BONSAI  BOOK  OF  DAYS

What Happened On This Date in "Recent" Bonsai History?
 
 

APRIL



Days 1 - 10
Days 11 - 19

21
22 1957 -- Arthur Joura was born in New York City.  [He would have an educational background in fine art, studying at the School of Visual Arts and the Art Student's League in New York City.  As a landscape-maintenance tech for the North Carolina Arboretum, Joura would be running a backhoe and building hoop houses in the garden's support area when, in 1992, the Arboretum received a donation of a large number of bonsai and containers from George and Cora Staples of Butner, NC.  Joura had no experience with bonsai, but he would sense an opportunity.  Upon acceptance of this initial donation, he would be assigned responsibility for the care and development of the bonsai collection and an attendant program to support it.  He would start his bonsai education in 1993 at The National Bonsai and Penjing Museum in Washington, DC under the tutelage of Museum Curator Robert "Bonsai Bob" Drechsler.  Joura would learn the traditional forms and the various techniques.  He would go to Japan to study the art.  In 1995 Joura would continue his studies with personal instruction from Japanese American bonsai master Yuji Yoshimura, also known as "The Father of American Bonsai."  Later that same year, Joura would begin teaching bonsai at the NC Arboretum conducting educational classes and workshops as well as providing bonsai lectures and demonstrations across the country.  Other donations to the bonsai collection would follow as longtime enthusiasts in the region recognized the value of the Arboretum's involvement, and contributed prized specimens from their personal collections.  Sustained public support would be a key ingredient in the success of this dynamic bonsai assemblage which Joura, the curator, would build into one of that institution's strongest components.  Additionally, Joura would introduce to bonsai culture over 50 species native to western North Carolina and create several tray landscapes depicting well-known regional sites.  Perhaps of even greater significance, the model for the Arboretum's bonsai plantings as Joura styled them would not be the bonsai depicted in books and magazines, but rather the example of nature as represented by the wild trees of the forests and mountain tops of the Blue Ridge region.  Joura would feel that this was a return to the roots of bonsai as an artistic expression, not of a certain culture, but of an individual's experience of the natural world around them.]

Arthur Joura, asheville.com community news

(Personal e-mail to RJB from Arthur Joura, 24 Feb 2010; "Learn About Southern Appalachian Bonsai at the Asheville Art Museum May 8," asheville.com community news http://www.asheville.com/news/bonsai0408.html; "Center for Craft, Creativity and Design in Hendersonville, NC, Presents Tea Time Talk with Arthur Joura on Aug. 3, 2004," July 2004, Carolina Arts, http://www.carolinaarts.com/704ctrcccd.html; Bare, David  "Planting Ideas: Curator wants to show people the diversity of bonsai plants," 2 Oct 2009, Winston-Salem Journal, http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2009/oct/02/curator-wants-to-show-people-the-diversity-of-bons/)    SEE ALSO:  Apr 1, Oct 19

1986 -- The 1st Exhibition of the Korean Bonsai Association (founded Jan. 1985) began and would run through the 17th of May.  [Subsequent annual large-scale potted plant exhibitions for growers from all over the country would be called "ceremonies."]  (KBA web site, http://www.koreabonsai.com/en/frame.html)
23 1952 -- Thirty-one year old Yuji Yoshimura, assisted by German agricultural diplomat Alfred Koehn, began the first bonsai course for foreigners in Tokyo at his Kofu-en nursery.  [It was an instant success and within three years over 600 students -- mostly foreign dignitaries, military personnel and businessmen and their wives -- would be taught the six-lesson course in classical bonsai art.]
     A tropical plant expert, Koehn lived and worked in Japan for several years in the early 1930s.  He studied Japanese flower arrangement in Kyoto for four years before moving to Peking in 1935 to study Chinese arts and culture.  While living in Peking during the Japanese invasion (1937-45) he established his "Ra Shi" kennel for Shih-tzu dogs.  (In 1948 he was the only breeder of those dogs in the capital.)  Koehn left China to return to Japan in 1951 to open courses the following year in the cultivation of bonsai in collaboration with Yuji Yoshimura.  His Notes on Bonsai (1953), with hand-tied wraps, two full color plates and four pages of black and white plates with multiple images, was an early work in English on bonsai.
     Koehn's other publications included The Way of Japanese Flower Arrangement (1937), Japanese Tray Landscapes (1937), Mountains and rivers: woodblock prints from paintings by contemporary Chinese artists (1939), Embroidered Wishes (1943), Confucius, His Life and Work (1944), Kindesehrfurcht in China (1943, then the following year in English as Filial Devotion in China and in French as Piete Filiale en Chine), Fragrance from a Chinese Garden (1944, with Wang Hsiang-chan), Royal Favorites (1948), Window flowers: Symbolical silhouettes for the Chinese New Year (1948), Japanese classical flower arrangement (1951), Bonkei: Japanese Tray Landscapes (1952), "Harbingers of Happiness: The Door Gods of China" (in the Monumenta nipponica) (1954), and Japanese floral arts: Flower arrangements, tray landscapes, gardens (1955) -- among others.
Alfred Koehn and Yoshimura, 1952, International Bonsai, 1998/No. 1, pg. 33
"Alfred Koehn, next to Mr. Yoshimura on his left, is explaining rock planting techniques to
Mr. Yoshimura's students in his course in 1952." (Photo by Yuji Yoshimura)
(International Bonsai, 1998/No. 1, pg. 33)

