I had a rare surprise invitation to visit the private collections of Thang Dinh before the Mid-America Bonsai Exhibition, held in Chicago, Illinois last weekend.
He won the first place award in the open division at the 2024 Mid-America Bonsai Exhibition. His medium size tree, a magnificent Zuisho Japanese five-needle pine, was displayed on two large tables. After winning the award the society moved his bonsai to an alcove display. This left a large vacant area, so he returned home to bring a collection of his fine quality suiseki to display. It appeared that most of his suiseki were of Japanese origin, with a special love for Chrysanthemum stones.
In addition, he had a sizeable collection of bonsai masterpieces from Japan. They varied in size, and several were in training with long shoots for future design possibilities.
There was also a sizeable collection of fine quality bonsai containers for future use. In the United States I have never seen such a large collection of containers made by Gyozan, considered to be the finest artist handcrafting bonsai containers in Japan. Most of the other top level container artists from Tokoname, Japan was well represented.
There were many developed and developing American bonsai as well. He is refining his bonsai collection as well as training new specimens.
He also had an outstanding Japanese black pine bonsai which he displayed in the 2023 8th U.S National Bonsai Exhibition. He likes to share the beauty of his bonsai in exhibitions. It was clear that he enjoyed his collections, and he had a fine taste for bonsai and suiseki.
