Shoutou-en, Omiya

This bonsai nursery is a residence converted by its owner Taeko Komuro to a shop selling small trees and pots (see the photos). It was unattended when I visited it, so I just took a couple of photos and left.

P. S. For my posts about bonsai nurseries in Kyoto see the following links:

http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/shosei-en-bonsai-nursery-kyoto.html

http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/koju-en-kyoto.html

 

Kyuka-en, Omiya

Kyuka-en is steeped in bonsai history of 20th century. It was established in 1929 by Kyuzo Murata, a talented bonsai artist who played a significant role in the development and popularisation of bonsai. There is a lot of information about him on the Internet. In a nutshell, he looked after the Japanese Imperial Household collection of bonsai since 1931. In the 20’s, together with an ikebana scissors maker Masakuni I, he developed bonsai tools as we know them today. After the war, he was instrumental in popularising bonsai in the US. Several of his books are published in English. He passed away in 1991. Kyuka-en is currently a garden supplies business run by Kyuzo Murata’s grandson Yukio Murata. Although Kyuka-en no longer functions as a typical bonsai nursery, it still opens its doors to visitors and it has many interesting trees (see images below).
  

I visited the nursery in 2010 during Kokufu-ten exhibition and was greeted by Yukio Murata’s mother Rumiko-san. She told me that everyone is at Kokufu-ten in Tokyo. It was a cold day, so she invited me in and gave me some tea. She told me that I could take photos of bonsai and before I left gave me a bunch of Bonsai International magazines. Later, I made the connection: the editor of Bonsai International Bill Valavanis is a former student of Kyuzo Murata.

P. S. For my posts about bonsai nurseries in Kyoto see the following links:

http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/shosei-en-bonsai-nursery-kyoto.html

http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/koju-en-kyoto.html

Fuyo-en, Omiya

Fuyo-en is the closest bonsai nursery to Omiya-koen train station. Entering this nursery felt like stepping into the photos in old Japanese bonsai books from the 60’s. This impression was conveyed by the aged bonsai trees, things with patina and little details like path pavers, etc. Since my visit took place on the second day of Kokufu-ten there was not a sole at the nursery and I used this opportunity to take a couple of photos. There were enough of interesting trees to look at (see images below).

The owner of Fuyo-en is Hiroshi Takeyama. I met him the previous day at Kokufu-ten in Tokyo. From his business card I learned that he is the chairman of the Nippon Bonsai Association. After my trip to Japan, I came across of Hiroshi Takeyama’s little book titled 盆栽よい盆栽を育てるために (Bonsai: How to grow good bonsai) published in 1993. The book is in Japanese and I realised that he is the author only after I started translating bits and pieces of it. The glossary proved to be especially useful.

P. S. For my posts about bonsai nurseries in Kyoto see the following links:

http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/shosei-en-bonsai-nursery-kyoto.html

http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/koju-en-kyoto.html

 

Seiko-en, Omiya

I decided to revisit my tour of bonsai nurseries in Omiya in a series of posts dedicated to each nursery. This one deals with Seiko-en. This nursery was very well kept and had the most contemporary look. My guess was that they could maintain that by being more commercial. There were little indications of that, like the entrance fee and a more obvious retail element. I felt it was unfair to charge an entrance fee and not allow photography in the garden. I was able to take a few snaps before I was told off by one of the staff. Later, I learned from Lindsay Farr’s World of Bonsai series that Seiko-en is ran by Kaori Yamada, the fifth generation owner of the nursery. Bonsai is a man’s pursuit in Japan and it is unconventional for a lady to be a bonsai teacher, hence most of her students are female. Japanese women are more familiar with ikebana and Kaori Yamada specialises in teaching an ikebana-like bonsai she calls saika. It might seem novel to us, but bonsai was strongly influenced by ikebana in the course of its development in Japan. Nevertheless, the advent of saika demonstrates good business sense and adds diversity to bonsai as a whole. At the same time, conventional bonsai was still prevalent at the nursery as shown in the photos below.

P. S. For my posts about bonsai nurseries in Kyoto see the following links:

http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/shosei-en-bonsai-nursery-kyoto.html

http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/koju-en-kyoto.html

Mansei-en, Saburo Kato and forest plantings

I was surprised to find that the most popular post in my blog consists of one photo and 47 words (see: http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2010/05/forest-planting-by-saburo-kato_7825.htm). I posted it only as a brief afterthought following my visit to Mansei-en, Omiya in February 2010 (see: http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2010/02/bonsai-cho-in-omiya.html). I didn’t expect any follow up on that post, but reading Saburo Kato’s book ‘Forest, rock planting and Ezo Spruce bonsai’ triggered another post providing a bit of history of this beautiful forest planting known as ‘Saihate-no-oka’ (see: http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/saihate-no-oka-by-saburo-kato.html). The latter post was reasonably popular too, so I decided to spill the rest of my  Mansei-en experiences in this post.

It is located further away from the Omiya-koen Station and it is probably the most spacious nursery in the Bonsai Village or Bonsai-cho (see photos above). Bonsai master Saburo Kato was the 3rd generation owner of this nursery until he died in 2008. In consistence with its reputation Mansei-en did feature a number of forest plantings and group plantings on rocks, however hardly any of them were as impressive as ‘Saihate-no-oka’. See it for yourself the images below.

It also had lots of impressive individual bonsai trees (some of them are shown below).

There was only one apprentice minding the nursery when I visited it. In contrast to other nurseries, he let me take photos and was very helpful. I told him that I was looking for a book on kowatari pots. He found a book on the subject and even translated some of the illustration captions. Overall, I felt that Mansei-en was not as commercial as other nurseries in Omiya.

P. S. For my posts about bonsai nurseries in Kyoto see the following links:

http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/shosei-en-bonsai-nursery-kyoto.html

http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/koju-en-kyoto.html

The three friends of winter

At the time of my brief stay in Singapore, I visited Museum of Asian Civilization. It was interesting, as far as museums go. The exhibit which left the most lasting impression was a collection of rhinoceros horn cups. They are old and rare. The oldest cups in the collection date back to Song period (960-1279) when rhinoceroses had already been extinct in China. Craftsmen probably took a lot of consideration about decorating these cups and more often than not they chose to depict plants. Four cups shown above feature pine, plum and bamboo in various contexts. These plants happen to be the ‘three friends of winter’ all too familiar to us as bonsai favourites. I also had noticed that the pine was a popular element in other Chinese art at the museum (see images below).