Bjorn’s Biggest Loser – Before & After – Fertilizing Old Trees

Before and After. This masterpiece Itoigawa Shimpaku was restyled by Bjorn Bjorholm at Keiichi Fujikawa’s Kouka-en Bonsai Nursery in Ikeda City, Japan, where Bjorn was apprenticing at the time. The photo is from a post on Bjorn’s Bjorvala Bonsai Studio blog, as are all the photos in this post. Continuing with our Bjorn Bjorholm theme (it fits well with our ongoing before and after theme as well). This post originally appeared here in April, 2013, with a few minor changes today In Bjorn’s own words… “This massive Itoigawa Shimpaku has a long history as a bonsai. It was first shown in the Kokufu-ten about 35 years ago, … Continue reading Bjorn’s Biggest Loser – Before & After – Fertilizing Old Trees

The Dark Horse

What a great photo. It helps to have such an excellent subject for sure (Japanese black pine). It’s from post titled ‘The Dark Horse’ on the Bjorvala Bonsai Studio blog. The full tree and pot are shown below. Getting ready for a few days out of the office (my other job) so it’s a good time to dig back into our archives. This one originally appeared in 2013. It was titled ‘Drifting a Little Farther Afield.’ There’s really not much of theme going on with this post, other than a digital tour of some bonsai blogs/websites. So we’ll leave it … Continue reading The Dark Horse

Study Bonsai in the Old Country

I know I’ve seen this powerful little White pine-over-rock somewhere, and wonder if it hasn’t appeared right here on Bonsai Bark (a quick search unearthed nothing, but that’s no guarantee). It’s from the Fujikawa International School of Bonsai website. This post is about your chance to study at the Fujikawa International School of Bonsai, enjoy some great sushi (maybe even drink a little sake) and experience the wonders of life in Japan. In their own words (from Fujikawa’s website)… “The Fujikawa School is an extension of Fujikawa Kouka-en nursery and is located in Ikeda City, just north of Osaka, Japan. … Continue reading Study Bonsai in the Old Country

Drifting a Little Farther Afield

What a great photo. It helps to have such an excellent subject for sure (Japanese black pine). It’s from post titled ‘The Dark Horse’ on the Bjorvala Bonsai Studio blog. The full tree and pot are shown below. There’s really not much of theme going on with this post, other than a digital tour of some bonsai blogs/websites. So we’ll leave it at that… except to say that we’re going a little farther afield than we usually do. I have a soft spot for hand painted bonsai pots. This one is from the ‘for sale’ section of Ryan Bell’s … Continue reading Drifting a Little Farther Afield

An Embarrassment of Riches

I believe that this is our first tree from Matt Reel’s blog (though we featured a photo of Matt, with a tree that we lifted from Crataegus Bonsai almost two years ago). Matt is an American bonsai apprentice in Japan. We’ll have to more to say about him and his blog another time, but meanwhile, here’s what he has to say about this tree: “This Red Pine has such a broad apex it makes me giggle to myself at times, however, one might feel a little tipsy with all that leaning movement if there was a little dainty apex instead. … Continue reading An Embarrassment of Riches