| 1 |
1889 - Norio Kobayashi was born. [He would go on to edit and publish the
very influential periodical Bonsai. In 1930 he would write
The Study of Bonsai, and six years later would also have published
Contemporary Bonsai and their Care and Study and cultivation of
Satsuki azaleas, all in Japanese. He would be a lecturer at the
Tokyo College of Gardening. Kobayashi would be one of the founders and
major executives of the Kokufu Bonsai Association, a private organization which
would hold an annual exhibition
emphasizing creative bonsai at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Ueno Park beginning
in 1934. In 1951 the Japanese Travel Bureau in its Tourist Library series would
publish his Bonsai -- Miniature Potted Trees in English. Nine editions
of this highly respected book by this acknowledged authority would see print by the
end of that decade alone, quickly finding its way to the West and enlightening the
bonsai students there. One of its readers was the up-and-coming California
teacher John Naka, who would begin exchanging
letters with Kobayashi in 1963. That November, acclaimed for his success in
helping to bring bonsai up to the level of a cultural art, Kobayashi would be granted
a Medal of Honor with a Yellow Ribbon by the Japanese government. He would
invite Naka to visit the Kokufuten, and the latter would do so in early 1965.
While there, Kobayashi would meet with Naka several times and introduce the American
to leading figures in the world of Japanese bonsai. He also would encourage Naka to
use American plants as bonsai material and not rely on the plants traditionally used
in Japan for dwarf potted trees. Kobayashi would retire from editing and publishing
the periodical Bonsai after 518 consecutive issues. He would die in 1972 at
the age of 83.]
(Personal e-mail from Yukio Murata to RJB Apr. 22, 2006;
Kobayashi, Bonsai -- MPT, 14th printing, 1966, Editor's Notes, pp. 5-6,
24-25; Connie Rosade's column in Bonsai Journal, ABS, Vol. 2, No. 1, pg. 17) SEE ALSO: Feb 23
1907 - Kenneth Iwatoki Sugimoto was born in Hiroshima, Japan. [At an early age he would learn bonsai from an old master who lived near him. In 1915, Ken would come to these shores, his family already in the U.S. He would continue to develop his art under the tutorship of renowned bonsai master Professor Sakakibara (who was on a leave from Japan) and would establish in 1939 the West Los Angeles Bonsai Club. He would serve briefly as Instructor and President until the war. After the internment years, Ken would settle with his family in Lodi. In 1951 he would open the first retail bonsai nursery in this country a little ways to the west in Palo Alto. Two years later in the Spring Ken would found and be the president of the Peninsula Bonsai Club there, now the oldest bonsai club in the United States. Ken would be considered instrumental in establishing the Bonsai movement in America, also helping form the San Francisco Bonsai Club and being the instructor for both the Milbrae Adult School Bonsai Club and the Stockton Bonsai Club. He would lead trips to Japan in 1968 and 1971. Specializing in the formations of trees in rock plantings, Ken's creative techniques would attract bonsai masters from Japan who'd come to learn this method from Ken. He would teach and run Ken's Bonsai Nursery for many years, before retiring and having his oldest son Tak take over the business. Still teaching as late as 1997, Ken then would die of natural causes on Jan. 19, 2001 in Palo Alto. Kinuyo, his wife of over 70 years and also born in 1907, would be living in a rest home for at least four years after that. The club would hold an annual show every Mother's Day, skipping only 2001 in memory of Ken.] 
Ken Sugimoto
(RJB phone call to Tak Sugimoto on Aug. 16, 2005; "About Ken's Bonsai Garden,"
http://www.kensbonsai.com/about.html
; Traugott, Elisabeth "Life on a small scale,"
http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/morgue/real_estate/1997_Jan_24.HOME24.html
; obituary, Palo Alto Weekly, Jan. 31, 2001,
http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/morgue/community_pulse/2001_Jan_31.OBITLE31.html
; "Peninsula Bonsai Club Show,"
http://www.bonsaitalk.com/forum/printthread.php?t=6460
; Dillon, J.A. "Sokumenzu - Profile,"
Bonsai Magazine,
BCI, Vol. XI, No. 4, May 1972, pg. 20, which also states "He is
American born, reared and educated in Japan thru six years of
Elementary School and a year and a half of High School, in Iwakuni on
the main island of Japan. Then in Hiroshima he specialized in
Business Education at the High School there. Ken first studied
Bonsai at an early age in the Iwakuni Bonsai School where he was an
honor student. Lodi, California was his next home for eleven
years; but Bonsai called again taking Ken to Los Angeles...")
