bonsai nurseries. I bought a tree that I couldn't pass up for the price as it ticked three very major boxes...

One, it was relatively cheap. Two, just look at it...there is no way that will sell. Three, it's a rose. I have an unhealthy addiction to Rose bonsai, lord knows why, but I do. It will be kept at Akiyama's until Kokufu time when I will ty and sell it at the Green Club...and fail...but with a bit of work and five years...it will be even better! Keep your eyes peeled in the future for it.
The days bonsai finished, we loaded up and headed to Kyoto, arriving at the incredibly reasonably price Hotel Rich Kyoto. Tomorrow...the mecca for shohin bonsai Koju-en

Day two in the

Big american tour. After a long day yesterday at a number of shohin nurseries in Kanagawa and Urushibata's, I fell asleep on top of my bed, fully clothed and contact lenses still in. Great stuff.

Some pictures for your enjoyment

Eleagnus

A powerful semi cascade black pine

A rather artistic shot of a healed over scar on a fat black pine

One of my fetish trees, a komachi rose

A very reasonably priced juniper...

This made me feel a little queasy, but I want one.

A barberry, scar free, as thick as a childs arm at the base and damn...I have never seen one like it.

A chojubai that looks like a tree

And so on to Mr. Urushibata who everyone knows in Europe know. I know him too. Have done for a while. The new garden is looking great.

The boys on the prowl.

A humongous miyajima white pine. Never seen anything like it. I asked if the branches would return if the rebar was removed, which prompted a heated discussion between father and son as to how much it had been bent...after the winter, apparently they will stay in place.

Taiga telling me that I am a Japanese Monkey...

A great yamadori large shohin juniper. Mamma Mia! Love the tree..

P.I.M.P

After Urushibata's we drove on to Okazaki a couple of hours down the road, ready for a trip to Daijyuen and other nurseries. More to come, rest first.

 

Back to the (other) mother land.

Many moons ago, I promised an American friend of mine that one day I would show him and some of his friends around in Japan one day. It was one of those probably drunken conversations that you have, agreeing to all sorts of everything if you are in the right mood. This is yet another reason I am pretty much stone cold sober now. As he recently got married and is expecting his first child, it came to pass that it was now or never and so wheels were put in motion. A date was set and rather unfortunately that date is now...why unfortunately? The best time to be in Japan is anytime but now...the heat but more importantly, the oppressive humidity saps my energy like an infestation of spider mite on a juniper. I hated the summers, hot, sticky and no respite except for air conditioning which I loathe. Still, a deal was a deal and I'm here now.

Thankfully it seems as though all the gods, old and new, have answered my prayers on both fronts. Obviously worrying about the benches at home, I prayed for the hot weather to break. Obviously worrying about being exhausted and uncomfortable in Japan, I prayed for the hot weather to break. My wishes have been answered and it is a reasonably pleasant 31 degrees, although humid, and not the high 30's that Japan had been experiencing very recently. I am living a charmed life. I hope that the shading I put up, the new pump and filter system I installed in a panic and my outstanding watering assistant all do their jobs and my run of luck continues.

Being a tour guide is not something that has ever appealed to me in the past having seen all manner of tour groups come and go to Shunkaen in the past and hearing the stories of having to look after people, because generally I prefer trees to people, but for a small group of very dedicated enthusiasts, 4 in this case, who are my friends, I have made an exception...and despite my whinging above which I'm sure you are all aware of by now, is simply just a sign of coming from Yorkshire (where I might add, the spine of the Ashes team comes from, come on 5-0!), I am actually looking forward to it all. I will get to visit a lot of nurseries I have never been to, out of the way places and random little Shohin nurseries; I would say expect some pictures, but I don't want to build up any expectations which will be dashed.

I did make an apology recently for a lack of developments on the advanced workshop front, due to other commitments this has been put on the back burner a little, but the idea is still bubbling away. Like a fool I have agreed to help with the publication of a new bonsai book from a well known publisher. Last week saw three days of photo shoots in a cramped Saruyama Towers, where I did a variety of things with a variety of material. I hope the book will be a success despite the seeming move away from traditional learning media in bonsai. Admittedly this is perhaps due to the paucity of many published books on bonsai and the difficulty of transmitting the detailed information required for a topic where there are so many variables, cases and exceptions to the rule. As I explained to the publishers, it is not like knitting which is effectively the same the world over and in every situation, or like gardening where massive generalisations can be made. How much text would be needed to explain foliage management on Junipers and go through all the different cases and species and how to deal with them? As the Japanese were fond of saying, case by case. Still this is the cross I have allowed to be measure up for and so the latter part of the year will see me stressing over writing.

