BONSAI  BOOK  OF  DAYS

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

DECEMBER


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 4 1981 -- In order to promote the Chinese penjing art and bring together professionals, enlarge the team of amateurs, make spiritual contributions to the traditional art form and befriend other international sister associations so as to improve skills and exchange experiences, the China Flower and Penjing Association was formed.  [The association would be run by a management committee and an executive management committee.  Committee members with academic achievements would be recommended and elected by the other organizations to hold office.   The first management committee would be formed in 1990, with Professor Wang Ju Yuan working as chairman of the association.  A new management committee would be formed in 1995.  International activities would include articipation in or holding of the Asia Pacific Penjing and Suiseki Conventions and Exhibitions.  Other activities organized would be penjing study classes (three times), theoretical discourses on penjing (twice), and a symposium on penjing publications, as well as the regular organizing and experiencing of exchange parties, workshops, group studies and specific talks, etc.  There would be over 80 organizational members of this body spread over the nation by 2004.]   ("The Organization and Activity of Penjing in China," by  Prof. Su Xuehen, WBFF Director of China Region, World Bonsai Friendship Federation, http://www.bonsai-wbff.org/rchina.shtml, accessed 05/31/04.)

1981 -- The First Japan Grandview Bonsai Exhibition (Nippon Bonsai Taikan-ten) began today and would run until the 8th.  It was advertised as the largest indoor display in bonsai history.  [This would be another of the exhibits held for hobbyists although many of the better trees would have been styled and maintained by bonsai professionals.  Moved slightly to be held in late November, this largest late-season show would feature bonsai, satsuki azaleas, and suiseki.  The Nippon Bonsai Association, the Taikan-ten Organizing Committee, the City of Kyoto, and the local Kyoto Television and Newspaper companies would jointly sponsor this exhibit.  It would gain popularity and notice in part due to the widely publicized bonsai contest sponsored by Japan Airlines (JAL).  This would be a worldwide contest where individuals submit photographs of their best bonsai for judging by an expert panel.  The winners of this annual contest would be flown to Kyoto where the photographs of their prize-winning bonsai are displayed at the Taikan-ten exhibition.  The Taikan-ten, held in the Kansai region, Kyoto, would have a slightly different mix of trees than would the February Kokufu-ten, held in the Kanto region, Tokyo.]     ("The Second Grandview Bonsai Exhibition" by William N. Valavanis, International Bonsai, IBA, 1983/No. 1, pp. 12-13; "The Best Bonsai and Suiseki Exhibits in Japan" by Thomas S. Elias, http://members.iinet.net.au/%7Ejold/bonsai-in-asia/japanbonsaievents.html, originally in the May/June 2002 issue of Bonsai Clubs International's Bonsai Magazine.)
 5 1978 -- The Montreal Bonsai Society (La Société de Bonsaï de Montréal) was formed.  [Although initially having only a few members, the general public would become interested in the art because of a 1980 Floralies Internationales held in Montreal which included a presentation to the city of an important collection of penjing and bonsai from the Chinese and Japanese governments.  The society 's first public display would be made in the spring of 1982.  Development would quickly progress after that, and by its tenth anniversary it would host the international congress of  the American Bonsai Society's Congress, July 6-10, 1988.  In January 1991 it would be renamed the la Société de bonsaï et penjing de Montréal.  By the group's 25th anniversary it would have had over 2,000 members with 300 current active members, continuing to welcome bonsai masters from all over the world to come and teach.]   ("Bientôt 25 ans...," http://www.bonsaimontreal.com/societe/historique.asp ; Easterbrook, David "Montreal 1988," Journal, ABS, Vol. 21, No. 4, Winter 1987, pg. 9)
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 9 1989 -- Zeko Nakamura died.  Born Dec. 6, 1900, he had been a Zen Buddhist acolyte as a child, but changed his work and became a comic actor c.1920 when he and his friends established a comic troupe named "Casino Follies."  He became a comedian and supporting actor in movies and television, and a small bonsai (mame) expert.  Following the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and still a bachelor, he found life so dreary in a wide stretch of burned ruins that he followed a friend's advice and placed bonsai of maple and pine trees on the roof of his boarding house.  He lost some 500 pots during WWII by air raids and fire.  In the late 1960s he held a very successful special show of "bonsai and pots" in Tokyo with Mrs. Teruko Tsuji, one of the foremost ceramists in Japan.  (One result of this was an increase of women growing mame bonsai, formerly an exclusively male hobby.)  About this time he authored two books in Japanese on his 40-year experience in growing small bonsai.  Shufunotomo Co., Ltd. brought out an English translation in 1973 as Bonsai Miniatures Quick & Easy.  One of his first maples he bought back 45 years later and it was a happy reunion: "Each bonsai has its 'face' that I can recognize as easily as my 'child' which I brought up."  Articles by Nakamura were published in the U.S. in both of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden handbooks on bonsai.  A color movie was made featuring him working on his bonsai.  He enlisted the help of his entire family, including his 92-year-old mother, to water his mame when he was away on tour.  When he was in town, he returned to the house between performances to tend the trees.  Thirty-four members of the U.S. tour to Bonsai Expo '70 visited his home and collection that March.  His limited English proved no problem as "there were only my friends and I enjoying bonsai."  He kept between one and two thousand small bonsai in his garden of 200 sq meters.  At the time he was touring Japan as chairman of the All Japan Small-Bonsai Society.  He accepted an invitation to visit Australia around age 70 to be the patron (advisor) for their Mame Bonsai Association.  A small part of a group of 17 Americans on a bonsai study tour in November 1971 visited Nakamura.  Coincidentally, shortly after this Nakamura took ill and was confined to his bed during the first half of 1972, but then returned home from the hospital and was said to be recovering nicely.  He continued to receive visitors for years afterwards.   (Personal e-mail from Yukio Murata to RJB, Apr. 22, 2006; Journal, ABS, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 9, 15; Vol. 3, No. 3, pg. 16; Vol. 4, No. 1, pg. 16 has a short article and 3 b&w photos about bonsai and pot exhibit; Vol. 4, No. 3, pg. 17; "The Art of Bonsai" by Jean O'Connell, Science Digest, March 1970, pg. 37; "Mame Bonsai Societies," Bonsai, BCI, Vol. X, No. 6, July/August 1971, pg. 14, "free translation by T. Usami from a news paper article of a Tokyo Shinbun"; "A visit with Zeko Nakamura and his trees" by Donald M. Vining, Horticulture, July 1972, pp. 32-35; "Zeko Nakamura Is Ill," Bonsai, BCI, Vol. XI, No. 5, June 1972, pg. 7; "Mr. Zeko Nakamura Is Recuperating!," Vol. XI, No. 7, September 1972, pg. 11, with b&w photos by Dave Bartruff on pp. 9 and 11; See also movie credits from the 1930s-60s.  It is not known if any of his mame ever appeared with him.)