(Bonsai Magazine, BCI, May 1972, pg. 20) 1975 -- Robert F. Drechsler became the first curator of the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum at the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. with the arrival to the U.S. of the Japanese Bicentennial bonsai. One of the senior technicians, Bob was a well-trained horticulturist who, it so happened, had been caring for the small collection of penjing that had been presented to President Richard Nixon during his February 1972 visit to China. [Bob would continue in the curator's position until his retirement in 1996. Warren Hill would be the second curator from 1996-2001; Jack Sustic third from 2002-2005; Jim Hughes fourth from late 2005 to late 2008, when Jack would return to the position.]
1978 -- The Penjing Garden at the Shanghai Botanic Garden opened to the public on 4 hectares of land. "Shanghai Style Penjing" is one of the important artistic Penjing schools in present-day China. The essential collection here has more than one thousand pots of Tree Penjing on display. Most of these are prized and have won wide commands in exhibitions at home and abroad. Thirty pots of Rock Penjing represent the spectacular landscapes of China. Many visitors are fond of the Penjing Garden, and important noble guests from home and abroad are always received here. (Shanghai Botanic Gardens, subgardens open to the public, http://sinosource.com/SH/PUB/SHBG/subgardn.htm.) |
||||
| 2 | 2009 -- Weyerhaeuser Company, engaged primarily in the production of timber, wood, cellulose and homes, was heavily affected by the weakness in housing and construction industries resulting from the economic recession from Autumn 2008 on. Therefore, as of this date, Weyerhaeuser's Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection in Federal Way, Washington was closed indefinitely to the public. (The trees would remain intact and be well-maintained so that the Collection could be re-opened at some future date. SEE this announcement. The Collection would re-open at a basic-services level in June 2010.) ("From the Curator," http://www.weyerhaeuser.com/Company/Bonsai/FromTheCurator; "The Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection" posting by Victrinia Ridgeway 16 June 2010 to Internet Bonsai Club Forum, http://ibonsaiclub.forumotion.com/bonsai-f1/the-pacific-rim-bonsai-collection-t3320.htm#33060.) SEE ALSO: Jan 26, Mar 8, Oct 7 | ||||
| 3 | 1995 -- A commemorative postage stamp was issued by Monaco in honor of the European Bonsai Congress which would be held there June 9-11. SEE ALSO: Jan 23, Jan 29, Feb 3, Feb 16, Mar 1, Mar 27, Mar 31, Apr 6, Apr 18, May 6, May 29, Jun 16, Jul 20, Aug 20, Aug 22, Sep 22, Oct 1, Oct 4, Dec 9. | ||||
| 4 |
1962 -- On the same day his first grandson was born, teacher
John Y. Naka collected a California juniper
(Juniperus californica carriere)
in the high desert country. In honor of 1962 (the "Year of the Tiger"),
the 33" tall tree would later be named
Tora
(Tiger). (The tree is believed to be the longest trained of any California
Juniper.) [In November, another California juniper would be collected.
At 32" in height, this would be named
Ryu
(Dragon) because there is a mythical rivalry between a "
Tora
" and a "
Ryu
" to see who can strive to obtain something that only one can possess.]
