The styling progression on this cascade Shimpaku juniper by Shinji Suzuki is remarkable (you can see the whole step by step progression in our Juniper book). So is the end result. Remarkable and very unusual. Shinji Suzuki styled it when he was 24 years old. I wonder if he would do it differently now.
It’s not just the wild mixed interlocking swirls of live and dead wood…
… nor is it just the very long piece of deadwood that runs through the center like a dagger, all the way from near the top to the very bottom… nor the delicate deadwood branch the floats on top and undulates down into the very center of the cascade…. nor the 360 degree deadwood circle on the right… nor the crazy two piece trunk at the base, that lies flat on the soil with a big fist of deadwood above that, but….
… it’s all those things taken together
Nothing about this amazing bonsai is conventional, except maybe the pot and the stand. You might say the the foliage pads are somewhat normal for a cascade juniper, and that may be true, though you might take another look at their very open spacing the way they interact and move with and against the deadwood.
A not particularly eccentric bonsai. This powerful and tranquil old Needle juniper is probably Shinji Suzuki’s best known tree. It originally appeared on the cover of Bonsai Today issue 63 and also appears in the gallery section of our Juniper book.
Shinji Suzuki
Is world-renowned for his bonsai, both conventional and unusual. If you are interested in learning more about Mr. Suzuki check out Michael Hagedorn’s excellent book; Postdated; The Schooling of an Irreverent Bonsai Monk.
We borrowed this magnificent Sierra/Shimpaku juniper from Michael Hagedorn Crataegus Bonsai site. Michael is the author of Post-Dated: The Schooling of an Irreverent Bonsai Monk.
Reworking a remarkable Weyerhaeuser Juniper
Here’s what Michael has to say about the tree above: “A rangy juniper reworked in a half-day refinement session at the Weyerhaeuser collection in Federal Way, Washington. This 40″ (102cm) tree is a collected Sierra juniper grafted with shimpaku.” You can see the whole post here, which includes the before shot.
Continue reading ‘The Bonsai Artistry of Michael Hagedorn Plus Freeze Dried Roots’
As long as we’re on the subject of ezo spruce, I thought you might like to see this potless ezo clump from Michael Hagedorn’s Crataegus Bonsai.
Potless and eventually boardless
Here’s what Michael Hagedorn has to say about this planting: “I have the tree on a wooden board, which will be temporary support for about two years. After that time, I hope the roots will be solid enough (with some interior bamboo shafts) to support the entire kokedama (moss ball) and be able to be placed directly on a bench—sans pot or slab.”
Post Dated
Michael Hagedorn is the author of Post Dated – The Schooling of an Irreverent Bonsai Monk and an accomplished bonsai artist and teacher. Michael lives, practices and teaches in Portland Oregon. Check out our interview with Michael here on bonsaibark.
This One Seed Juniper (J. monosperma) was collected (see below) and styled by Michael Hagedorn. Michael is the author of Posted Dated, The Schooling of an Irreverent Bonsai Monk. Michael lives, teaches and practices bonsai in Portland Oregon. His company is Crataegus Bonsai.
Comparisons are odious
I don’t know that the oft use phrase ‘Comparisons are odious‘ is always true, but I think there is something there. A comparison that has been showing its (odious?) head lately has to do with European vs American (or North American) bonsai. Another is Asian vs Western bonsai.
Continue reading ‘Relatively Speaking…’
A set up like this will come in handy if you live out west right now. Back here in the northeast, we’ve barely had to uncoil ours so far this summer. This image is from our Juniper book.
I never miss Michael Hagedorn’s posts on Crataegus Bonsai. He’s always got something useful to say and he’s a natural story teller (check out Post-Dated – The Schooling of an Irreverent Bonsai Monk if you’re from Missouri, or just a show-me kind of person).
Michael’s last two posts are prompted by the heat wave out west. One is a very timely tip on watering and the other is a story from his time as a bonsai apprentice in Japan.
Here’s a little teaser from the latter:
Yesterday’s ‘HEAT’ post made me remember a story from Japan…
My first year as an apprentice in Japan was a record setting heat wave. Temperatures reached into the low 100’s for weeks on end, and the humidity was wilting to those watering the trees… (go to Heat Story… for the rest of this post).
Tomohiro Masumi watering Shohin bonsai at Koju-en in Kyoto. From Shohin Bonsai by Morten Albek.
