Kokufu: More of the Very Best Bonsai

2012 Kokufu Prize wining informal upright Osakazuki Satsuki azalea (Rhododendron lateritium var. Osakazuki). This and the other images in this post are from Phoenix Bonsai.

As long as we’re stealing images from Phoenix Bonsai Society we might as well pillage their text: “This now eight-day February national exhibit of bonsai is the largest and most prestigious of all bonsai shows worldwide. The Nippon Bonsai Association (NBA), the official sponsor of the event, has worked diligently over many years to insure that only the finest bonsai in Japan are displayed. To win one of the several prizes or sho awarded greatly enhances the career of the stylist and honors the owner of the outstanding tree. In a given year there may be anywhere from one to five of the prizes awarded.  However, the Kokufu sho is not given if there is not a worthy tree. Once a tree does win the prize, it is never again eligible for another Kokufu sho but it still can be entered additional times for display only.”

You can visit Phoenix Bonsai Society’s website for more on Kokufu-ten and a wide range of excellent bonsai articles. It’s a link well worth clicking. You can also check a recent Bark post that features some Kokufu trees.

 

2012 Kokufu Prize winning Informal upright Shimpaku juniper (Juniperus chinensis var. shimpaku)

 

2011 Kokufu Prize winning informal upright style Japanese white pine (Pinus parviflora); it also received the Prime Minister Award at the Taikan Ten Exhibition in November 2010.

 

2010 Kokufu Prize winning twisted-trunk Pomegranate (Punica granatum ‘Nejikan’)

2006 Kokufu Prize winning Shimpaku Juniper (Juniperus chinensis var. shimpaku)

 

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A Steady Stream…

Premna serratifolia by Robert Steven. Aside from the immediate impact of the old wood with all the trunks popping up everywhere, there’s the counter-balance provided by the sturdy little trunk on the far left and the way the two tiny trunks at the base provide subtle accents. And then there’s that teetering trunk on that tiny tip that sticks out on the far right at the very end of the planting (six years of government-funded college down the drain on two mangled sentences).

The beat goes on. If you take the time to go back through our 700-plus previous posts, you’ll find that Robert Steven appears more than any other bonsai artist. This is not an accident. Not only does Robert provide us with a steady stream of highly instructive critiques (send me a photo <wayne@stonelantern.com> and he’ll do one for you), but even without those we’d still feature Robert as we consider him to be one of the most energetic and innovative bonsai artists in the world. Beyond that, Robert is a business partner of sorts; we are the North American distributors of his classic bonsai books and of his Bonsai Aesthetics tools and wire.

Plantings where old wood becomes a stand-in for rocky outcroppings and cliffs are one of Robert Steven’s specialties. I don’t know who originally pioneered this type of raft planting, but I do know that Robert has elevated the art.

 

I like the relaxed way this raft is gently laid out on a mossy knoll. Reminds me of something I’ve stumbled upon hiking in the mountains somewhere. It’s from one of Robert’s recent facebook posts.

 

This highly unusual raft style planting, with its gnarled twisty protuberance and corresponding pot, is still fresh and needs some time to fill in. It’s from the same facebook posting as the image immediately above.

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Rainbow & Bonsai Shadows

Couldn’t resist this great photo. It’s from David Benavente’s facebook photos (just slightly cropped).

I think David Benavente is one of our most accomplished bonsai artists (by our, I guess I mean Westerners, but maybe you could just extend that to the whole world). You can check out David’s bonsai on facebook and on his website. His Before and After (Antes y Despues) series is particularly good (and instructive), but really, I’d recommend spending time and exploring all of his photos. Many tell stories, some with a little humor thrown in.

Here’s one of David’s ‘Before and After’ series.

Here’s another from ‘Before and After.’ I cropped out the ‘before’ to get a closer view of the ‘after.’ You can see them together here.

 

Fall color. I’m always impressd with how well organized and neat David’s nursery looks (at least in the photos he shows us, though I suspect he’s not hiding anything).

Here’s another close-up of an ‘after.’ The original photo is below.

 

The photos shown here are just a small sampling of David Benavente’s bonsai. For more, visit him on facebook or his website.