"Tora"
("About the Cover,"
Bonsai Journal,
ABS, Vol. 19, No. 2, Summer, 1985, pg. 1;
BT
by JYN, Color Plate 10 "Tora" photo taken in 1970, and 11 "Ryu" photo taken in 1973)
(Bonsai Journal, ABS, Summer 1985, front cover) 1970 -- Paul Matsusaki died in Phoenix, AZ five weeks before his sixty-fourth birthday while putting finishing touches on the local Bonsai Society's display. (Toyotoshi had been raised on the south side of the Japanese island of Shikoku, and had learned a few things about bonsai while watching both an older brother and grandfather. Working for a family in Seattle to be near his lumberman father, the fourteen year old boy was called Paul when his employer couldn't pronounce his given name. He later moved to Southern California where he grew various agricultural crops, actively promoted traditional Japanese culture, and met and married his wife, Edna Tani. They spent WWII in relocation camps in Arkansas and Arizona where they taught Japanese to both the young and adults and cared for the elderly. After the War, the couple and their daughter moved back to L.A., where Paul briefly farmed and tried his hand at landscaping. Relocating to Phoenix, they joined the Japanese community here and, having found his niche in landscaping, in the early 1950s Paul opened the Toyo ("Oriental") nursery at his house. Teaching bonsai to various students informally at his nursery, including a young landscaper named Leroy Fujii, Paul read about a rising teacher in California named John Naka. Invited, John came over and gave a workshop, and Paul and he became friends. Some of Paul's students insisted on establishing a formal club in Phoenix after John's visit. A club was officially founded in the fall of 1962 by twelve members and John was invited back annually to teach. Paul and club members, likewise, travelled each year to see John and his students at the California Bonsai Society conventions in the spring, and to discuss the art with regular attendees from back east such as E. Felton Jones and George F. Hull. For many years Paul also went over to L.A. to attend meetings of a group which preserved Japanese folk songs. In the spring of 1970, the lease had run out on Toyo Nursery and Paul was planning on relocating, after the Phoenix Bonsai Society show.) [The club's annual booklet would be first published as a tribute to Paul that Fall, and the following April saw a well-designed Japanese Memorial Garden established at the Desert Botanical Garden where the club met. When the club relocated its meetings to the Valley Garden Center in 1973, a smaller but more practical-in-the-desert Memorial Garden for Paul would be established there.] (Designing Dwarfs in the Desert by Robert J. Baran, Phoenix: Pyramid Dancer Publications, 1997, pp. 9-10, 12-13, 15-22, 27, 34, 37-40, 45, 49) SEE ALSO: Aug 19, Nov 1, Nov 15, Nov 21 1971 -- Fourteen enthusiasts established the Potomac Bonsai Association at an initial meeting held in the auditorium of the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. James R. Newton was editor of the association's Newsletter, which was published for its members in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and northern Virginia. (Bonsai Journal, ABS, Summer 1971, p. 34) |
||||
| 5 |
|
||||
| 6 |
1958 -- The Fresno Bee
published a story about Melvin Durao,
titled "Art of Bonsai is Antidote for Strain." Six years earlier
the 30 year old had moved across the Pacific Ocean from Honolulu, HA to
inland California. Durao started making rounds of local
nurseries. An "old Japanese fellow" told him a major secret of
bonsai: go to a nursery and ask to see the junk pile, the twisted,
gnarled specimens off somewhere in a forgotten corner. Durao
began making acqauintances with a loose-knit group of plant lovers,
gardeners and people who were learning bonsai. A handful of them
met informally, and these small gatherings eventually led to a
something which became the Bonsai Club of Fresno. The Club's
first mention was in this article. At the time Durao had a
collection of 55 trees. [Soon after, he would leave the club
seeing an influx of nursery owners and continuing to prefer the
quieter, less formal gatherings that preceded the club's
founding. He would continue to give demonstrations in Valley
towns, exhibit parts of his collection every year at the Fresno County
Fair, and eventually judge the fair's bonsai exhibit. Meanwhile,
there were about 30 members in the club and they were on sound
footing. Early in the 1960s, the Bonsai Club of Fresno would take the
new name of Fresno Bonsai Society. It would be one of two
organizations in the town, the other being Akatsuki, which consisted
primarily of Japanese-Americans.]
(Wasserman, Jim "FBS History,"
http://www.gsbf-bonsai.org/fresnobonsai/bonsai/fresnobonsai/fresno_bonsai_society1.htm
) SEE ALSO: Mar Also.
