Wife Alice Naka wrote a beautiful article about John’s life, detailing everything from the time he was born to his years establishing his presence as a bonsai legend.
8th Japan Suiseki Exhibition Features Former USNA Director Tom Elias' Entry
We are pleased to share this short video of the 8th Japan Suiseki Exhibition held recently at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum featuring Kunio Kobayashi, President of the Japan Suiseki Association. This is an opportunity to see some of the stones displayed in this years' exhibition including the large boat-shaped stone entered by former USNA Director Tom Elias. The exhibition catalog will be available around mid-March. Enjoy!
National Geographic: Repotting Bonsai
See the original piece in National Geographic here.
Photographing Bonsai with Stephen Voss: A Winter’s Quiet - Bonsai in Black and White
In Washington, D.C., winter arrives in fits and starts, or sometimes not at all. In years past, we’ve gone the whole season without measurable snowfall. Nevertheless, in these months when trees are laid bare, we might allow ourselves to take a moment and to pause for reflection. The showy growth of spring is still weeks away and the bonsai at the U.S. National Arboretum’s National Bonsai & Penjing Museum are at rest.
The graphic, abstract nature of the trees is most evident in the deciduous species, as their limbs stand out against the off-white backdrop of the Chinese Pavilion, where many of the trees spend their winter months. The deadwood of the coniferous trees can be equally striking, especially when composed against the dark green of the tree’s foliage. In each tree, there holds a promise – a slowly ticking clock that counts the days, waiting for the moment when each branch begins to push out leaves.
For now, I’m embracing the already monochromatic nature of these trees and taking a different approach to photographing them. As an aside, many digital cameras have a black and white mode, but I’d recommend that you photograph in color and convert the image afterwards in your preferred image editing program. This will give you more flexibility in choosing how the image looks in black and white.
When we photograph in black and white, we need to think as much about the final image we’ll be creating as the actual scene in front of us. In a monochromatic image, form, structure and shape are emphasized. The more abstract nature of a tree can come through. As the old photography saying goes, color photos engage your mind, black and white ones engage your heart.
So what do we look for when photographing bonsai in black and white? I love photographing the texture of the bark. Frankly, this part of the trees can be nearly colorless to begin with, so emphasizing the grooves and patterns of the bark can make for an interesting image. This Japanese pine is one of my favorite trees in the collection, and its undulating trunk and beautiful, craggy bark makes for a wonderful image. One quick tip – when you convert these images to black and white, increasing the contrast and clarity (local contrast correction) can further emphasize texture and patterns.
Looking for differences in colors can also make for interesting black and white images. When you convert the image, the tonality of the colors can change and with a good conversion program, you can define how light and dark the different tones can be.
A light snow had fallen during my last trip to the Museum, and I took advantage of it to photograph these fresh footprints in the snow in the Japanese Pavilion. I’ve continued to enjoy exploring the visual possibilities in the entire Museum, not just the trees in my work. A snowfall makes for a great opportunity to realign how you see a place. When photographing snow, your camera’s meter may try to darken it too much, so it’s useful to adjust the exposure to brighten the image a little. You want to brighten it enough for the snow to look natural without losing all of the detail.
We’re in the last month of winter here in D.C. Soon, the curators and dedicated volunteers will begin repotting bonsai when needed and bringing trees back outside. I’m hopeful the Museum will soon reopen and we will all be able to enjoy its wonder and splendor as the days grow longer and the weather warms up.
As a photographer who now makes a living snapping pictures of some of the world’s most influential figures, Stephen Voss didn’t always know that photography could be more than a hobby. Once a bonsai novice, he certainly didn’t think he would publish a photography book of bonsai.
Now that he’s an accomplished photographer, Voss wants to share his “tricks of the bonsai photography trade.” This entry is part of his regular guest blog series, “Photographing Bonsai with Stephen Voss", published on NBF’s blog, covering everything from lighting, angles and mindset needed when photographing the trees.
Sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Facebook and Instagram to never miss one of his entries! Read his last entry here.
Influential Bonsai Master: Harry Hirao
In 2009 Harry Hirao posed next to his 2004 gift to the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum, a California juniper that he collected in 1960. Photo from U.S. National Arboretum.
This edition of Influential Bonsai Masters highlights the history of the loving spirit and innate talent Harry Hirao shared with the world.
