History was made on February 9-13, 2014 when the newly reorganized Nippon Suiseki Exhibition held the first ever suiseki exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. Under the leadership of Kunio Kobayashi (Chairman) and Seiji Morimae (Secretary General), the event was held concurrently during Part 2 of the Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition so people could enjoy both arts in one venue (separate floor galleries). This brings a new era to the combination, appreciation and promotion of bonsai and suiseki.

As often the case, the opening ceremony was a colorful event with a few speeches from prominent figure heads and officers. Seiji Morimae was the MC and did an excellent job keeping the event moving along. After the formal ribbon cutting ceremony they lead visitors into the four gallery exhibition containing some of the most famous suiseki in Japan including a rare treasured suiseki which has not been seen outside a Ueno…

This tree has been developed over the last 12 or so years, so at this point, the goal is to refine the tree; improve the nebari, soften the rough edges, and develop the fine ramification of twiggy growth.

Last year I thread-grafted seedlings into the base to improve the nebari. In a few weeks, I’ll eagerly repot and check on the progress.

Some of the rough edges include primary branches that I didn’t adequately shorten from the jump. They’ll be replaced gradually over time. The upright above the first left branch will be the first to go, and I’m moving new, finer branches into that space. More on that another day.

The twiggy growth comes through pinching new growth early in the spring, and removing heavy, stronger shoots during the winter, when it’s easier to see.

Here are a few shoots that have grown strong, and need to be reduced…

Heavy snow continues to fall in Tokyo on Saturday, it’s one of the biggest storms I’ve experienced in Japan. This would be just an ordinary snowfall for Rochester, NY, where nothing would be closed and school would go on as normal.

At breakfast I saw Michael Hagedorn with some of his students who were on their way to Obuse, near Nagano to visit Shinji Suzuki’s garden. Michael studied there about seven years ago and is returning for a few days. Mr. Suzuki is in Tokyo setting up the Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition Part 2 and the new Japan Suiseki Exhibition. Since I’ve never visited Mr. Suzuki’s garden, Marc Arpag and I immediately changed our plans and joined Michael’s group. Everyone stayed in Obuse for a few days, but Marc and I returned to Tokyo a couple of hours later.

Obuse is a few hours from Tokyo in normal weather. But this…

We had a private morning visit to the Shunka-en Bonsai Museum of Kunio Kobayashi in  the Edogawa area of Tokyo, Japan. Mr. Kobayashi has developed his museum to display many of his masterpiece bonsai in a garden setting as well as in formal alcoves. This is a most complete example of how bonsai can be enjoyed and appreciated in formal displays as well as illustrating the necessary outdoor environment for health and training.

In addition to having each bonsai in pristine condition, each specimen was matched to the perfect display table in size, color, design and quality. The accessories, antique containers, scrolls, as well as the display tables were all first class and of the highest quality, typical of the refinement Mr. Kobayashi enjoys and teaches.

Graduate apprentice Peter Warren from England returns back to his teacher for assistance during the busy…

On my return to Japan we have been pretty busy with the past Meifu-ten and The impending Kokufu-ten. Mostly the work has been styling/wiring with the occasional black pine/kuromatsu needle pulling.

I thought I would share a few of tree’s that I have recently wired and they are all black pines.

This is a kifu sized black pine.
I didn’t get round to taking a before picture, I should have done because it wasn’t a bad transformation. The tree was very dense, I pulled all the old needles and thinned out a fair bit before wiring.

Another tree I did was this shohin black pine. Again unfortunately I didn’t get round to taking a before pic. This also was a bit of refinement work for sales.
It is looking a bit yellow here but, has greened up since coming out of the cold for a while.

This is a Kuro…

Japanese flowering quince, Chaenomeles speciosa

After an uneventful and on-time arrival in Tokyo our group was “welcomed” by cold and wet snow. NO, I did not order the weather, in fact the meteorological conditions were better in Rochester than Tokyo. But, my wife, Diane, did get stuck at the airport in Newark for several days on her way home from the California Shohin Bonsai Seminar.

Kora Dalager’s and my International Bonsai Tour Exploration this time includes 20 people from New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Australia as well as from the United States. Four close friends from my “Crew” in Rochester joined me this time which are members of the Suiseki Study Group of Upstate New York and also officers of the Bonsai Society of Upstate New York. Two of us will have suiseki on display in the new Suiseki of Japan Exhibition opening on Sunday.

The Parkside Hotel in Ueno…