1989 -- With "World Peace Through Bonsai" as its theme, the four day long World Bonsai Convention opened in Omiya, Japan and the World Bonsai Friendship Federation was inaugurated and commenced corporate existence. A commemorative postage stamp was issued by Japan. ("World Bonsai Friendship Federation Update" by Ted. T. Tsukiyama, Bonsai Magazine, BCI, Nov/Dec 1989, pg. 10) SEE ALSO: Jan 23, Jan 29, Feb 3, Feb 16, Mar 1, Mar 27, Mar 31, Apr 3, Apr 18, May 6, May 29, Jun 16, Jul 20, Aug 20, Aug 22, Sep 22, Oct 1, Oct 4, Dec 9. 1993 -- The National Bonsai Collection was officially opened at the Birmington Botanical Gardens, U.K. by Japanese Consul-General Mr. Ryaichiro Yamazaki. (The few bonsai societies in Great Britain established in the 1960's and 70's had increased significantly in numbers, with the growing interest in bonsai resulting in the setting up of the Federation of British Bonsai Societies which, in turn, helped establish this, the National Bonsai Collection in 1991.) ("The National Collection," http://www.nationalbonsaicollection.org ) |
||||
| 7 |
|
||||
| 8 | 2005 -- Renowned Bangalore bonsai master, S. "Bonsai" Srinivas today launched a collection of branded bonsais, "Signature Bonsai." Srinivas created his first bonsai in 1960 after several years of experimentation. His family is said to have opposed his ideas and he is believed to have had no income from his bonsais for some eight years. Today, Bonsai Srinivas is a household name and a US-based private equity firm called The Gabriel Management Group (TGMG) recently acquired the business with the idea of taking it global. Each "Signature Bonsai" has his signature on the ceramic container that supports the miniature tree. The branded Bonsais will come also with an authenticity card, which contains tips on maintenance and nurturing Bonsai. Under the tie-up TGMG will market the Signature Bonsais in India and the US. Signature Bonsai is a collection of one to five-year-old plants of some 50-60 different species. The collection consists of two varieties: Standard collection, plants that can be in the same container for over 15 years and cost Rs 500; Starter collection, plants costing Rs 300 and need to be shifted to other containers in three years. Srinivas said that it is proposed to add fruit trees also to the collection of Signature Bonsais in the future. ("Potted plant maker ties up with US firm," The Hindu Business Line, April 8, 2005, http://www.blonnet.com/blnus/07081506.htm ; Sujit John "A yummy way to win business," Times of India, May 26, 2004, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/700179.cms ) SEE ALSO: Aug 9. | ||||
| 9 |
1993 -- The Internet newsgroup rec.arts.bonsai was first posted by Mike Bartolone.
(general e-mail dated 23 May 1996 from Hud Nordin announcing that the 25,000th
article had been posted the day before.) SEE ALSO: Jan 26, Aug 3
1998 -- Barely six months after the 3rd World Bonsai Convention, Mr. Lee Chul-ho, the president of the Korean Bonsai Association, died from a heart attack. His death dealt a serious blow to the bonsai society in Korea. The group had hosted the WBFF Convention. In spite of an insufficient preparation period, Mr. Lee actively publicized Korea's first worldwide bonsai convention. Its success was achieved by the people in the Korean bonsai world, and they should be praised for their devotion to development and friendship. At the opening ceremony, Mr. Lee, the secretary of the Dept. of Forestry, gave his remarks to the 700 participants from 20 countries. Mr. Lee did his own demonstration at the convention, which also spotlighted 220 typical Korean bonsai on display. An exhibition on the history of bonsai in Korea was also enjoyed by enthusiasts from around the world. ("Success of the 3rd World Bonsai Convention," Asia-Pacific Region, World Bonsai Friendship Federation, http://www.bonsai-wbff.org/rasia.shtml, accessed 05/31/04.) 