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On Sunday morning after my educational constructive critique, I announced the award winners. It was a difficult job as there were so many excellent bonsai. Last year there was an award for Fruiting Bonsai, however only one had fruit. This year there was not a Fruiting Bonsai Award, and there were several which could have been awarded this prize. One never knows what will be exhibited.

This year’s edition of the Winter Silhouette Bonsai Expo at the David H. Murdock North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis, North Carolina, was the best edition of this exhibition. Held on December 2-3, 2017 in an elegant marble enclosed four story atrium, the event drew many more visitors from across the east coast. Although the venue was the same as in the past, with careful planning and layout there were more vendors, demonstrations and exhibitors than in past years. More importantly, the quality of each bonsai improved. This event is sponsored by Steve Zeisel, a bonsai hobbyist from Raleigh, North Carolina, who is also the current president of the Triangle Bonsai Society. The North Carolina Research Campus supports the event to help Steve achieve his goal.

On November 18-19, 2017, S-Cube sponsored and produced a special exhibition for the Genkokai, a small group of bonsai collectors with high quality refined bonsai and suiseki. Held in the Hoshun-In Buddhist temple, established 401 years ago, the complex is normally not open to visitors and entrance to this exhibition was by invitation only. This temple is in the Daitoku-Ji complex of numerous smaller temples of the Rinzai School of Japanese Zen including the popular Daisen-In which is on many garden tours.

 
There were nine special displays at the 2017 37th Nippon Bonsai Taikan Exhibition.

 
 
 
 
The 37th Nippon Bonsai Taikan Exhibition is on November 18-21, 2017,at the Kyoto Messe in Kyoto, Japan. The building is just down the street from the famous Heian Shrine, well known for a large vermillion tori gate. This exhibition is perhaps the second largest and most prestigious bonsai exhibition in Japan. I particularly like this show because it features displays. Both bonsai, suiseki and art objects are formally displayed, many with scrolls. This is not the common traditional bonsai exhibition. There were a few contemporary displays as well in good taste too.

Akihisa Saito, a new director of the Nippon Bonsai Association and his wife Harue have one of the finest and largest private bonsai collections in Japan. They have between 300 to 400 bonsai at their home in Okayama. Award winning bonsai artist Kenji Oshima, son of Mikio Oshima, from Okayama, is the curator of their collection.

On my way home on Tuesday from Taiwan to Rochester, a connection was scheduled in Tokyo. I always try to make a connection in Tokyo when traveling in Asia. Upon arrival in Tokyo I was surprised to learn my connection flight to Chicago was cancelled. This also happened last week on my way home from Shanghai, but there was sufficient time to reroute me on the same day. On Tuesday United Airlines rescheduled my flight from Chicago to Newark. Of course, that flight was “full” because of the cancellation so I asked to take the flight the next day because I know it was not full and there was an excellent chance to get three seats, an entire row, so I could stretch out and sleep and also work on my blogs. United put me up in a nearby hotel for the evening, with meal coupons of course, and no luggage. I did end up getting an entire row to myself and slept for five hours and worked on my last blog for five hours during the flight.

 
 
22ND Hwa-Fong National Bonsai Exhibition

 
Looking for lunch at the Xizhou Park, location for the Hwa Fong National Bonsai Exhibition, we came across the BCI Viewing Stone Exhibit in a large building. This  enue was full of viewing stones, and a few Suiseki as well. Nearly all were rare stones (chin seki) or beautiful stones (bi seki). These two classifications of viewing stones are quite popular in Taiwan and China, whereas the art of suiseki developed in Japan.

 
 
The combined conventions of BCI (Bonsai Clubs International) and ASPAC (Asia-Pacific Bonsai Viewing Stone Convention) were held in Taichung, Taiwan, on November 4-6, 2017. Taichung is about a two to three hour drive south of Taipei. The programs and multiple displays were another hour drive from the two convention hotels in Taichung. We had plenty of bus rides and a lots of waiting time. I guess logistically it is difficult to move over 1,000 people around and to feed them as well.