Hirao co-founded Kofu Bonsai Kai, one of the largest U.S. bonsai clubs, and sat on many bonsai boards across the country, including the National Bonsai Foundation. But his interest and leadership in bonsai wasn’t in full swing until his middle-aged years.
Though he was born in 1917 in Colorado, Hirao temporarily moved to Japan at 8 years old to receive an education and work on the family farm. But he returned to the United States at 16, befriending young bonsai master John Naka, with whom he adventured through the Rocky Mountains to fish for trout.
At the time, Hirao and Naka were so focused on fishing they didn’t realize they were falling in love with the surrounding precious viewing stones and the unique twists and folds in wild trees.
Hirao soon met his wife Chiyo (also known as Alyce), and they married in 1941. Ten years later, the family moved to Huntington Beach, California, where Hirao launched a landscaping and gardening business and grew his family.
Fishing remained a hobby for Hirao for many years, but Naka introduced him to bonsai, guiding him through the Mojave Desert where stout, aging trees grew in harsh environments. Hirao and Naka were granted a digging permit to remove junipers growing in the desert, beginning years of field trips through the mountains and intriguing Hirao in the process of transforming the unassuming trees into beautiful bonsai.
LEFT: Hirao and John Naka discussing Naka’s famous forest planting “Goshin,” or “protector of the spirit”
RIGHT: In 2011, Hirao restyled the juniper he gave to the Museum for the new North American Bonsai Collection.
Photos from USNA
He was eventually nicknamed Mr. California Juniper for his uncanny ability to produce masterpiece bonsai from raw California junipers. But something else in the wild finally caught his eye – stones. Hirao and his wife became enamored with suiseki, or viewing stones, and quickly grew their collection.
Hirao is often remembered as a mountain goat, jumping over ridges and through streams faster than most to find gorgeous stones or unique junipers to turn to bonsai.
Former NBF President Felix Laughlin said he went on a collecting trip with Hirao once, and before he got out of the car at their destination, Hirao was already leaping and running toward the mountains with a backpack slung over his shoulder.
“It was so amazing that in his late age, his 80s at the time, Harry was such a bear of a man and just went at the collecting,” Laughlin said. “He loved it so much, and he did so much for California junipers, which were his babies.”
Jack Sustic, a former National Bonsai & Penjing Museum curator and NBF co-president, held a special and long-lasting relationship with Hirao. After meeting during a West Coast bonsai convention, the two became instant friends. Sustic began traveling to California once or twice a year to collect stones or work on trees with Hirao, absorbing bits of wisdom and building their friendship.
“Harry would say, ‘Don’t rush. If you rush you make mistakes,’” Sustic said. “I always hear his voice when I’m working on a tree or looking for stones – I can hear him telling me to take it slow. Bonsai masters’ advice is often not just for bonsai but for life itself.”
LEFT: At the 2009 Bonsai Festival, Harry directed a bonsai demonstration with assistance from Museum curator Jack Sustic and Museum volunteer LeAnn Duling. RIGHT: Harry Hirao collecting a California juniper from the wild in 2007.
Photos from USNA
Hirao could always make someone feel special, often giving his visitors a viewing stone as a token of appreciation for their time together. Sustic fondly remembers his loving, genuine and kind demeanor, but he said everyone who met Hirao spoke well about the bonsai master.
“Nobody ever had a negative comment or worry about Harry, and that’s a bit rare these days,” he said. “Harry was like a father, best friend, teacher and confidant all wrapped into one for me. A day hasn't passed that I haven't thought of him.”
The Museum received its first American viewing stone from Hirao, and the Harry Hirao Reception Room opened in the Museum’s Yuji Yoshimura center simultaneously with its John Y. Naka North American Bonsai Pavilion.
Two of Hirao’s trees have found a home in the North American collection and one of them remains in the Museum’s auxiliary collection. You can view the trees here and read more about Hirao in our 2007 newsletter, “Happy Birthday Harry!”
Hirao on a collecting trip – photo from Jack Sustic
Historical Tree Spotlight – Blue Atlas Cedar
The Blue Atlas cedar in 2012, pot designed and produced by Sara Rayner
A “power couple” is defined as a pair of two people who are each independently influential or successful.
The Blue Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica Glauca Group) featured in this month’s Historical Tree Spotlight was gifted to the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum by a power couple well known throughout bonsai and the overarching horticultural circles: Frederic and Ernesta Ballard.
