Living Landscapes in Miniature

This planting from Toshio Kawamoto’s Saikei classic is quite similar to the planting on the cover (below): same trees (cryptomeria), same (or nearly the same) pot and somewhat similar rocky ravine separating two tree and moss covered areas. The main difference is that this one shows a deep ravine. The rocks that define it represent tall vertical cliffs. It has been about a year since we feature Toshio Kawamoto’s plantings from his long out-of-print classic Saikei, Living Landscapes in Miniature. Given just how popular these posts have been, I think it’s time for another go. A long time ago (January, … Continue reading Living Landscapes in Miniature

Paradise & Another Invitation from Toshio Kawamoto

My apologies for the fuzz. The original scan wasn’t that great and blowing it up so we can get a closer look has its advantages and drawbacks. We might as well plow forward with our resurrection of Toshio Kawamoto’s Saikei masterpeices. He called this one Land of Paradise which is a reference to the Pure Land buddhist tradition. We originally featured it in April of 2010. There are two things that jump right out about this one: First, the rocks. They are different than the wind and surf smoothed rocks in his other plantings and take us to a more … Continue reading Paradise & Another Invitation from Toshio Kawamoto

Paradise & Another Invitation from Toshio Kawamoto

Another State-of-the-Art Saikei by Toshio Kawamoto – This Time in a Completely Round Pot

Enchanted lands is another in a series of plantings from Toshio Kawamoto’s Sakei classic. The tree are 3 five year old ezo spruce, 16 five to eight year old Cryptomeria (6-8 inches tall), 7 three to eight year old Satsuki azaleas and 3 three year old Tsutsuji azaleas. The pot is a round unglazed tray, 28 inches (71cm) in diameter (it’s hard to tell from the photo just how large the planting is). We’ve been resurrecting a series of plantings from Toshio Kawamoto’s classic Saikei, Living Landscapes in Miniature (long out of print), so let’s just keep going. And why … Continue reading Another State-of-the-Art Saikei by Toshio Kawamoto – This Time in a Completely Round Pot

An Invitation to a Peaceful Lagoon

Peaceful Lagoon, our third in a series of plantings from Toshio Kawamoto’s Saikei classic. The trees are five to twenty-year-old Japanese black pines. The pot (Tokoname) is similar to the ones in the previous two landscapes, though quite a bit larger. Traveling again, so it’s back to our archives. We’ve been resurrecting Toshio Kawamoto’s brilliant saikei plantings lately, so we might as well stay on theme (we could do a lot worse). This was originally posted almost exactly five years ago. It was titled A Lost Treasure #4: Peaceful Lagoon. An invitation The purpose of this section is to show how … Continue reading An Invitation to a Peaceful Lagoon

Toshio Kawamoto’s Brilliant Classic, Round Three

This planting from Toshio Kawamoto’s Saikei classic is similar to the planting on the cover (below): same trees (cryptomeria), same (or nearly the same) pot and somewhat similar rocky ravine separating two tree and moss covered areas. The main difference is that this one shows a deep ravine with tall vertical cliffs. The other day we resurrected one of the many brilliant plantings from Toshio Kawamoto’s remarkable classic, Saikei, Living Landscapes in Miniature, so let’s keep going (we could do a lot worse). We originally feautured this planting in 2010 and again in 2013 (look for another round in 2017). … Continue reading Toshio Kawamoto’s Brilliant Classic, Round Three

Digging Out Lost Treasures

Lakeside with Lingering Snow, our second in a series of plantings from Toshio Kawamoto’s Saikei classic. The trees are the same (cryptomeria) as in our last post from the book (creating a deep ravine planting), the pot is almost the same and the landscape is similar, though this one is softer. The focal point, the large single mountain stone that elevates the planting from good to extraordinary, is enhanced by a little touch of snow. The author doesn’t say what the snow is and it’s hard to tell from the photo. It would be ideal if it were simply part … Continue reading Digging Out Lost Treasures

Lakeside with Lingering Snow

Lakeside with Lingering Snow, our second in a series of plantings from Toshio Kawamoto’s Saikei classic. The trees are the same (cryptomeria) as in our last post (A Deep Ravine in a Shallow Pot), the pot is almost the same and the landscape is similar, though this one is softer. The focal point, the large single mountain stone that elevates the planting from good to extraordinary is enhanced by a little touch of snow. The author doesn’t say what the snow is and it’s hard to tell from the photo. It would be ideal if it were simply part of … Continue reading Lakeside with Lingering Snow

A Deep Ravine in a Shallow Pot

This planting from Toshio Kawamoto’s Saikei classic is quite similar to the planting on the cover (below): same trees (cryptomeria), same (or nearly the same) pot and somewhat similar rocky ravine separating two tree and moss covered areas. The main difference is that this one shows a deep ravine. The rocks that define it represent tall vertical cliffs. A long time ago (January, 2010 to be exact) we featured this post as part of a series on a remarkable book by Toshio Kawamoto. Now, because I’m still out of town on a vacation of sorts, it seems like a good … Continue reading A Deep Ravine in a Shallow Pot

Still Sleeping at the Switch

Do you recognize this award winning Shimpaku juniper? It appears in Fine Bonsai, Art and Nature (and older version is in the gallery of our Masters Series Juniper book). It belongs to Masahiko Kimura. The photo is by Jonathan Singer, as are all three photos in this post and all of the photos in Fine Bonsai. The three trees shown here are all from a review of the book Fine Bonsai, Art and Nature, that appears at Smithsonian.com. We were alerted to the review by Matt Calcavecchia in the comments on a recent post (scroll down to the last tree … Continue reading Still Sleeping at the Switch