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This year, Part 1 of the 97th Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition is being held on February 9-12, 2023 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Ueno Park, Tokyo, Japan.

Many years ago, Megumi Kadokura posted several old photos of bonsai on Facebook. I recognized many of the bonsai and people. We began corresponding and I learned that her grandfather was a well-known bonsai artist who had his garden near the Omiya Koen train stop. He was a prominent leader in the bonsai world when the organization changed from the Tokyo Bonsai Club to the Nippon Bonsai Society in the early 1960s. He often displayed in the Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition in the 1950s. In the early 1970s I remember seeing the garden while on the train and one day while I was an Omiya Bonsai Village apprentice with another artist, I was allowed to visit this hidden gem of the Omiya Bonsai Village, once. At that time, it was not proper for an apprentice to visit other bonsai gardens. However, since I was a foreigner and my teacher spoke English I was able to do many things other apprentices could not.

This popular event was held on February 3-5, 2023 at the newly remodeled Mission Del Oro Hotel in beautiful downtown Santa Nella, California. Over 125 full registrants participated in workshops, lecture-demonstrations as well as many day pass walk in visitors.

On January 14-15, 2023, the Bay Area Bonsai Associates held their 41st bonsai exhibition at the Lake Merritt Garden Center in Oakland, California. Here are some of the highlights, starting with the Best Conifer award winner from the Pacific Bonsai Expo.

In last week’s post we left off in 2017 – about 10-15 years into the development of a black pine that was field-grown at Lone Pine Gardens in Sebastopol, California.

I’ve been waiting a long time to share the progress on one of my black pines, and now is a great time for it!

Over the past year, Andrew Robson and I spent a lot of time talking about small trees. The result is Shohin School, an effort to promote the understanding and appreciation of shohin bonsai.

Let’s wrap up our initial tour of the Expo with some examples of medium and shohin displays.

As promised, Joe Noga’s professional studio photographs.

If seeing great deciduous bonsai at the Pacific Bonsai Expo felt like a treat, seeing the conifers offered a different feeling. It felt like a great opportunity to catch up with trees, and species, that I don’t get to spend a lot of time with.