Japanese Slab Forest & Other Issues 6/14/10

BT23This illustrious forest is from Bonsai Today issue 23. Among other things, it shows how one very strong tree can add drama and power to a forest planting. Though the original doesn’t say, I’ll guess that it’s by Saburo Kato (Japan’s most revered bonsai artist) and that the trees are Ezo spruce.

Other treasures like this
Most of the content in Bonsai Today magazine is from the old Japanese masters, and even though there is much to be excited about in contemporary Western bonsai, you would be hard pressed to find a forest with this level of refined precision anywhere outside Japan. Even the ferns and other little plants that make up the forest floor seem to be in scale.

More where this came from
We just put up some more rare old out-of-print issues of Bonsai Today that we have been buying back from people over the years.