Bonsai Monarch

Full cascade Japanese black pine (Pinus thumbergii). Japanese for Black pine is Kuromatsu (kuro is black and matsu is pine). Busy trying to keep up with the much-stronger-than-anticipated results of our 20% off Site Wide Sale, so once again we’ll call up a favorite from our archives. Japanese black pines are sometimes referred to a the king of bonsai. This may be in part due to their natural strength; they tend to have powerful trunks and thick lush foliage. Rugged bark doesn’t hurt either. King or not, the best of the black pines are undeniably among the most powerful bonsai … Continue reading Bonsai Monarch

The King of Bonsai

Full cascade Japanese black pine (Pinus thumbergii). Japanese for Black pine is Kuromatsu (kuro is black and matsu is pine). Japanese black pines are sometimes referred to a the king of bonsai. This may be in part due to their natural strength; they tend to have powerful trunks and thick lush foliage. Rugged bark doesn’t hurt either. King or not, the best of the black pines are undeniably among the most powerful bonsai in the world. All the photos shown here are from the 89th Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition that took place February 2015 in Tokyo. We found them at Michael … Continue reading The King of Bonsai

Judging Bonsai & a Propensity for Understatement

This powerful kuromatsu (Japanese black pine) won the Culture Minister’s Prize at the 20th Green Festa Kokubunji bonsai fair. It is 19″ (48cm) high and about 55 years old. It is owned by Toyoyuki Hamabata from Takamatsu’s Mure town in Shikoku. It appears at Bonsai World, a Japanese English language website. Out of town acting as nanny (remember Suthin?) for my grand kids, so we’ll sneak back into our archives. This time we’re borrowing from two posts: one from way back in 2009 and one from last year. Both feature Japanese black pines with very stout trunks. Here’s what the … Continue reading Judging Bonsai & a Propensity for Understatement

King of Bonsai

This has to be one of the most unique Japanese black pines anywhere. I can’t help but think of a monster with two gnarled feet lurching along. Now, if you can put that image out of your mind, you might enjoy the ancient bark and wonderfully confusing movement of the trunks. This is our last post of the year, so why not end 2013 with three great Kuromatsu (Japanese black pines), considered by many to be the king of bonsai? All three belong to Fumio Ideue, owner of Ideue Kikkoen Bonsai Garden in Shikoku, Japan. I originally saw the photos … Continue reading King of Bonsai

Monster Bonsai

A Halloween monster (trunk, that is). It’s not that often you see a tree with such a powerfully thick trunk, especially when you consider its size relative to the rest of the tree. According to Mareta Marrtell (facebook), it’s a 50 year old Kuromatsu (Japanese black pine ) that was grown from seed. Mareta says the photo is via sgforums.com. I tried that address, but came up empty. I did find a bonsai gallery at The Singapore Penjing and Stone Appreciation Society as a result of a search using s g forums, but couldn’t find this tree. In any case, … Continue reading Monster Bonsai

Bonsai Bark Weekly Wire

Boon Manakitivipart (Bonsai Boon) discovered this muscular Kuromatsu on his latest trip to Japan. You can visit Bonsai Tonight for more. Something new A while back we tried to get a bonsai calendar off the ground. After what seemed like lack of interest from our readers, we abandoned the idea. Now we have another idea, it’s related to the calendar notion, but more expansive. We’ll call it Bonsai Bark Weekly Wire for now. Rather than try to explain, we’ll just get started and see where it goes. This year’s BCI tour is timed to coincide with two of … Continue reading Bonsai Bark Weekly Wire