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Hustling to Keep Up

I don’t think you’ll see plantings quite this distinctively unusual very often. Not that all good bonsai aren’t unique, just that this one is very unique (and no doubt very heavy too). It’s by Colin Lewis, who happens to be one of the featured artists at the LSBF 2013 convention (below).

Bonsai Calendar. We seem to be featuring bonsai events almost weekly now. It’s never was our intention to turn Bark into a bonsai calendar, but still, reminding you of events (and maybe even encouraging you to take the leap and attend one or two) seems like a good thing to do. Even if we have to hustle to keep up.

Your upcoming event. If you’d like to invite our readers to your event, just put a little note about it (preferably with a link) in the comments below.

April 11th – 14th New Braunfels, Texas. You’d better hurry up if you’re going to catch the Lone Star Bonsai Federation 2013 convention. It looks like a good one with a strong supporting cast that includes Dan Robinson, Colin Lewis and Erik Wigert.

April 19th – 21st, Harrisburg/Hershey Pennsylvania. The Mid Atlantic Bonsai Societies Spring Festival is one of the East Coast’s premier bonsai events.

This monster Shimpaku was styled by Minoru Akiyama who is one of the featured artists at the upcoming Mid Atlantic Spring Bonsai Festival.

April 20th & 21st, Portland Oregon. The Portland Bonsai Society is having its annual show at the Portland Japanese Garden on April 20-21, featuring bonsai by some of the best amateur bonsai artists in the United States.

This strange and wonderful experiment is something that Michael Hagedorn and his Seasonal students created more or less out of thin air. I guess you could say the ‘less’ part is that they did start with the tree, a Vine maple, and the ‘more’ part has to do with having an idea, but (in Michael’s own words)… “not the faintest clue how we’re going to do it.” Michael Hagedorn will be the judge for the Portland Bonsai Society’s annual bonsai show (see above).


Shots from the famous Portland Oregon Japanese Garden, which is considered by many to be one of the very best (if not the best) Japanese garden in North America.

May 3rd – 5th, Washington DC. The annual Potomac Bonsai Festival is one of many great events at our National Bonsai & Penjing Museum.

May 10th Port Macquarie Australia. The Hastings Bonsai Group will be showing their bonsai at the Port Macquarie Panthers Club.

May 11th Tulsa Oklahoma. The Green Country Bonsai Society will be featuring a Bonsai Show May 11th at the Tulsa (Oklahoma) Garden Center.

May 18th – 19th, Chicago. The Midwest Bonsai Society is hosting its 9th Annual Spring Bonsai Show at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

May 24th – 26th, Olive Branch Mississippi. “Great bonsai, fabulous food and Southern hospitality” await you at Brussel’s Annual Rendezvous.

Penjing from the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum bonsai photo gallery.

 

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World Famous Masterpiece Bonsai

I like this tree. It has great movement and wild, wonderful deadwood that runs all the way up the trunk, plays peekaboo in the crown and then finishes with a flourish at the top. If you removed the hanging branch that reaches down almost to the base of the trunk, it would still be an interesting tree (even though the remaining crown would be an inverted bowl)… but with that branch and the aforementioned deadwood, the tree is elevated to bonsai masterpiece. If you don’t believe me, you can check out Takahashi Iura’s facebook page, where it says: “My important bonsai masterpiece has been accepted into kokufu!!!” I’m guessing there might be a problem with the translation, but still, his enthusiasm is certainly warranted.

Kokufu-ten. One thing leads to another. As long as we’re doing Kokufu (the world’s most famous bonsai show) I thought I’d fish around and see what comes up. In this case we got lucky when I came across some great 2013 Kokufu photos (and highly informative text) on Phoenix Bonsai (BTW Phoenix Bonsai happens to be one of the best sources of bonsai information you’ll find anywhere).

 

Whoa! This magnificent Chinese quince (Pseudocydonia sinensis) was a prize winner at the 2013 Kokufu-ten. There’s so much you could say about this tree, but we’ll just leave it at ‘magnificent.’  This photo and the two photos below, are from Phoenix Bonsai.


Whoa again! This Kokufu prize winner is a Japanese white pine (Pinus parviflora).