("Yuji Yoshimura, A Memorial Tribute To A Bonsai Master & Pioneer" by William N. Valavanis, International Bonsai, IBA, 1998/No. 1, pg. 32; "Alfred Koehn," http://tiny.cc/70l6l; "Alfred Koehn," http://tiny.cc/i5l1j; http://www.pem.org/aux/pdf/library/Herbertoffen.pdf; http://tiny.cc/i0x6s; "A Brief History of the Shih-tzu," http://www.bakalo.com/history.htm; "Shih Tzu - The Last Shih Tzu To Leave Peking," http://www.articlealley.com/article_13784_54.html; Yuji Yoshimura's collaborator is not to be confused with the German doctor of the same name who lived 1911-1984)   SEE ALSO:  Jan 12, Feb 27, Jul 17, Nov 2, Dec 24

1998 -- After a year in quarantine, seven magnificent bonsai masterpieces from Japan were unveiled at a gala ceremony in the U.S. National Arboretum's National Bonsai and Penjing Museum.  Funds for the donation were underwritten by the Nippon Bonsai Association (Japan) and the National Bonsai Foundation (U.S.).  The oldest of the seven was a 250 year-old needle juniper ( Juniperus rigida ) in training for thirty years and donated by the Governor of the Saitama Prefecture.  Two days following this ceremony two other additions were made to the Museum: a beautiful California live oak bonsai and a self-portrait, both created by John Naka.  The painting was done at the request of the NBF and the Arboretum so that it could be hung in the museum as a lasting reminder of John's many, many contributions to bonsai.   ("Arbor Friends," newsletter of the Friends of the National Arboretum, Summer 1998, pg. 1)

2000 -- William "Bill" E. Southworth died.  (Born on April 30, 1924 in Fulton, NY, he had read of the collection of Ming trees at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in a 1939 [sic] issue of Life magazine.  When he was stationed as a Marine in China and later in Japan in 1946 he was first exposed to bonsai.  After retiring from engineering (after retiring from the Marines), he finally began studying bonsai under Dick Whidman, John Naka, Harry Hirao, and Ernie Kuo.  Eventually he taught at Cypress College and later began teaching from home.  He helped the Vietnamese community form their own bonsai club.  He loved organizing bonsai exhibits and shows for the various clubs and organizations and had many a tale to tell of the successes and pitfalls of each one.  Equally as interesting were his recollections of his years spent in the maze of politics in the bonsai community.  Bill was a most ardent supporter of anyone who wanted to try his/her hand and luck at training and raising these beautiful, and at times exasperating, miniature living art forms.)  ("In Memory of William 'Bill' E. Southworth," http://www.prepgraphics.com/kofu/Sale10/southworth.html, accessed July 6, 2001)