1990 -- The first four postage stamps and a souvenir sheet of the series "Bonsai" were issued by the Maldive Islands to commemorate Expo '90, International Garden and Greenery Exposition in Osaka, Japan.  [The balance would be issued on Jan. 29, 1991]  SEE ALSO: Jan 29, Feb 3, Feb 16, Mar 1, Mar 27, Mar 31, Apr 3, Apr 6, Apr 18, May 6, May 29, Jun 16, Jul 20, Aug 20, Aug 22, Sep 22, Oct 1, Oct 4.
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11  1963 -- A first organizational meeting of the Toronto Bonsai Society was held in the East Room of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre. Approximately 50 to 60 persons were present, a very small number of them having informally met since 1957.  [The group's first general meeting would be held the following February 3.]   ("A Brief History of the Toronto Bonsai Society," http://torontobonsai.org/Journal/Journal.2003/jun.2003/history.tbs.1.htm )
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13 1920 -- Ted Tsukiyama was born in Honolulu.  [He would serve in the 10th Army Air Force in the China-India-Burma Theatre during WWII.  In mid-1943 he would be one of 250 members of the 100th Infantry Batallion -- which was comprised of second-generation Japanese Americans -- to be picked for training by the Military Intelligence Service Language School. (The other 1,300 or so members of the 100th would soon be on their way to the Salermo, Italy beachhead.  By war's end the 100th would have compiled and contributed an incomparable record of 338 killed in action, 3 Presidential Unit Citations, 1 Congressional Medal of Honor, 24 Distinguished Service Crosses, 147 Silver Stars, 2,173 Bronze Stars, 30 Division Commendations, and 1,703 Purple Hearts.  The first Japanese American combat unit in U.S. history, only one generation removed from a nation that was fighting fantastically against this country, would be fighting just as fanatically for it.)   Meanwhile, Ted and the other 25 members of the Radio Intercept Section 6th AAF Radio Squadron would be charged with intercepting Japanese air force air-ground communications between fighter planes and the towers at six airfields between late 1944 and September 1945.  Sgt. Tsukiyama would go on after the war to be the noted historian for the 100th, which included the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and MIS.  He would additionally become the first Yale Law School graduate of Japanese ancestry.  Ted would serve as a mediator and arbitrator for more than 30 years and be known as the founder of Alternative Dispute Resolution in Hawaii.  He would be co-founder in 1970, secretary-treasurer and then president of the Hawaii Bonsai Association in Honolulu.  The group would receive its non-profit charter in 1972.   About three years later, through his close friendship with Haruo "Papa" Kaneshiro, Ted would become acquainted with Saburō Katō, and become a strong advocate for Katō-sensei's idealistic philosophy.  Ted would be co-founder and secretary of the North American Bonsai Federation, and beginning in 1989 be legal advisor and editor for the World Bonsai Friendship Federation.  He would play a prominent role in forming the National Bonsai Foundation in 1982 and be chief fund-raiser in 1990 for the Kaneshiro Conservatory at the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum at the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C.  Ted would also be a director and editorial committee member of Bonsai Clubs International, contributing several articles to Bonsai magazine.]   (conversation with RJB during the International Scholarly Symposium on Bonsai and Viewing Stones, May 18, 2002, Washington, D.C.; "Radio Intelligence in CBI" by Ted Tsukiyama, http://www.javadc.org/Tsukiyama%20on%20Radio%20Intel.htm ; "A Salute to 'The One Puka Puka" by Ted T. Tsukiyama, http://www.ohanamagazine.com/marapr2001/feature.html ; "Building a Career in Alternative Dispute Resolution," http://www.hsba.org/sections/hwl/newsletter/publish/May%202001/page2.html ; "Bonsai Hero" by Marybel Balendonck, NBF Bulletin, Vol. XII, No. 2, Winter 2001, pp. 1,7; "Fuku-Bonsai History," http://www.fukubonsai.com/pp3.html ; "'Bonsai No Kokoro' (The Spirit of Bonsai)," by Ted T. Tsukiyama, Bonsai, BCI, January/February 1985, pp. 11-14; personal e-mail correspondance between RJB and David Fukumoto July 4, 2001)   SEE ALSO: Jul 11, Apr 6, Sep 24