Yet Another Watering Problem…
The following is by Michael Hagedorn from his website Crataegus Bonsai.
Probably the worst thing we might encounter when we have a hose in our hand is a tree that, when we think about it, has not dried out in three days of sunny summer weather. That ought to send off all kinds of alarm bells in your head. If none go off, install some.
Continue reading ‘Green Workshop: Yet Another Watering Problem’
This cropped cover shot of Michael Hagedorn’s Post Dated provides a powerful hint why the Publishers Association of the West choose it for a Gold Award in design.
If you been following this blog for a while, you know that we featured a review of Michael Hagedorn’s ground breaking book and a two part interview with Michael in February. Since then, my enthusiasm for Michael’s fascinating bonsai and life adventures in Japan, hasn’t wavered a bit. It’s still a great book and I still recommend it with the full confidence that you will enjoy it as much as I have.
Continue reading ‘Post-Dated Wins Gold!’
This is the second and final installment of our Michael Hagedorn interview.
Do you collect wild trees? Any advice if you do?
I do collect. And I would definitely advise studying the techniques of taking wild trees with a very experienced collector who has a high success rate. Studying this seriously is better than learning by mistake and experiment—enough have done that already!
The tree pictured above is Sonoran scrub live oak (Quercus turbinella). Michael says of this tree: I collected this oak from a mountain range in eastern Arizona in 1999, at around 5,000 ft. It was growing much like old pines or junipers along rocky breaks, in a ‘captive root’ situation. There were fine roots in a pocket of soil on bedrock. I cut the anchor root, lifted the tree, and it went into a small box. The oak from the start was very vigorous, and one or two years later was in a bonsai pot. The photo is from 2008, prior to its trip to the National Bonsai Show. Accent is a small sculpture that I made in college. The container is from my past life as a potter. To see more of Michael’s trees, visit Crataegus Bonsai.
Continue reading ‘Michael Hagedorn Interview: Part 2′
In my last post I wrote a review of Michael Hagedorn’s Post-Dated; The Schooling of an Irreverant Bonsai Monk, a book I consider to be an important and unique contribution to English language bonsai literature. You could say that Post-Dated is in fact literature, as distinguished from the how-to genre that most bonsai books fall into.
In addition to being a very accomplished writer, Michael Hagedorn is a first rate bonsai artist. His work appeared in the Kokufu show in Tokyo (Kokufu is the pre-eminent bonsai show in Japan) in 2004, 2005 and 2006, and Mr. Suzuki (Michael’s teacher) honored him with the opportunity to wire two trees that went on to win a Kokufu Prize and a Prime Minister Award.
This interview is in two installments. Stay posted for part 2.
Why Post-Dated?
Post-Dated is a title that the reader will only understand on finishing the book. The last chapter gives a clue to it’s choice.
What do you think is the most important thing you learned in Japan?
I came to believe that bonsai was unlike any of the other creative expressions I’d explored before. It was not modern art. It was not individualistic. It assumed collaboration: by default, with other artists, through time. It was collaboration with a living thing. It was collaboration with a tradition. This was all new to me and, honestly, disorienting. But I came to love it and find a lot of excitement and joy in being a part of that larger surround. I guess anything where we feel part of something larger is a valuable thing, and studying bonsai in Japan was that for me. And I think all bonsai activity has that potential. There, here, anywhere.
Continue reading ‘Michael Hagedorn Interview: Part 1′
I first read Post-Dated at 30,000 feet; Boston to SFO. By coincidence, the man sitting next to me was reading Thoreau’s Walden, a book usually confined to students and scholars (and everyone else’s bookshelves). He was well past his student years and turned out to be an engineer who simply loved Thoreau.
I bring this up because Post-Dated has a chapter titled: Restless Spirits: The Usefulness of Henry and Ernest. Henry is, of course, Henry Thoreau. Ernest is Ernest Hemmingway. Michael included them in his book because they both studied bonsai in Japan as young men. Henry was gifted, but Ernest was too impatient to get very far with bonsai, though his reputation as a person who could consume rivers of sake, while telling spell binding stories of bullfights, lost lovers and big fish, is still alive and well in Japan (now, after apologizing to our readers (both of you) and especially to Michael Hagedorn, let’s see if we can refocus).
Continue reading ‘Post-Dated by Michael Hagedorn’
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