As I was preparing for my apprenticeship in Japan, there was some big decisions to be made.  I had about 15 or so Bonsai trees and nowhere to keep them during my absence.  I had to make the tough decision to sell most of them and ended up keeping only 4 trees.  Boon Manakitivipart was kind enough to keep those four trees for me while I was away.  As I worked at Aichien, I’ve often though about the trees I’ve kept, reminiscing how great it’s going to be when I can get back and work on them again.  Months past and soon years and the memories of the trees faded deeper in the back of my mind.

Having come back home only two months ago (so much has happened since!), I see the trees right in front of me and  it’s time to continue where I left off.  In this…

Taishoen
The next Leg of the trip saw us visiting Urushibata San and Taishoen. There are a mad amount of awesome shohin, Chuhin, and Omono bonsai at Taishoen, and it’s definitely a nursery not to be missed!

A few large Shinpaku bonsai…

Massive pines!

Tosho

Kaede

Killer cascade Shinpaku in development.

Ume!!!

Shohin Tosho with some really impressive Ibo-jin.

Broom style Keyaki.

Twisty shohin Shinpaku.
Daijuen
Next up, we met up with Mr. Ken Fujiwara, who prepared Matt’s Kaede thr appeared in Kokufu earlier this year. Mr. Fujiwara apprenticed at Daijuen, and was kind enough to take us on a tour of Daijuen, Shinpukuji Temple, and Aichien.
Daijuen had a large number of world class large pines, in addition to some impressive Tosho and maples.

A few large Pines….

Seas of pines.

Still more seas of pines…

Oceans of pines!

Pines!!

Broom style Keyaki.

Killer base on a multi trunk…

Kaede Bonsai En
Before our flight out to Japan, I took advantage of the(extraordinarily rare for a Chef like me) time I forced off to spend a day at Kaede Bonsai-En, with the organizer of this little adventure, Matt Ouwinga. I’ve known Matt for a couple of years, but this was the first time we’ve met in person and the first time I’ve seen his wonderful garden. In addition to a whole load of Japanese and Trident Maples(Kaede Bonsai-En, duh), Matt has a very impressive collection of shohin and chuhin bonsai of various species: Shimpaku, Japanese Black and White Pine, Obai(winter jasmine), Chojubai, Stinky Maple, Ginko….et al. Et al.

Chojubai in a Gekkou pot, a great match. This one was plopped into this pot for this years’ rounds of National Shows…alas. Hopefully Matt will display something nice at the Chicago show instead. The smart money’s on him if he does…