I am approaching the place where I spent what is now becoming half of my bonsai career, the sense of foreboding gets less and less each time as I get further away from that period in my life. Looking back now, I have almost as much experience out of Shunkaen as I did in it, and it wasn't until I left that I actually started to learn the majority of what little I know now. Removing the safety net and being ultimately accountable for my actions. I hope the Chief and the trees are well, the last time I was there there were a number of old trees from my era which had been moved on and a hell of a lot new trees. I will take some pictures of old friends and see if I can't make any new ones too.

Onwards and upwards...after a little trip backwards

Oh, and for those who may not have seen it. I made this.

Can you tell what it is yet?

 

Apologies...

It seems that I have bitten off a little more than I can chew recently. A few too many projects and ideas which I am getting a little bogged down with and forgetting that I am supposed to be making trees for a living, not just buying them.

There has been a relatively good response from the proposed idea for advanced workshops, so expect an announcement sometime soon, seems split down the middle however between techniques or species specific. As things stand, the earliest things will begin will be early next year, possibly december.

Another new idea is an e-magazine...doubt that will fly though seeing as most people see the internet and online stuff as mainly free.

I had a delivery of new arrivals at Saruyama Towers, some more Spainsh trees, they seem to be hot right now. Some Taxus, more sabina and a few shohin olives.

A potential mini-Asobi? Nothing like real one, but I'm digging that cascading branch.

Paging Mr. Armitage, Paging Mr. Armitage...little shohin olive, lovely trunk.

Oh yeah. Any takers? What was I thinking?

There are a lot more besides. One of these days I will get a webshop up and running, one of my plans for the summer which is fast falling by the wayside...

Last weekend saw miserable weather in the bleak Northumbrian wilds brightened by some sartorial elegance of the highest order. A certain proprietor's assistant modelling a wonderful hoodie which was necessary even at the end of June

For more details of the workshop, click here

And on that bombshell, I am up early to build something I never thought necessary in the UK...shade cloth for the garden...oh and some extra benches for the new trees.....

 

The benefit of laziness

Or at least the advantage to doing nothing. Whilst on my recent sojourn in America, I had the pleasure of spending some time in the company of Marco Invernizzi. It was an interesting time as we shared battle stories of times past and more recent, recanting tales of apprentice abuse and the trials of being a wandering bonsai artist. We even managed to find some very common ground musically which was interesting to say the least. Finding the middle ground is an important aspect of life, and bonsai especially.

The middle ground between Marco and myself after a days work

During the course of the conversations we came up with many things, but one was the point that in general most people in Bonsai fall into two categories; those who work their trees too much, and those who don't work on them enough. Which are you? A constant fiddler with a bench full of highly stylised and under performing trees or a let it be type who has a row of (possibly)healthy, dirty bushy trees?

It wasn't until I first came back from Japan did I truly realise that sometimes the best thing to do is nothing (well relatively). My younger brother taught me this lesson with his outstanding care of the rosemary I had in my greenhouse at home. Having heard stories of how difficult they are to keep, he seemed to have no problems doing it and when I asked him what he did, he just shrugged and said "dunno, nuffin special really". I put it all down to me personally. It was clearly all my doing as my absence was the key to success.

Obviously this is a wide generalisation and the tree needs to be set up properly, this isn't an instruction to just do absolutely nothing, but once they are repotted properly in good soil and have the branches pruned properly then for some trees, they just need to be ignored for a while, watered and fed as required (a lot of attention needed here), but not necessarily messed around with, not picked up and moved, not brushed or combed, turned around and tipped up, moved across the garden, pruned or plucked because we are bored....just left alone to do what trees do naturally, grow.

A recent trip to an occasional clients house reminded me of this. Some of the trees I work on belong to those who don't really do it as a hobby but like having them in the garden, but they need tidying up once a year to keep them looking somewhat like when they purchased them. Invariably many of these untended trees can be some of the healthiest, including this Black Pine which was just ridiculousy vigorous for the UK spring/summer/autumn we have been having.

This was after the spruce up job, so many of the super long candles have been removed, but the needle length, colour, turgidity and density was incredible compared to some of the over worked and over plucked trees I have seen. The back buds were incredible, evidence enough that high needle density and no candle cutting = back budding.

Now sadly this is at the extreme of doing too little and whereas the health of the tree is great, the healthy growth is being misdirected and visually it is a little lacking in structure. Many of you are sat there visualising plucking the needles, wiring the branches and bending them all into nice neat pads I'm sure. I know I was thinking that I could enjoy turning the bush into a pretty pimp little formal upright.

The key is to find the middle ground where both your desires to see a pretty tree are fulfilled as are the trees requirements for being left alone to just get on with it. I swing from constant fiddler, picking needles here, cutting branches there to leaving them unattended for weeks on end. I think that makes me the worst example out there...why are you reading this again? Oh for the occasional tree I put up and a wonderful choice in youtube videos, thats why...

Onwards and upwards people to a world of pure imagination

I know it has nothing to do with the trees but it's a good tune...

 

A morning of work at home...