Japanese black pine (Pinus thumbergii). A great Japanese white pine deserves a great Japanese Black pine, and this Kokufu prize winner certainly qualifies.


Speaking of Japanese pines. Our Masters’ Series Pine book is on sale at Stone Lantern for only 19.95. Even better, you can purchase it and our Masters’ Series Juniper book together for only 36.00.

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It’s Free!

Maybe someone can help identify the owner of this most excellent swirling cascade juniper. It’s from the Noelander’s Trophy, 2013. You can see more photos from the show on Crataegus bonsai (and various other places). Speaking of the Noelanders’ Trophy, Marc Noelanders will be one of the featured artists at Brussel’s Rendezvous (see below).

Why isn’t your event featured here? In March Bonsai Bark was visited 56,000 times (19,000 of those were unique). This being the case, Bark is probably a pretty good place to advertise your upcoming bonsai event. Especially considering it’s free. The best way to do this is to put your event in the comments below (preferably with a link) and we’ll do the rest.

 

This rough, but full-of-potential Japanese winterberry (Ilex serrata) is from New England Bonsai Garden’s website.

April 13th. If you are anywhere near Massachusetts or Rhode Island (or if you don’t mind traveling a bit) you would be well served to visit New England Bonsai Garden’s Spring Member’s Day April 13th, which happens to be next Saturday. And don’t worry if you aren’t yet a member, it’s easy to join.

May 2nd – 5th. We don’t have a link for this event, but the Puerto Rico Bonsai Club Mayagüez chapter is holding its annual bonsai exhibition at Mayaguez Mall on May 2 to May 5 2013

 

May 18th – 19th. The Midwest Bonsai Society is hosting its 9th Annual Spring Bonsai Show at the Chicago Botanic Garden, May 18th and 19th.

 

A little piece of the excellent, ever-expanding stroll garden at Shin-Boku Nursery, home of some of the best landscape trees in the world.

May 25th – 27th. Enjoy plentiful refreshments, friendly people and a huge selection of world-class specimen landscape trees at Shin-Boku Nursery’s annual open house, deep in the heart of the great state of New Hampshire.

 

This Ficus neriifolia belongs to Ed Trout, who is one of the featured bonsai artists at this year’s Bonsai Rendezvous at Brussel’s Bonsai. It looks like the tree was styled using the clip-and-grow technique, but it’s the octapus-like way the roots are clinging to the side of the rock that really got my attention.

May 24, 25, 26th. “Great bonsai, fabulous food and Southern hospitality” await you at Brussl’s Annual Rendezvous. I reckon that when they say “great bonsai”, they’re including this year’s dynamic cast of featured bonsai artists.

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High on the List

Great tree (nice pot too) but I can’t find any identification on the Isabelia site. I’ll go ahead an venture one of my oft-mistaken guesses and say it’s a Hornbeam of some sort (Korean?).

I’ve never been to the Czech Republic, but it’s definitely high on the list. High enough where 2014 looks like a possibility. In addition to Prague, a city that most people rave about, I plan on visiting the gardens (featured in an earlier post) and bonsai museum at Isabelia. Meanwhile, here are few photos from their collection. Maybe we’ll see you there.

 

Reclining Shimpaku (another guess) in a unique handbuilt pot.

 

Hornbeam again? Or…?

 

Nice deadwood. Great pot. Another Shimpaku? All four photos in this post are from the Isabelia Bonsai Museum.


We don’t usually like to go all commercial on you (here on Bark that is), but every now and then when we get excited about something (in this case, it’s our Roshi Bonsai Tools), I don’t mind reminding you about Stone Lantern.

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It’s Not Everyday…

One side of a brilliantly artistic bonsai pot by Miyazaki Isseki. The other three sides and two corner views are below. All the photos in this post are from Sam & KJ’s Suiseki blog, which BTW is one of the better blogs around and well worth a visit.

I don’t think we’ve ever devoted a whole post to just one pot. But then, it’s not everyday you see a pot quite like this. The way the bright white glaze sets off the brilliance of the colors and artistry of the scenes has made such an impression, that I don’t think I could ever forget it (and forgetting is practically a lifestyle statement for me).

Though it’s hard to imagine anyone not liking this pot (I’m sure there are people that will misplace words like ‘garish’), the big question is; would you ever plant anything in it? If so, what?