24
25 1977 -- Mas Kurosumi died of a heart attack at age 53.  (Mas was the first importer of bonsai pots into the U.S. to try to understand the needs and tastes of bonsai growers.  Other importers had been bringing in the same type of pots for twenty years and were not about to change.  Mas would listen to what the retailers were saying and, as a result, the bonsai watering nozzle came into existence.  He was a salesman for the Toyo Trading Co. for more than ten years before going into business with another salesman.  But having suffered his second heart attack in five years, he dissolved the partnership because of his health.  In 1972, however, Mas restarted in the import business on his own under the name of Sanyo Imports.  It was at the 1974 joint BCI/ABS Convention in Pasadena, CA that he first attracted attention with his variety of different containers.  Appearing at both the BCI Conventions in Miami Beach (1975) and Washington, D.C. (1976), his contacts and friends in the world multiplied.)    (Komai, Khan  "In Memoriam," Bonsai Magazine, BCI, Vol. XVI, No. 6, July/August 1977, pg. 162.)

1995 -- Arch Hawkins, editor of the American Bonsai Society's Bonsai Journal since the summer of 1992, died.  (A founding member of the bonsai clubs in Dallas (1965), Austin (1966 but short-lived; reborn in 1972), and Houston (1971), he was named an outstanding bonsai artist by the National Bonsai Foundation in 1987.  He was a member of both ABS and Bonsai Clubs International and wrote articles for both organizations' publications.)

Archie Hawkins, ABS Bonsai Journal, Fall 1974, pg. 59 Archie Hawkins, ABS Bonsai Journal, Winter 1994, pg. 131
"Archie Hawkin's boxwood, collected from an old estate..."
(Bonsai Journal, ABS, Fall 1974, pg. 59)

 		"Archie Hawkins, Editor"
(Bonsai Journal, ABS, Winter 1994, pg. 131)

(Cody, J.R. (Bill)  "Arch R. Hawkins," Bonsai Journal, ABS, Summer 1995, pg. 52)   SEE ALSO:  Jun 15, Jul 2

2010 -- Author and teacher Jerry Stowell died about a month and a half shy of his 83rd birthday at Hunterdon Care Center, Raritown Township, NJ.  ("Jerry Stowell," posting by bonsaistud, 2 May 2010, http://ibonsaiclub.forumotion.com/announcements-f5/jerry-stowell-t2925.htm)    SEE ALSO:  Jun 9
26
27 2001 -- The final 6 winning pots of the First North American Bonsai Pot Competition were announced on this day at the opening of the Asian Arts Festival celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum.  Sponsored by the National Bonsai Foundation in association with the Takagi Bonsai Museum of Tokyo, the competition had two categories: modern and traditional.  Jim Barrett took first prize in the former and Sara Rayner in the latter.  [Their wares, along with those of the second and third prize winners in both categories, would be on display at the Museum through July 29.]   ("Winners of the First North American Bonsai Pot Competition, http://www.bonsai-nbf.org/nbf/potcomp2001/potterywinners.htm.)  SEE ALSO:  Jan 4, Mar 28.
28
29 1994 -- Beginning today and running through June 5th, the Bonsai Societies of Florida's First Exhibit of Bonsai occurred at the Walt Disney World's EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) near Orlando, Florida.  The bonsai exhibit coincided with the six week Flower and Garden Festival.  (That Spring, a meeting at the WDW Horticulture office to plan for the first annual Festival was attended by Mrs. Mary Jane McSwain, the Garden Editor for the Daytona Beach News-Journal newspaper.  She contacted BSF president Tom Zane and proposed that the BSF arrange for the loan of bonsai.  Tom called a planning meeting at Jim Smith's nursery in Vero Beach.  A partnership contract was negotiated between BSF and WDW for the loan of 16 large (30 inches or taller) show-quality bonsai.  Frank Harris of the Central Florida Bonsai Club acted as the liaison between BSF and WDW to coordinate the setting up and monitoring of the annual exhibit (a post he has continued to serve.)
        [This cooperative venture would take place every year since.  Annually, a request would go out to the BSF membership to submit photographs of bonsai which they would like to have considered for inclusion in the exhibit.  BSF and WDW would then make the final selection.  The trees and their owners generally would arrive at WDW the day before the exhibit is to be mounted.  Along with a highly professional staff of gardeners and laborers, they would  meet at the Japan pavilion and place each tree securely on its display stand.  Bonsai are displayed at the torii along the shore of the World Showcase Lagoon and at the "Meadow" behind the Pagoda, as well as on the porch of one of the restaurants.  During the Flower and Garden Festival the WDW staff would water the trees twice a day and perform periodic inspections to insure that no tree is in stress or is being attacked by insects or fungus. Several times a week one or more members of the Central Florida Bonsai Club would also check on the condition of the bonsai.  The result is a win-win situation for everyone, including all of those park visitors.]   ("BSF Exhibit of Bonsai at EPCOT" by Thomas L. Zane, http://www.bonsai-bsf.com/epcot_process.htm ; personal e-mail from Tom Zane to RJB, May 30, 2002)  SEE ALSO: Sep 9, Sep 15
30 1998 -- Asteroid 1998 HE43 was discovered by the Spacewatch Project at Kitt Peak Observatory, Arizona.  This minor planet, the 12515th one identified, would be given the name "Suiseki" (lit. "water stone").    (Schmadel, Lutz D.  Dictionary of Minor Planet Names (Springer, 2003, fifth edition), pg. 784.)   SEE ALSO: Dec 14