Ernesta Ballard, a well-known horticulturist and women’s rights activist, previously owned a small house plant business. She developed a reputation in the Philadelphia community and was invited to display her work at the renowned Philadelphia Flower Show, put on by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS). Ernesta won a top prize for her submission, and she was eventually tapped for PHS’s executive director position.
In her new role, Ernesta revitalized the event, growing it into a more participatory and educational experience and one of the premier flower shows in the country. As the event regained traction and pulled in more money, Ernesta used some funds to engender the Philadelphia Green program, which transformed vacant lots into flower and vegetable gardens.
Simultaneously, she became known as the “godmother of Philly feminism” for campaigning for the Equal Rights Amendment and founding local chapters of groups like the National Organization for Women. Ernesta also wrote two books: Garden In Your House (1958) and The Art of Training Plants (1962).
LEFT: John Naka produced this sketch when Fred Ballard hired him as a consultant for the tree. The sketch was featured in the Journal of the American Bonsai Society with an article Ballard wrote about how important it is for other people to critique your trees and what it was like to work with Naka.
RIGHT: The Blue Atlas cedar in 1990
Frederic Ballard fell in love with bonsai through Ernesta’s influence and became so drawn to the art that he served as one of the inaugural National Bonsai Foundation directors and was appointed the second NBF president in 1990. Both Fred and Ernesta were founding members of the American Bonsai Society.
The Ballards bought the featured Blue Atlas cedar as a little shoot from Monrovia Nurseries in California around 1960. The sprout was meant to be a landscape tree, typical of the species, but with guidance from bonsai master Yuji Yoshimura, the couple trained it into a cascade-style bonsai. Bonsai master John Naka helped the Ballards develop the apex of the cedar.
Blue Atlas cedars are native to the Atlas mountains in Morocco. Their popular function as landscape trees means the species is drought and heat tolerant. But Museum Curator Michael James said this cedar becomes thirsty once it is transferred to a pot and paying attention to its water needs is very important.
“A lot of times with bonsai you can make the wrong assumptions by thinking about where these trees natively grow and applying those conditions to the potted plant,” James said. “But it doesn’t work that way when roots are constricted in a container. It needs a lot of water.”
The volume of water a cedar demands will depend on the humidity and temperatures of its growing conditions, but James said Museum staff working in Washington, D.C.’s climate frequently water the Ballard’s Blue Atlas cedar twice a day in the summer.
He added that resisting the temptation to cut back the cedar’s shoots too early and letting the tree elongate as it grows throughout the spring allows the tree to build energy. James said trees like the Blue Atlas cedar can even benefit from a lack of clipping long into dormancy.
“This cedar is a vigorous grower, so those new shoots in the spring will quickly grow out of the tree’s silhouette,” he said. “But it’s good for its health to resist clipping and let the roots build strength through the increased foliage.”
This cedar can be found among the Museum’s North American trees. The Ballards took part in the groundbreaking for the John Y. Naka North American Pavilion (pictured above) and christened the collection with their beautiful Blue Atlas cedar. Visit the virtual collection here.
First Curator’s Apprentice Blog – Scratching the Surface of Bonsai
Sophia Osorio cleaning leaves on a Chinese Elm Forest
“O solitary pine, how many generations of man have you known? Is it because of your great age that the passing winds sing in so clear a tone?” – Prince Ichichara, “Man’yōshū”
If you had asked me six months ago what career path I would want to pursue in the world of horticulture/arboriculture, bonsai would not have come to mind. But after spending enough pleasant time interning at the most renowned bonsai and penjing museum in the country, bonsai is now the only thing that comes to mind.
I first stumbled across the opportunity to work at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum on a job posting wall at the New York Botanical Garden, where I was attending classes to obtain an arboriculture certificate from their School of Horticulture and Landscape Design. I was doing all the career research I could for a person like myself, with a distinct passion for arboriculture and tree care. I decided to take a chance and apply for the First Curator’s Apprenticeship, which would eventually spark my appreciation for the world of bonsai.
Like most people, I had a general familiarity with bonsai. But growing up in the hustle and bustle of New York City, I had realized that urban areas lack access to more natural landscapes. Of course, one can admire the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s C.V. Starr Bonsai Museum or perhaps stroll through Central Park. But otherwise it can be difficult to unplug from the fast-paced, famous city that never sleeps to enjoy more reserved and peaceful environments. This is where my recognition and adoration for the Museum comes in.
