Home

All the bonsai were lovingly cared for all day long.

One of the highlights of the Gafu-ten exhibit is the sales area. Like the sales areas at other top bonsai exhibits, the Gafu-ten sales area featured bonsai at all stages of development from seedlings to show quality specimen bonsai. Some of my favorites are pictured below.

The 93rdedition of the Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition is being held on February 9-12, 2019 in the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Ueno Park, Tokyo. This, the finest and most prestigious bonsai exhibition in the world has always been held in the same venue for 91 events. When Norio Kobayashi and Count Matsudaira starte d the exhibition in 1934 it was held twice yearly. The exhibition was stopped during WWII, then resumed on a yearly basis. Several years ago the exhibition needed to be moved to a nearby industrial building because the museum was being remodeled to become handicap accessible. The renovations created a smaller exhibition area with fewer number of bonsai being displayed. So, the Nippon Bonsai Association simply changed the show into two parts, thus being able to display more trees and also receive more exhibition fees from their members.

After looking into the practice of shohin display, I thought it would be nice to focus on some of the beautiful trees at this year’s Gafu-ten. Here are some highlights.

Over the years I’ve come to expect directional bonsai to be displayed next to shohin box displays.

The idea of exhibiting six shohin bonsai in a single display can be daunting. Fortunately there are good alternatives that accommodate smaller numbers of bonsai in the display.

At Gafu-ten, Japan’s premier shohin exhibit, there are a number of different judging categories. This allows the judges to recognize the best contributions for a particular type of tree or display. Some of the key categories include:

One of the first displays to catch my attention at this year’s Gafu-ten exhibit featured six trees and an accent plant.

It was fantastic to visit a ceramics competition in Japan and see Roy Minarai of Kawauso Pottery recognized for his work. Roy took second in the glazed category for this year’s pottery competition held at the 2019 Gafu-ten exhibit held in Kyoto, Japan.

For those who have worked with a lot of collected junipers, this post can be summed up with two photos.