Also this month,

1890 -- Fusaji ("Frank") B. Nagata was born in Japan.  [At age 16 he would come to the U.S., never having seen a bonsai in Japan.  In the 1920s long-time gardener Frank and a friend, Morihei Furuya, would hear about one of the only people in the Los Angeles area who knew how to make bonsai, Sam (Tameichi) Doi.  They would go to see the little trees and be so fascinated that they would persuade Doi to start teaching them the art form.  Then would come the great war and the relocation of all Japanese on the West Coast to camps in the interior.  No personal possessions could be taken that could not be carried.  Frank would have an American friend who'd let him plant his bonsai in his yard, with the promise that he would care for them until Frank could reclaim them.  Obviously, although his bonsai-uneducated friend had good intentions, the trees would revert to their natural state and outgrew their bonsai status.  The three of them -- Nagata, Furuya, and Doi -- would happen to be assigned to the same relocation camp in April 1942 -- Amache, near the town of Granada in eastern Colorado.  Amache would be the smallest camp with only an 8,000 person capacity.  While there, the three would manage to put on a makeshift bonsai exhibit for their fellow internees.  As everything would be makeshift, including the trees, Frank would contact his American friend and have some of his trees and pots sent to Colorado for the occasion.  After the war the three men and their families would return to Los Angeles.
     [Now, Mrs. Ai Okumura would also be a student of Doi.  When John Naka would hear of Doi in a local barber shop, the young man would search out the teacher.  (Doi would return to Japan in 1948, the following year.)  Joseph Yamashiro and his wife would meet the Nakas in Colorado during the war -- they were all living outside the military boundaries of the internment requirement -- and would just happen to move next to them in California.  The five would become close, spending all their time talking about and working with bonsai.  In November of 1950, Mssrs. Nagata, Furuya, and Naka, along with Okumura and Yamashiro, would decide to show their trees at the San Gabriel Valley Fall Flower and Garden Show at the Fannie E. Morrison Horticulture Center in Pasadena.  When they would arrive they'd be informed that individuals could not display unless they were sponsored by a club.  Without a moment's hesitation, the quick-thinking Frank Nagata would speak up and say they were a club.  And what was the name of the club?  Again, without hesitation or benefit of conference: The Southern California Bonsai Club.  They would now be allowed to enter their trees, which would win a trophy and a blue ribbon at the Show the next day.  To celebrate the clubs' establishment, a demonstration would be given by the group's youngest member, John.  (Within two years, he would be teaching, first his immediate friends, and then others.)
     [Frank would begin corresponding with masters in Japan and would become the first distributor of bonsai materials, information, and tools from Japan.  In 1954, Frank would open his bonsai nursery on Jefferson Avenue in West Los Angeles, the Alpine Baiko-En (Fragrance of Ume Blossom Garden), the first dedicated exclusively to bonsai.  The same year he would start teaching classes every week without charge to his students. One of Frank's recommendations would be to read the new book (1951) by someone who would become a long-standing friend, Japanese author and publisher Norio Kobayashi's Bonsai, Miniature Potted Trees.  Over the years Frank would continue to feel that this was one of the best books ever written on the subject and believed that it would be greatly appreciated and enjoyed by those who were searching for the "heart of the matter."  Frank would say his classes were quite popular because he never charged anything.  (Anyone knowing Frank would agree that this was true to his character, for he would be one of the most generous persons alive.  Years later, on his birthday, when the members of his own club, The Baiko-en Kenkyukai, would assemble to pay him homage, he would give everyone a present.  Frank would be proud that some of his very first students were still with him, such as Joe Loch, Margaret Guinney, and Earl Donovan.  Donovan would later relate the following story:

