The Smoke of the Volcano. This famous old collected Shimpaku juniper is called Noble Satake’s Shimpaku. When it was collected it was given the name The Smoke of the Volcano because of its unusual twisting trunk. The fuzzy photo is what happens when you blow an image up from 300 to 770 pixels (see below for the original).
I just discovered an excellent article on Morten Albek’s Shohin Bonsai blog (thanks to Bonsai Mary). It’s a history of a particular collected Shimpaku juniper and collecting Shimpaku juniper in general. This article was written by Kazuki Yamanaka and published in Japanese in the June 2003 issue of Kindai Bonsai Magazine.*
Here’s Morten’s introduction to the article: “It is astonishing to realize that the Shimpaku juniper so beloved for bonsai culture was first found only a little more than a century ago in Japan. But in that short time, due to over-collecting, Shimpaku growing in the wild have vanished!”
Continued below…
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Here’s more from Morten Albek: “When and where were Shimpaku discovered? Who collected them from the mountain cliffs and how did they do it? What happened over those 100 years to these collected masterpieces? Do any Japanese bonsai nurseries still have collected Shimpaku for sale today?”
There’s much more to this fascinating (if somewhat disturbing) article, including the sad end to The Smoke of the Volcano, as well as the end of wild Shimpaku in Japan. I encourage you to visit Morten’s Shohin Bonsai Europe and take the time to read it all.
The original 300 pixel photo is considerably less fuzzy. Sadly, this spectacular old tree died during the chaos that followed WW2.
*English Translation © WBFF 2003; Original Japanese Text and Photos © Kindai Shuppan Co. 2003
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