What do we know about Miyazaki Isseki? According to Ryan Bell at the Japanese Bonsai Pots blog, Miyazaki Isseki “specialized in tea pottery and other wares, but in 1965 began making some small bonsai pots. His works are very rare, and prices are reflectively very high.” Though I’m sure there’s more out there if you’d like to investigate, that’s the best I could do in a one minute insta-search.

 

 

 

 

These two corner views show the seamless continuity of the four scenes (that turn out to be just one scene).

 

All the photos in this post are from Sam & KJ’s Suiseki blog.

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A Rich Cornucopia of Bonsai Events

It has been a while since we’ve featured the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum‘s world-class bonsai collection. This Korean hornbeam (Carpinus tschonoskii ) donated by Minoru Koshimura, has been in training since 1935 and it’s not even one of the oldest at the museum. Not by a long shot. But it is undeniably a venerable tree with a majestic dignity that you just don’t find every day. And of course, it’s just one of hundreds of powerful bonsai and bonsai events you can enjoy while visiting our nation’s capital.

Here we go again in our quest to keep you up to date with what’s going in our bonsai community. If you want to see your event featured here, just put a note with a link in the comments below.

 

Dan Robinson is replacing Walter Pall at the Lone Star Bonsai Federation 2013 Convention, April 11-14. Walter has health issues (very short term, we hope) so Dan is stepping in. Both Walter and Dan are highly accomplished artists on the more Naturalistic side of bonsai. I think this Mountain Hemlock of Dan’s gives you a pretty good idea of just how naturalistic his sensibilities are. The photo is from Gnarly Branches, Ancient Trees by Will Hiltz.

 

The annual Potomac Bonsai Festival held May 3-5, is one of many great events at our National Bonsai & Penjing Museum.

The Bonsai Society of Southwest Florida is holding its Annual Auction and Spring Picnic on May 18th at Wigert’s Bonsai Nursery.

 

So far so good with this hefty old Rocky Mountain juniper. It belongs to Ryan Neil of International Bonsai Mirai. Ryan is one of the headliners at Bill Valavanis’ upcoming Bonsai Colloquium, June 6-9 in Rochester NY.

 

A rich cornucopia of bonsai events awaits you at International Bonsai’s Colloquium.

 

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Blowing in the Wind

The sublime windswept landscape planting is from Robert Steven’s now classic Vision of My Soul. The species of the trees is Dyospryros montana (Mountain persimmon is one of several English names).

A very quick search will reveal that there are precious few good windswept bonsai. At least on the web. I suspect there are several reasons for this. First, it’s time consuming to make a superb windswept like the one above. All those little branches need to be wired. Second, you have to understand how the wind works on trees. This requires some study and paying attention to detail. Not always a strong point with many of us. Third, there is a general misunderstanding about what windswept is. Many people believe semi-cascade and windswept are the same thing. They aren’t, but the belief that they are can prevent us from exploring what windswept really is.

To shed some light on the subject here’s some of what Robert Steven (who we recently referred to as Mr Windswept Bonsai) wrote in a previous post.

“Many people misunderstand that windswept style bonsai is simply formed by leaning the trunk and placing all the branches on one side. It is not that simple, windswept can be created in any style because in nature, wind can blow on any tree, including a tree leaning into the wind.

To create a good windswept bonsai, the key is properly developing the branching. The best branch structure is formed by the “clip-and-grow” technique, showing the flowing lines of the tiny twigs with very spare leaves. All the tips are flowing slightly upward in one direction as shown in the pictures below.

On the reverse side, we need to form some side branches with dramatic bending in the direction the wind blows, as shown on the above picture. The idea is to show that the wind causes the twigs to bend, but is not strong enough to bend the branches. The more we can play with this feature, the better the impact is.”

This is just a small sampling of what Robert has to say about windswept bonsai. Stay posted for more. Or you can take a look at Robert’s books (see below) and peruse the wealth of information by Robert on this blog.

 

A windswept conifer by Colin Lewis. Not as detailed as Robert’s bare branched windswept trees, but simple, clean and to the point.

Books by Robert Steven and Colin Lewis are available at Stone Lantern.

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