     "One day, on asking [Nagata] about the raft style, Frank took me to the private part of his bonsai nursery on Jefferson.  In a cement tray, which was the war time substitute for clay bonsai pots, was a cryptomeria, an important Japanese lumber producer.  The trunk was mostly buried in the soil and the branches formed the straight, sky seeking trees of the forest.  I had never seen such a forest.
     "'How much is it?'
     "'I thought you wanted to see the tree,' Mr. Nagata said.
     "I can still hear the sound of hurt in his voice. And I am still learning that lesson."

     [In 1957 Frank would start to import Japanese trees.  His first love would be Satsuki azaleas, and he imported several beautiful specimens.  Also in the imports would be Cotoneasters, Zelkovas, Shimpaku, and Pomegranates.  Now, Khan Komai, heir to the Rafu Shimpu, the leading bilingual Japanese-American daily newspaper in L.A., would have been seeing Kay Nagata, Frank's adopted daughter.  The two would marry and Khan would study under his famous father-in-law, spending considerable time in nurseries after WWII, chauffeuring Frank in the latter's search for bonsai material.  As time went on, Komai would acquire an eye that could judge good bonsai work, and he'd be frequently critical of what he saw.  As a Father's Day present in 1958, Komai's wife Kay would give him two pots and two trees.  "You've been awfully critical of others lately," she'd say.  "Let's see what you can do."  He would answer the challenge by opening his own nursery and teaching the art to his customers.
     [In April 1958, the Southern California Bonsai Society, hoping to make itself a state-wide organization, would be renamed The California Bonsai Society.  John would be its president for thirty-two years, except for 1959 and 1960 when co-founder Morihei Furuya would helm the club.  Frank would supervise the annual show in 1960, "Early Spring Bonsai."  By this time the annual show would be recognized as the largest such exhibit in the United States.  Earl Donovan would chair the 1961 show themed "Bonsai -- A Living Art."
     [Frank and his trees would figure prominently in Woodward Radcliffe's 1961 Bonsai booklet, with Nagata and Tsunji Yamashiro noted as "Technical Credit."  A California juniper styled by him would be on the cover of ABS Bonsai Journal, 1968, Vol. 2, No. 2, sepia photograph courtesy of Mr. Naka.
     [The only time Frank would be late to a bonsai meeting at the Baiko-en Kenkyukai would be when the Los Angeles Dodgers were playing.
     [Every year since about 1970, Frank's old students, the Caucasians that he taught at his nursery, and some of his new devotees, would sponsor a show in January at the Los Angeles County Arboretum.  The title of the show would be "Winter Silhouettes," an idea originally introduced by Khan.  This show would offer bonsai enthusiasts a chance to see bare deciduous as well as early blooming Quince, Ume, and some early blooming azaleas.  After Frank's death in 1980, the show would be continued as a memorial to the Dean of Southern California bonsaimen.]

Frank Nagata, Woodward Radcliffe Bonsai booklet 1961, pg. 24
"Frank Nagata who has grown Bonsai for 40 years has dwarfed trees that are 100, 200 and 300 years old...
Here he prunes roots and branches and manipulates a Japanese maple into Bonsai lines."
(Woodward Radcliffe Bonsai booklet, Jersey City, NJ: T.F.H. Books; 1961, pg. 24)


John Naka and Frank Nagata, International Bonsai Digest Presents Bonsai Gems, pg. 89
"A respected and much beloved pioneer of bonsai, Frank Nagata, is presented by Mr. Naka.
Mr. Nagata, a co-founder of CBS, has taught bonsai for over twenty five years."
(International Bonsai Digest Presents Bonsai Gems, Fall 1974, pg. 89)


