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Steve Zeisel, sponsor and organizer of the Winter Silhouette Bonsai Expo did it again! A huge crowd of visitors and bonsai enthusiasts enjoyed an elegant display of fine bonsai! Every bonsai was of much better quality than in the first 12 exhibitions featuring naked trees. He privately holds the event to promote bonsai and allows exhibitors to express their beautiful bonsai and creative displays, especially in their winter appearance. 

Our formal upright design series wraps this week with comments on each of the 9 remaining design options. 

A couple of years ago, Andrew Robson and I hosted a Winter Shohin School in Milwaukie, Oregon featuring headliner Daisaku Nomoto from Japan. The event is coming to Northern California next month!

YES I did!…. still in one piece!

The only Zen garden in a Buddhist Temple is located in the Daitoku-ji Temple complex in Kyoto, Japan. It is quite close to the world-famous Daisen-in garden. Now photos are allowed!

After a long hiatus, the US again has a juried bonsai pottery competition. After an initial pair of events in 2001 and 2002 and a follow-up in 2015, we now have an updated competition sponsored by the American Bonsai Society and managed by Angelica Ramirez.

Today we visited the Daiju-en Bonsai Garden of Toru Suzuki, third generation bonsai artist. 

For me the highlight of this exhibition was the bonsai demonstration by Kunio Kobayashi on Saturday morning from 10am to Noon, EXACTLY. The admission charge for this exhibition is less than US$10. This time, like last year several bonsai demonstrations were presented by the top level bonsai artists, which was an extra $20 admission charge, and well worth the cost. A free workshop for the first 30 people took place too. Famous bonsai artists, about ten of them were the instructors.

The exhibition opened today at 8:45am with a ribbon cutting ceremony. Unlike other openings only two short welcoming speeches were made, in Japanese of course.

Part I was a white-out exercise with an Ezo Spruce, asking, which branches would you cut off, if any? Thanks to all of you who offered your favorite options. It’s a complicated tree with a lot of possibility and many good options.