Three years in a row now, Washington City Paper’s Best of D.C. poll has designated the Museum as the “Best Place to Take an Out-of-Towner,” and for good reason. Nestled in the energetic and largely concrete city of Washington, D.C., the Museum seems to slow time. Within its pavilions and tree collections, the beauty of nature is captured, condensed, perfected and displayed within the result of a centuries-old artistic tradition.
Sophia, left, and her fellow Central Park Conservancy interns gardening at Marine Park in Brooklyn, New York
Bonsai can be horticulturally defined as a tree or group of trees pruned and trained to live in a container, often for hundreds of years. The literal translation is “tray planting” or “planted in a container.” I’ve come to learn that it is truly a living art form and a small representation of the larger natural world. This realization puts into perspective the amount of hard work and effort that goes into keeping a tree just as strong and vibrant in a container as it would have been cared for in the landscape by nature.
My admiration and eagerness to learn more about bonsai has only augmented since my apprenticeship began. In trying to put the feeling of looking at a bonsai into words, I would say it is close to what one might experience if watching a renaissance painting come to life: standing in the presence and witnessing the sights of something that has been around for hundreds of years – growing, changing and living right before your eyes.
In my short tenure so far, I’ve had the privilege of working on trees donated by prominent figures in bonsai history, like the Japanese white pine that survived the bombing of Hiroshima, donated by bonsai master Masaru Yamaki. The notion that a tree that has experienced so much history can still be alive and flourish with the help of many passionate staff members here at the Museum has made the art of bonsai one of the most inspiring practices I’ve ever been part of.
From daily tasks, like watering every tree in the collections to the technique of selecting and pruning of branches to reshape a tree’s structure or entirely repotting a tree, I feel as though I have merely scratched the surface of the hard work and dedication needed to keep a bonsai thriving. This is truly an experience I want to share, expand on and practice more of for many years to come.
With enthusiasm,
Sophia Osorio
First Curator’s Apprentice
National Bonsai & Penjing Museum
U.S. National Arboretum
Bonsai Around the World: Jardin Botanique de Montréal
”Garden of weedlessness” – the Penjing greenhouse at the Montreal Botanical Gardens, credit to Matthiew Quinn
For this edition of Bonsai Around the World, we’re highlighting a garden that is just a hop, skip and a jump north of us: in Canada!
The Montreal Botanical Garden, or Jardin Botanique de Montréal, is home to about 350 bonsai and penjing from North America, Japan, Northern and Southern China, and Vietnam or similarly tropical areas. About 120 trees are on display at a time, while others are worked on in a service area or greenhouse, depending on the season.
The collections began with just Chinese trees. In 1980, the garden participated in a flower show called Floralies, and after the show concluded, Japanese and Chinese vendors donated trees they couldn’t sell to the botanical garden. Dr. Yee-sun Wu, a notable penjing collector, also gifted the gardens his penjing with the stipulation that they construct a dedicated penjing area.
Left: Juniperus chinensis var. Sargentii, Japanese collection, donated by Kenichi Oguchi (Japan); Right: Serissa japonica, penjing collection, donated by Lui Shu Ying (Hong Kong) – credit to Roger Aziz
A greenhouse was soon converted to house the penjing, followed by a Japanese garden in 1989 to house trees gifted by the Nippon Bonsai Association. The gardens eventually accumulated so many bonsai and penjing that former curator David Easterbrook and other managers decided to start employing two curators to oversee the different collections.
Curator Eric Auger working on a bonsai – credit to Roger Aziz
One current curator, Eric Auger, first became involved with the Montreal Botanical Garden working under Easterbrook, whom he met at a bonsai workshop.
“One day he told me, ‘You’ve got good hands and a good eye, maybe you could take over for me when I retire,” Auger said. “I studied horticulture in Canada and bonsai in Japan, and when I came back I got the job.”
He became curator in 2011 to oversee the Japanese, North American and tropical collections. Some of the more famous trees Auger works on are a forest planting by Saburo Kato, a juniper from Kenichi Oguchi, a few bonsai from Nick Lenz and a tree from Ryan Neil.
The Montreal Botanical Garden North American Collection – credit to Eric Auger
The North American collection is on display in the The Frédéric Back Tree Pavilion, an educational center that opened in 1996 to educate visitors on the various dimensions of tree care, the importance of ecosystems and the vital role trees play in human life.
The Vietnamese collection constitutes the garden’s core tropical tree collection. A generous gift of big tropical bonsai in the 1990s and further donations built the collection to what it is today. The trees are shown once a year in the garden’s main entrance hall.