(Young, Dorothy S. "History of Bonsai West," International Bonsai Digest Presents Bonsai Gems, Fall 1974, pp. 93-94, Donovan, Earl "The Cost Factor," Bonsai in California, 1975, Vol. 9, pg. 43; Loch, Joe "Frank Nagata...His Wonderful World of Bonsai," Bonsai Magazine, BCI, Vol. IX, April 1970, pg. 6; Naka, John Yoshio Bonsai Techniques (Santa Monica, CA: published for the Bonsai Institute of California by Dennis-Landman; 1973, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1987, 1989, 1991. Tenth printing), pg. 257; Bonsai in California, No. 1 (1967), pg. 1; International Bonsai, IBC, 1986/No. 2, pg. 12; International Bonsai Digest Presents Bonsai Gems, Fall 1974, edited by Juyne M. Tayson, M.D., Earl H. Donovan, Associate Editor, pg. 90 with two b&w photos of Frank, and pg. 41 mentions that Donovan was the current president of Baikoen Kenkyukai; Bonsai Magazine, BCI, July/August 1983, pg. 205; Maine, Michael L. "Khan & Kay Komai," Garden Ideas and Outdoor Living, Spring 1989, pg. 60; Land, Dorothy "Celebrating 35 Years of Progress," Bonsai Magazine, BCI, Vol. XXXII, No. 4, July/August 1993, pg. 28; Bonsai Journal, ABS, Winter 1990, pg. 17; Place, Dorothy M. "Winter Silhouettes Bonsai Exhibition," Golden Statements, GSBF, Vol. XXXII, No. 2, March/April 2009, pp. 15-16.)   SEE ALSO: Jan 7, Apr 1, Jun 19, Jul 4, Sep 9, Sep Also

1948 -- Kunio Kobayashi was born.  [He would grow up in a family that was involved in the potted plant business, providing cyclamen and other plants for market and wholesale, and had attended a gardening high school in eastern Tokyo, which has traditionally been a horticultural area serving the capital city.  One winter morning Kobayashi would take the day off from work and go visit the Daimaru Museum.  There he would have a revelation when he saw his first true bonsai on display at the Sakafu Ten, the Japanese Professional Bonsai exhibition, near Tokyo Station.  He would then start working as a bonsai artist in 1976 when he was 28.  At the time there would be a boom in interest in bonsai which he would be able to tap into, developing thousands of cuttings that would sell very quickly.  The money he'd make would then be invested in much older trees.  In 1983 he would take the first prize himself at Sakufu Ten.  In 1999 he would have won the grand prize, the Prime Minister's Award, an unprecedented three times.  And in October of the following year he would beat his own record with a fourth award.  He would be a celebrated artist in Japan and throughout the world.  In 2002 he would open the Shunka-en Museum in Eastern Tokyo's Edogawa City with "the ambition to spread Japanese culture, especially bonsai, in a new way to the rest of the world."  Designed in a very Japanese style, the museum would have sixteen individual rooms of tatami mat floors and bonsai displayed in tokonoma.  Three tea-ceremony rooms would have hearths and look out over the gravel garden and bonsai creations.  Apprentices would train there, and over the years thousands of strolling visitors would gain a greater understanding and wonder for a cultural heritage that would become synonymous with Japan.]   ("Mr. Kunio Kobayashi Collection," http://www.j-bonsai.com/koba_colle.html; Shizuka, Saeki  "Bonsai Universe," Culture Feature, Look Japan, January 2001, accessed 09/28/01, http://www.lookjapan.com/LBsc/01JanCul.htm; Ryall, Julian  "Bonsai Branching Out," http://www3.gov-online.go.jp/pdf/hlj_ar/vol_0021e/28-30.pdf )

