Matt Reel styles a juniper in KINBON

The last time we talked about Matt Reel he’d just finished a staggering 7 year 9 month apprenticeship with Shinji Suzuki. When I opened my January 2015 issue of the Japanese bonsai magazine Kinbon, there was Matt, standing next to a very fine juniper that he’d worked on as an apprentice. If you figure Matt is about 6’million”, this is a very big juniper.

Recently Matt has become a Portland Bonsai Villager. He came to Portland willingly, which is better than the fight and tussle it would have been had he come unwillingly. We’re glad to have him, as he expands our professional network considerably.

Enjoy the photos of Matt’s work!

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6 Comments

  1. Ron Scarborough says:

    Beautiful!!!!

  2. John says:

    Great job Matt. Looking forward to having you work on a couple of my trees.

  3. tangobunny says:

    wow….wow….Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2015 16:29:23 +0000 To: bunny_o@msn.com

  4. Don Erickson says:

    Thanks for the post. We seldom get to see features from the foreign magazines. Great work Matt looking forward to your visit to Salem, Oregon!

  5. Ray Norris says:

    Matt”s work is very good, watched the demo at psba convention, awesome job

  1. […] This magnificent Juniper bonsai originally appeared in Kinbon (Kindai Bonsai, a famous Japanese bonsai magazine). It was refined by Matt Reel an American apprentice who spent almost eight years in Japan. I borrowed the photo from a February 2015 post by Michael Hagedorn (Crataegus Bonsai). […]

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