This beautifully flowing Sargent juniper(Juniperus chinensis var. Sargentii ‘Itoigawa’ – aka Itoigawa Shimpaku) belongs to Douglas Paul, the owner of The Kennett Collection (we’ve featured The Collection here on Bark). This and the other photos in this post are borrowed from Bill Valavanis’ Bonsai blog.
Just in case you are not familiar with Kokufu ten, it’s a bonsai exhibition that takes place in Tokyo once a year and is widely considered the world’s most famous and prestigious bonsai event. 2015 was its 89th year, which I believe makes it the world’s oldest bonsai exhibition as well as the most famous.
Simply being excepted for display in Kokufu is a great honor, which is the reason for this post featuring the three Americans whose bonsai appeared in this year’s Kokufu. As is often the case, the photos shown here were borrow from Bill Valavanis. They represent a tiny fraction of Bill’s 2015 Kokufu photos.
This powerful Sargent juniper (Juniperus chinensis var. Sargentii ‘Itoigawa’ – aka Itoigawa Shimpaku) belongs to Sean Burke, who seems to be a well-kept secret (not only is the first I’ve heard of Sean, but I couldn’t find anything about him online).
This gnarly Japanese yew (Taxus cuspidata) with its Shimpaku-like deadwood, belongs to Matthew Ouwinga, a highly accomplished bonsai artist who we’ve featured here on Bark.
Just got this email from Bill Valavanis:
Hi Wayne,
Please note that this is NOT the 89th year of the Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition. I believe it’s the 81st YEAR. When the Kokufu Bonsai Society started the exhibition it was held twice a year. Then they stopped for a few years because of the war. In 1943 they started the exhibition on an annual basis.
You can see all the correct information in the following two sites which I helped develop:
http://phoenixbonsai.com/Days/Kokufuten.html
http://phoenixbonsai.com/Days/Kokufutena.html#ByYear
I believe that correct information should be presented everywhere.
Keep up the good work with Bonsai Bark. I enjoy reading it.
Bill