1985 -- Although already in the hands of subscribers, the Autumn issue of Bonsai Down Under current this month contained an article written by then-editor David Rich.  (This quarterly Australian magazine ran from 1977 through 1989.)  The article purportedly told the tale of the world's oldest living bonsai which was found recently by archaeologists, dating back at least 3,600 years.  The potted pine was found in Central China, standing vigil over the tombs of the fourth emperor of the Shang dynasty and his queen.  The 41 cm (16.14") high tree stood in a solid gold pot, which was itself set on a solid gold pedestal some 75 cm (29.5") high.  A fine dripper arrangement had been built allowing a single drop of water to fall onto the tree every single minute.  The article went on to say that all the soil had washed away leaving only the drainage layer of diamonds! The tree was chalk white, having lost all its chlorophyll, the dense roots were as white as the pine needles.  One season after its discovery the tree apparently died, having survived without repotting for milleniums.
        [The story would be reprinted in Bonsai Penjing, Jardin botanique de Montréal by Dorothy-Ann Donovan and Marc Lord with David Easterbrook (Montréal: Editions Marcel Broquet, Quebec; 1985) and in Bonsai Magazine, BCI, Vol. XXIV, No. 6 (Nov/Dec 1985), pg. 17, which would keep the wondrous tale alive and spread.  What wouldn't be widely reprinted was this from a subsequent article by its original author, David Rich:  "When in a madly inspirational instant I conceived, created and committed to paper the story of the now (in)famous entombed bonsai, I never expected it would be so widely believed.  For a mere five -- well... maybe ten, minutes work the results far exceeded my wildest expectations of mass credulity."  The tale's history would be brought up again eleven years later in an early Internet bonsai forum.]
        (And we reprint it here as a tribute to a multi-faceted HOAX which sheds a little light on what we do.  There are questions about who was the fourth Shang emperor, see here and here.  While gold jewelry and other artefacts was known from the time and place, bronze was held in much higher esteem and would have been used in a royal burial.  Even if the tree could possibly have survived so long genetically, the bronze container reacting to the dripping water could easily have poisoned the plant within the first few centuries.  Physiologically speaking, the oldest known pines are bristlecones, which are not found in China.  The oldest native Chinese pine apparently is one of the Guest Welcoming pines, over 500 years old, on Mt. Tai.  We haven't yet been able to determine the ages of the more famous pines on Huangshan.  And even the slowest growing tree with over, say, two hundred years' of growth per inch would have had to increase its trunk width by at least 18 inches (45 cm), severely throwing the composition out of proportion.  Repotting of the most ancient bonsai pines is usually done at least once a decade, so we really can't be surprised by a tree which missed over 300 repottings...  The incredible survival of an evergreen without exposure to sunlight for the necessary process of photosynthesis cannot be explained away without recourse to equally improbable arrangements such as an unblocked opening to direct sunlight exposure over that length of time, employment of mirrors, or even some unknown source of bioluminescence which was of the minimum wavelengths to keep the tree alive.  The total loss of cholorophyll in a still-living tree would definitely call into play some form of magic -- yes, we are aware of the irony of that with this website's secondary name.  Plus, as pines have symbiotic relationships with mycorrhiza in their roots, necessary substinence for the fungi would be required.  THAT was, according to the story, long ago washed away by the continuous drip of water, a roughly estimated 1.893 billion drops (approx. 25K gallons or just under 95K liters at 20 drops per milliliter) of distilled water -- so as not to clog the "fine dripper arrangement" (made of nonreacting gold?) which operated uninterrupted for over three and a half millenium in a land frequented by earthquakes and duststorms.  (It can be debated whether or not the ancient Shang peoples had a time measurement system which included the unit of a minute.)  Where did that much water go to after being used by the tree?  Even if there was some form of recycling system, the tomb would have been unbearably damp with various forms of mold and mildew flourishing and degrading artefacts.  The golden pot itself -- not a bit eroded away by the "Chinese water torture"? -- with a diamond drainage layer is a definite indication of later Chinese or contemporary Western-civilization values.  Bronze with a jade layer would have been truer to the Chinese setting.  Finally, there is the subtle tie-in to the "sins of technology" which interrupted and destroyed the perfect balance of the Yin and Yang energies through the ages which kept the tree alive until modern archeologists disturbed "the Force."  The Yin-Yang concept wouldn't be articulated for at least twelve hundred years after this tomb was set-up, although it might be argued that the idea could have been put into such wonder-filled practice before then...  If only such compositions were even able to have been made that long, long ago.  All-in-all, however, a tale of a truly magical miniature landscape!)  (Internet postings to listserve@home.ease.lsoft.com (hard copies kept by RJB) by Ron Andersen, 28 Apr 1996 referencing David J. Cushing and 13 May 1996 referencing Jim Lewis; John Scarpelli, 30 Apr 1996 referencing James Lewis; Deadwood Pottery, 12 May 1996; Andy Walsh, 12 May 1996; and Scott Rae, 13 May 1996 referencing Vance Hanna; thanks to son Andrew for some feedback and additional input)

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