Penjing market in Suzhou

I already mentioned visiting Suzhou in one of the posts last year. This post is about a street market specialising in selling penjing, flowers, rocks, ceramics, birds, fish and other objects associated with the traditional Chinese scholarship and connoisseurship. The market is a mixture of shops and street stalls (see images below). Being a non-Chinese language speaker made it harder for me to find it. Centre images below show the names of two streets. The market starts at their intersection. Saying these names to a local may not work, so it’s better to show.

The main object of my interest was penjing. There were enough trees on sale, but I got an impression that winter is not the best time to see penjing here. The emphasis was on pines and winter flowering deciduous trees (see images below).

The most impressive aspect of the market was rocks. Suiseki, viewing stones, Chinese scholar rocks whatever you want to call them. They ranged from fist size to a full height of a person, and I can tell you that one could fine treasures in every size category (see images below).

When I set out for the market, I was determined to buy a small or medium size bonsai pot as a memento, but alas it wasn’t meant to be. On one hand, there were a lot of cheap pots which would be worth taking to Australia. On the other hand, there were very fine quality pots which were prohibitively expensive. There was nothing in between, hence I left empty handed. Below are some photos of the bonsai pot stalls. 

Bonsai production nursery in Shanghai

During my visit to China at the beginning of this year, I stumbled across a large bonsai production nursery on the outskirts of Shanghai. I haven’t noticed anything of quality or taste there, but the sheer scale of their production was impressive. Image ‘A’ below shows a raw of 17 hothouses. Images ‘B’ and ‘C’ show how some of them looked inside.

They also had a significant number of larger hothouses, which were not covered with plastic and images below show what was in them.

All plants there were just Podocarpuses, pines, maples and junipers. Images below show some close up shots of individual trees. Nothing special. 

Now I know where cheap bonsai come from.

Shosei-en (bonsai nursery), Kyoto

Shosei-en was second of the two bonsai nurseries I visited in Kyoto. It should not be confused with the Shosei-en garden located in the vicinity of Kyoto Station. The nursery is tucked in a residential area and a bit tricky to find. However, it is only a ten minute walk from Misasagi Station (Tozai Line) and if you walked longer than that, you are probably lost. The entrance to the nursery is fairly nondescript with the exception of a small name board (image below left). Once you walk up to the gate at the end of a long driveway you can see the shelves with bonsai (image below right). At the time of my visit the nursery was minded by an elderly lady who I thick was one of the owners. My Japanese allowed me to have only a rudimentary conversation with her, so I just had a stroll around the nursery and took some photos.

Unlike Koju-en, Shosei-en is larger and specialises in medium to large trees. It did have few shohin bonsai however. Both coniferous and broadleaved trees were equally well represented (images below).

Among conifers pines were the most prominent trees and images below may give you an idea of their quality.

Conifers other than pines dotted the shelves of the nursery. Images below show Cryptomeria, Podocarpus and junipers.

Broadleaved trees were dominated by Japanese and Trident Maples. I couldn’t see the branch structure of the trees very well because they were in full leaf, but many of them had nice proportions and some featured fantastic surface roots (see images below).

Finally, few images of shohin trees are shown below. I thought some of them were quite good.

The choice of bonsai pots at Shosei-en was somewhat limited, but overall I had a good time there.


For posts about bonsai gardens I visited in China see these:
Tiger Hill Penjing Garden, Suzhou: http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/tiger-hill-penjing-garden-suzhou.html
Penjing Garden at Shanghai Botanic Gardens: http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/penjing-garden-at-shanghai-botanic.html
Penjing Garden at the Humble Administrator’s Garden, Suzhou: http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/penjing-garden-at-humble-administrators.html

Koju-en, Kyoto

Koju-en is a better known of the two bonsai nurseries in Kyoto. Finding it is easy, just a ten-minute walk from Nishioji train station on JR Kyoto Line. Image above shows the street view of its front gate. It is relatively small and two images below show most of its outdoor area.

I was shown around the nursery by the owner Tomohiro Masumi, who speaks passable English. He told me that the annual bonsai exhibition called Koju-ten organised by the nursery was going to be held next week. There were a few people preparing their trees for the exhibition and he pointed out the trees that were going to be exhibited. I also met Tomohiro’s father Hiroichi Masumi who started Koju-en in 1997. He was kind enough to give me an All Japan Shohin Bonsai Association wall calendar.

Koju-en specialies only in small bonsai (shohin bonsai). Both coniferous and broad-leaved plants were equally well represented. Images below show shelves with some of the top sellers (top to bottom left to right): Cotoneaster, Shimpaku Juniper, Japanese Maple, Trident Maple, pine and Hinoki Cypress.

For a closer look at some of the shohin trees at Koju-en see images below.
   

There were also a few admirable trees, which could qualify as medium size bonsai (see images below).

Koju-en featured a fine selection of antique, vintage and contemporary shohin bonsai pots from Japan and China (see images of the showroom below). Tomohiro showed me some of them and I ended up buying a pot by Kyoto-based potter Takao Koyo (to see the pot visit http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/bonsai-pots-from-kyoto.html).

If you are a bonsai enthusiast stranded in Kyoto, Koju-en is worth a visit.

For posts about bonsai gardens I visited in China see these:
Tiger Hill Penjing Garden, Suzhou: http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/tiger-hill-penjing-garden-suzhou.html
Penjing Garden at Shanghai Botanic Gardens: http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/penjing-garden-at-shanghai-botanic.html
Penjing Garden at the Humble Administrator’s Garden, Suzhou: http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/penjing-garden-at-humble-administrators.html