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 judges have to say about the tree above (I edited their clumsy English this time): This kuromatsu (Japanese black pine) is relatively young. Its nebari (visible root spread at the base of the trunk) is good and it stands up dynamically. Its trunk form clears the conditions for a good bonsai -it’s thick and tapers off toward the top. The No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 branches come out superbly. It is a promising kuromatsu. It is well-potted and attention has been paid even to minute details. The more care it receives, the better it will be. It is a well qualified bonsai and should grow into a wonderful moyogi (informal upright) tree with pronounced bends and curves.

Japanese sometimes have a propensity for understatement, so we’ll take that into consideration. But fifty five years is relatively young? It’s a promising tree? Makes you wonder why they gave it best in show. Wouldn’t honorable mention do for a young promising tree?

Below is another Japanese black pine I borrowed from a 2014 Bark post.

This trunk is so heavy that you could imagine it supporting a huge mass of foliage, yet this humble crown works to perfection.* There’s a lot more that could be said about this great old tree, but I’ll stop at pointing out the luminous color and texture of the trunk (not that you could miss it). The tree is around 50-years-old and was grown from seed. It belongs to Kiyoshi Hiramatsu (great name for someone who grows pines) owner of the Hiramatsu Seijuen bonsai garden in Takamatsu’s Kokubunji area in Japan.

*Reflections from now. I no longer think this humble crown works to perfection. I still love the powerful trunk but think it would be better served by a more developed crown. As it stands, the trunk shows great age while the crown appears immature. Not a good combination (you might also say this about the tree at the top, and that might be what the judges were referring to when they said it was promising and young – the branches and crown were not yet fully developed; still, the overall balance is much better than the second pine’s).

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