After a trying return back to the motherland, no thanks to British Airways cancelling flights on me, I managed to catch up with all the stuff I needed to and actually get some work done on some of my own tree. I spent half the day Thursday just cleaning up, and then Friday morning I actually sat down and got the tools out for a little while.  Some of it was just maintenance work but I set two bits of material off in the right direction as well....and guess what I bought a new camera! Well, I say new, but it is actually refurbished.

The first job was to correct a school boy error which had gone on unnoticed due to me never being around to see the flowers.  The Azalea below is actually the one which featured in Bonsai Focus last issue, with me working on it over the course of 4 years or so to take it from a stump to little tree.  Some people have said that I cut azaleas back too hard, criticised the video I made with Bonsai Basho and all sorts, to them I say tosh. Full of leaf and flower year after year. It is precisely because I cut back that the tree is so healthy.  Sadly I didn't check on the colour of the flowers...even though I have had the tree for so long, I have never seen the flowers until now...so to myself I say...unpublishable comments.

I was told when I got it that it was a Nikko, which is generally a pinky colour, but all one colour with slight variation in hue...So I figured, no need to worry about the flowers too much..  It has the leaves of Korin type which are virtually indistinguishable from Kozan types (to my eye anyway) and so I thought nothing of it and went away, making the tree.  It turns out that it wasn't Nikko after all, and is in fact Hakkurin, which is supposed to be all white, with the occasional shibori (striped/patterned) flower . As you can see there is a big nasty red branch in the way.  The red flowers are in fact Korin, which is one of the parent types...and they can have the tendency to pop out if not controlled.  For regular readers of the blog, this time last year I was struggling with my OCD when it came to Satsuki flowers, and this year it is/was/always the same.  Every year the same...the endless struggle. I should just give in.  Thankfully the contamination was confined to just one branch.

Anyway, the entire branch came off and left a gaping hole.  It was kind of an important branch as it hid the lack of taper in the upper trunk very well.  There are plenty of branches around to compensate and this will be wired in the autumn as October/November is the best time to wire azaleas.
I gave it a slightly more conservative than usual post flower pruning, leaving more leaves on than I normally would.  This is due to the poor growth in the spring due to bad weather.  The next step will be to pinch off any long new growth and then wire the new shoots and old in the autumn.

Next up was a trident maple that I picked up recently from Zac's Bonsai, a wholesaler down in Ashford.  He grew this from seed for five years. Pretty good for someone who claims to know very little about bonsai.  When I went down he was complaining that people were baulking at the price. Seems some people can't find a diamond in the rough or are unwilling to play the long game.  Tune in after 15 or 20 years and this will be awesome....

 It had been cut back once by Zac, he left the long sacrificial branch on at the top.

After five minutes, it looked a little lighter. I reduced the height down another notch and did some basic branch selection.  A couple of sacrificial branches are left on either side and one in the apex.  Nice home made nebari.  A keeper...but aren't they all? I wonder if this counts as a native/non-imported tree?

Speaking of keepers, I did some initial work on a small kifu sized Sabina that arrived a year ago.  Having established itself and showing signs of some serious healthy growth...look at those green tips....I decided that I should start styling up some of them. I had only an hour and a bit before I had to leave for an appointment but the major work, defining the live vein, choosing a style/front, initial branch selection and rough wiring were completed.

Light green tips all over the tree, almost every branch was growing.  This side was looking initially like the more suitable front. Ideal branch placement for the apex and for a variety of different possibilities. Interesting twisted feel to the live vein in the lower trunk, moving up into a bit of a mess up top. Strong jin at the base adds character.

The back side.  There is a potentially interesting twist featuring dead wood in the top section of the tree, but the lower trunk is boring and the base jin bit sticks in the eye. Foliage and apex are all perfectly usable from this side.   First job was to define the live vein and figure out where the living bits are.  Once you know that, then you can start to consider the actual design. The weird knuckle/twist on the back side turned out to be quite dull when the dead section was defined, the live vein movement was pretty poor, whereas from teh initial front, the twisted nature was actually accentuated.

After a few branches were wired. I think there are six wires on the whole tree.  About 40% of the foliage mass was reduced, so all of the remaining foliage was left to grow. None of the growing tips were cut back at this stage.   Working with Yamadori Junipers, especially those who send out multiple shoots from a single node, especially on the trunk, requires a totally different mindset to working with field or pot grown Itoigawa.  It basically comes down to a mental process of planning the future and understanding the process that are occurring and how to use them to maximise development without creating stress on the tree. I would say more but then I would find it difficult to sell a workshop on Junipers.

I will work on the dead wood when I can get the dremel wire brush out and fine wire if and when necessary. For now the next stage is to let it grow out a little. Not too much in certain areas, but try to not touch it for a while...let those growing tips grow.  This tree will reappear a little in the next couple of months I feel...assuming it doesn't die.

It was nice to work at home, get stuff done for once.  I think I may do it again next week...