2007 -- Dr. Gunther Lind died after severe illness. (He had been a professor of physics education at the University of Kiel in Germany. His main fields of research were the history of physics teaching in Germany and empirical research on expertise, that is, comparing physics "experts" and "novices" according to cognitive aspects of learning and problem solving.) (The International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) is an international physics competition for secondary school students. The first such competition was organised by Prof. Czeslaw Scislowski in Warsaw, Poland in 1967. Since that time the International Physics Olympiads have been organised, with few exceptions, in a different country every year. The first IPhO organised by a non-socialist country was the XIII IPhO that took place in Malente, Federal Republic of Germany, in 1982. It was due to very efficient work done by Dr. Lind. Then, for the first time, the participants solved, under agreement of the International Board, two experimental problems in place of one, previously set. In 2001, the IPhO International Board accepted a new system of awarding the prizes. The new system, designed by Cyril Isenberg and Dr. Lind was based on relative number of contestants for each type of award, instead of the score boundaries defined by percentage of the best contestant's score. Dr. Lind wrote about the IPhO in Physikalische Olympiade-Aufgaben (Aulis Verlag Deubner & Co., Koeln; 1986). He also wrote the chapter "Chemistry in Physics Textbooks, 1780-1820" for Communicating Chemistry Textbooks and Their Audiences, 1789-1939, edited by Anders Lundgren & Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent in 1999.) (Dr. Lind turned to bonsai seriously only after retiring and had started a website on history and philosophy of bonsai within the German www.bonsai-fachforum.de. His main interest was in the stylistic aspects of bonsai. It took a very competent bonsai and art connoisseur to disclose a field of knowledge that is so largely unknown in the west.) [During the Meetings of the International Board during the XXXVIII International Physics Olympiad in Isfahan (Iran) July 13 - 22, 2007 (with 69 countries in attendance), the President of the IPhO would inform the International Board that Prof. Gunter Lind (Germany) and Dr. Hans-Uno Bengtsson (Sweden), had passed away during the past year. The International Board would commemorate the two with a Minute of Silence.] (Notes at the end of Dr. Lind's article "Art and Kimura"; Gorzkowski, Waldemar "International Physics Oympiads (IPhO): Their History, Structure and Future," http://ipho2010.hfd.hr/tekst.php?id=8 ; "Asian Physics Olympiad," https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Asian_Physics_Olympiad ; RJB corresponded with Dr. Lind Feb through June 2006 when the latter contacted me about the Gothaer Penjing Album (Canton, c.1800) and other portrayals. Per his last personal e-mail to me 05 Feb 2007, Dr. Lind stated that "In the last months I have serious difficulties with my health (stomach-cancer).") 2007 -- South Florida's reknowned bonsai pioneer and watercolorist, Joe Samuels, died at Baptist Hospital in Kendall, Florida after suffering a severe stroke. He was 87. He is considered the "father" of Ficus nerifolia as a bonsai specimen. (Jim Wilkins took up interest in bonsai with Garland Faulkner in 1956. In 1957 Jim started his Jaboticaba seedling from Fairchild Tropical Garden and the following year began to work with Joe Samuels. Jim was a paraplegic and Joe did the physical work on the trees. Jim had a number of Willow leaf figs and Joe acquired cuttings he grew in Fantastic Gardens. Jim passed away in 1969; Garland Faulker would still be alive at the begining of 2011, 93 yrs. in Coral Gables.) 
Joe Samuels and Kay Komai, 07/05/02,
BCI Convention in Orlando, FL.
(Photo courtesy of Alan Walker, 05/11/07) (Please see this Tribute page, http://artofbonsai.org/galleries/samuels.php; post by Dustin Mann, 01 Jan, 2011, http://ibonsaiclub.forumotion.com/t5169-jim-smith-s-dura-stone-nursery#52384) |
||||
| 10 | 1970 -- From this day through the 12th, the American Bonsai Society (ABS) Symposium was held in Dallas, TX. Speaker John Naka, from California and making his national debut, was well-received. [So well, in fact, that he was invited to the next year's event in July in Norfolk, VA. A photo-article "Magic With Naka" in the Spring 1970 issue of the Bonsai Journal (pg. 10) preserved the step-by-step transformation of a nursery-grown juniper; the Fall 1971 issue had both a cover photograph and illustrated story of "The Forest That Grew in Norfolk" (pp. 46-47). Eleven large nursery-grown junipers were transformed in the latter demonstration] ("Apologia to Our Readers," Bonsai Journal, ABS, Winter 1972, pg. 74) |