Auger’s favorite part of the curatorship is technical work, like wiring and shaping trees during the winter, when the bonsai are all in the same greenhouse. In the summer, the bonsai and penjing are spread out across the botanical gardens.
He added that the goal for the North American collection is to only hold native species, regardless of where the artist is from.
“Right now we’re at about 70 percent of native species, but we’ll soon hit 100 percent,” he said. “All of our collections are donations, so we’re dependent on that, like many bonsai museums.”
Curator Matthiew Quinn working on a penjing – credit to Roger Aziz
Curator Matthiew Quinn cares for the two Chinese collections. Quinn was first introduced to bonsai in a way many got their first taste: watching Karate Kid. Years later, he read Michael Hagedorn’s book on bonsai, bought a ficus and attended a class in Montreal to rekindle his interest in the art form.
Quinn eventually showed off his bonsai skills to Easterbrook, who wanted him to prove that he was serious about bonsai and could eventually take over the garden’s Chinese collections. So he went back to school, started part-time work on the Montreal collections and studied bonsai and penjing in China before accepting a curator position.
One unique aspect of the Chinese collections is that Quinn tries to maintain the authentic Lingnan style of Chinese penjing.
“People who just try the clip and grow technique on their penjing are missing a whole bunch of pointers to make it really authentic,” he said.
Learn more about the Montreal Botanical Gardens here, and share with us on Instagram or Facebook if you’ve visited their beautiful collections!
The Bonsai Board: Ross Campbell
Ross Campbell, NBF secretary/treasurer elect, pictured with his yew bonsai.
At the National Bonsai Foundation, we are grateful to our Board of Directors for their support, ingenuity and bonsai knowledge. Get to know the directors in our spotlight series, The Bonsai Board, highlighting their bonsai experience and why they joined NBF.
Read about Board Chair Jim Hughes here and Chair-Elect Dan Angelucci and Secretary/Treasurer Jim Brant here.
For this edition, we interviewed Ross Campbell, who joined NBF in August 2020 and became secretary/treasurer elect later in the year. Campbell worked for 34 years as a senior analyst for the U.S. Government Accountability Office, reviewing and evaluating programs at federal agencies. He has penned reports to Congress on topics like ecosystem management, invasive species control and honeybee health.
Campbell grew up in Detroit, Michigan, a Sister City to Toyota in the Aichi Prefecture of Japan. In an exchange program between the two cities, he traveled to Toyota to immerse himself in Japanese culture through tours, travel and staying with a Japanese family. He saw shrines, temples and examples of Japanese artistic hobbies, but he was most impressed by the combination of managed and natural styles in Japanese gardens.
“Just about everyone I came across, young or old, had some interest in a historical or cultural practice like ikebana or martial arts,” Campbell said. “They really put a lot of effort, energy and skill into each garden.”
He moved to Washington, D.C. in 1985 and encountered the U.S. National Arboretum. The National Bonsai & Penjing Museum rekindled his interest in the art and culture he saw in Japan. Campbell then bought his first bonsai, a juniper sold at the Eastern Market on Capitol Hill.
He joined and eventually presided over the Washington Bonsai Club, which met at the Arboretum. Campbell is a Brookside Bonsai Society member and newsletter editor and served as the Potomac Bonsai Association treasurer for many years.
He said he is most drawn to bonsai because bonsai artists connect with nature, forests and trees in their natural setting. Campbell prefers more naturalistic bonsai styles rather than abstract – he wants his bonsai to be more representative, not suggestive, of real trees.
“You can’t exactly play with or tinker with an actual forest, but you can do that with a bonsai and try to put that large forest experience into something you can hold in your hands,” he said. “I can’t draw, I can't paint, but I’m hopeful that through this bonsai hobby I can develop some artistic skills.”
Campbell and his son Ian in front of John Naka’s Goshin. Campbell’s family took annual pictures in front of the tree to show how his son and the tree had grown.
Campbell enjoys both the group activity of bonsai and the relaxing practice of working one on one with his own bonsai.
“I enjoy being with people and seeing or talking about their techniques, but ultimately it is most satisfying for me to be making progress just me and the tree at home,” he said. “It takes your attention and concentration but allows you to shut out stress and difficulties, slowly letting the process unfold and seeing things change over the seasons and years.”
One of Campbell’s most memorable experiences at the Museum was when Curator Michael James asked him to help perform some maintenance on John Naka’s famous “Goshin” on Campbell’s second day as a volunteer at the Museum.
