Japanese Shows
Here are photos of bonsai I worked on that were accepted into the bonsai shows in Japan during my apprenticeship: the Kokufu-ten, the Sakufu-ten, and the Taikan-ten.
Kokufu show #80 – 2006
Chochubai flowering quince (left), Ezo spruce (right)
Red pine. You may notice several different stylistic approaches in the bonsai on this page. Only about 20% of the branches on this tree were wired.
White pine—One of those stepping-stone trees for me. Mr. Suzuki wanted to be sure I could wire trees out cleanly—to this level of organization and absurdity—before letting me work with less artificiality. I detail the work on this tree in my book, Post-Dated: The Schooling of an Irreverent Bonsai Monk.
Grafted Itoigawa juniper
White pine
Kokufu show #79 – 2005
‘Shimpaku’ juniper
Black pine – Kokufu prize winner
‘Shimpaku’ juniper
Taikan Ten 2004
White pine
Sakufu Ten 2005
White pine—Prime Minister Award winner
7 Comments
Interesting article, i have bookmarked your site for future referrence 🙂
I do not know much about bonsai but these are amazing.
I just saw this thread for the first time while searching google for info on the Sakufu show. Beautiful work!
I found your PMA winning White Pine in the 72nd Kokufu book, and was wondering if there are books or magazines available for the Sakufu shows?
Dan, yes, the Sakafu has it’s own books. Not sure of their availability over here, I pick up a few random ones when I go to Japan. You can take a look at mine next time you’re here-
[…] Bonsai website. This one is from the 2004 Taikan Ten show in Japan and is part of an article called Japanese Shows that Michael posted in 2008 (the caption says White pine; however, it looks like a Black pine to […]
[…] Japanese white pine before his teacher, Shinji Suzuki entered it in the famous Kokufu show. You can visit Michael’s Crataegus Bonsai (one of my all time favorite bonsai blogs) for the whole story. Michael is the author of Post-Dated […]
[…] Japanese white pine before his teacher, Shinji Suzuki entered it in the famous Kokufu show. You can visit Michael’s Crataegus Bonsai (one of my all time favorite bonsai blogs) for the whole story. Michael is the author of Post-Dated […]