“It’s not like I had a pruning saw or even concave cutters in my hand, but the fact I was able to perform even minor work on such an important bonsai was very unexpected, fun and a bit tense,” he said.
In winter 2019, Campbell became a Museum volunteer to improve his bonsai technique and help the Museum continue to thrive.
“People who don’t know anything about bonsai come through the Museum but are clearly captivated by the collections,” he said. “NBF keeps that opportunity available, and if I can do anything to help NBF or the Museum, then that’s what I want to do. I’m glad I’ve been able to support the Museum as a visitor and now as a board member.”
Museum Curators: Michael James
The National Bonsai & Penjing Museum couldn’t house the finest bonsai in the world without a dedicated, talented and knowledgeable leader. In our next installment of Museum Curators, we’re helping you get to know our current curator, Michael James, who is all of those things and more.
Horticulture was a natural career path for James, whose family owned and operated a small produce business out of Maryland called Blueberry Hill. His first bonsai encounter occurred around 1996 when he was in college – a silver maple forest planting at a community fair The beauty and intricacy of the small grouping of trees astonished him.
James studied art at the Maryland Institute College of Art, where he delved into the art and practice of bonsai in his free time. He then decided to pursue a plant science degree at the Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
“I realized that the most important thing is to learn the science behind it and the ‘why’ and ‘how’ plant cultivation can be done,” James said. “Whether it be higher yields or better tasting fruits or beautiful foliage, it can be done with knowing the physiology and plant sciences.”
Instead of waiting for a job opening or to be recruited, he reached out to the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum for a volunteer position in the summer of 2001. James initially saw his time at the Museum as a place to learn bonsai with the best trees and instructors in the world, but he never thought he would procure a full-time job. He eventually became a permanent employee in 2002, after helping the Museum host that year’s World Bonsai Friendship Federation convention.
James planting blueberries with his late mother around 1981
In 2005, James returned to his family’s produce farm in Maryland, where he remained for the next decade. But he eventually found his way back to the Museum in 2014, working as the assistant curator to former Curator and NBF Co-President Jack Sustic. James was finally appointed curator in June 2018.
The allure of bonsai and a curatorship
James’ favorite part of growing bonsai is watching the trees thrive and change over the years. Bonsai is such a lengthy process that Museum staff constantly make decisions that will be seen 15 or 25 years later, but James said watching the results of previous years of work is very rewarding.
“We’re coaxing these trees to their future forms over a very long timeframe, and even though it’s subtle and very slow, you see those forms taking shape,” he said.
James said some of the most exciting times at the Museum have been when he worked on trees with international bonsai master John Naka. Naka would share his vision for the styling and future appearance of his famous tree planting Goshin or exchange laughs with staff and other bonsai artists.
“He was always making a joke, like pinching at a spruce with chopsticks and pretending to eat it, or other corny little things,” James said.
To James, bonsai has always been an important facet to horticulture and agriculture production. He said cultures that produce their own food, like the United States, pave the way for more luxury and time for the arts, including bonsai.
“Bonsai turns science into a form of art that is relatable and a balance between both culture and science,” he said. “Some plants produce fruit and could technically be eaten, but these are living things that often speak to the soul, rather than feeding the belly.”
James working on Goshin as a museum volunteer under the direction of John Naka, 2001
James said he tries to approach the styling of each tree with an unbiased mind, channeling the influence of the bonsai’s creator to maintain the integrity of its design.
“When working on Goshin, I have to be thinking about what Naka would do to that tree,” he said. “The trees are in a different state than years ago, more developed and refined, but their creators would still utilize the same principles and individual characteristics they applied from the start.”
Most of James’ bonsai education has been through the Museum, but he has traveled around China and Southeast Asia to study the styles and inspiration for bonsai and penjing. James added that the diverse collection within the Museum – which holds bonsai from China, Japan and throughout North America – allows him to study the nuances of different plant species, from training techniques to growing specifications.
“The Museum is a hub – all these incredibly educated bonsai artists pass through here when traveling to work on trees and explain their ideas of styling and bonsai culture,” he said. “In the branches and trunks, you can see what creators saw in them and what they were intending on in their form that translates out the branches as the trees continue.”
James is one of a few essential workers keeping the trees thriving while the Museum is closed to the public. Leave him a comment below to share your appreciation for his hard work and great leadership!