14 1979 -- A minor planet was discovered at the Purple Mountain Observatory at Nanking, China and was provisionally designated as 1979 XO .  [In 1998 this 3,570th known asteroid would be named in honor of the 3rd generation penjing master, Wuyeesun.]   ("Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets (3501)-(4000)," http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/NumberedMPs03501.html )   SEE ALSO: Mar 16, Mar 27, May 2, July 7
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16 1970 -- Cadwallader Coles Burns died in Winston-Salem, NC undergoing preliminary examination for possible open heart surgery.  During WWII, Cad was awarded four Bronze Stars, the Purple Heart, and the Air Medal, with three clusters.  In 1950 he contracted polio and would spend the last 20 years of his life in a wheelchair.  He liked to call it his wheelbarrow.  It was during the 1960s that Cad discovered bonsai.  He soon became a nationally known expert and pioneer in American bonsai.  He had a way of infusing this venerable Oriental art with his own distinctive brand of American inventiveness.  He added live waterfalls to rock plantings; found a handy way of making saikei containers from picture frames, peg board and acrylic paint; and forced rocks to stand how and where he wanted them by anchoring them in a container with a commercial product called "Bonsal."  He described these techniques in at least three articles in the ABS Journal and the end results were exhibited at two annual ABS symposiums.  He was a director of the American Bonsai Society, and a past president of both the Bonsai Society of the Carolinas and the North Carolina Paraplegic Society.  He loved bonsai and its challenge, and he loved to share his enormous reservoir of knowledge and enthusiasm.  He believed that a bonsai collection had great therapeutic value, and bonsai in the area was called "Brunsai -- an irascible spirit in a rolling container."  He was equally generous with his bonsai, often giving fine specimens to a friend or an unknown novice.  He was said to have developed and given away more bonsai in his last several years than most people will ever own.  At the time of his passing he had probably brought home more ribbons from bonsai shows than anyone in the Southeast.  He was vice-chairman of the ABS '71 Norfolk Symposium.  ("ABS News: Meet The Directors," Journal, ABS, Vol. 4, No. 2, Summer 1970, pg. 14; "A Memorial" by Dorothy S. Young, Journal, ABS, Vol. 5, No. 1, Spring 1971, pg. 17)  SEE ALSO: Nov 15
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24 1997 -- Second generation bonsai artist and master, Yuji Yoshimura, "the father of bonsai in the non-Oriental world," died in Boston, Massachusetts at age 76.  (Profile of an Artist" by William N. Valavanis, Journal, ABS, Spring 1998, pp. 8-9)   SEE ALSO: Jan 12, Feb 27, Apr 23, Jul 17

2003 -- Teacher Masaharu "Mas" Imazumi of Berkeley, California died at age 86.  He taught all over the country and all over the world.  At least five times he was demonstrator at Golden State Bonsai Federation conventions.  He contributed articles to Bonsai magazine and was the one of six persons thanked for advice and specimens photographed for the 1994 third edition of the book Sunset Bonsai.  Mas retired on June 1, 2002 due to declining health during the past couple of years.
       (Homei Iseyama, one of three early bonsai teachers in the San Francisco Bay area, was a teacher of Mas Imazumi.  "...[Iseyama] was an artist in many fields - students have come from Japan to study under him; his paintings and sculptures are models of perfection.  In Bonsai he specialized in maples, many of which graced his beautiful garden in Oakland.  While in the Topaz Lake Internment camp in Utah he made his sculpturing tools from discarded files, etc., to continue creating beauty even under those distressing conditions.  For years he taught Bonsai at the Fuji Bonsai Club in Berkeley and the Shikishima Club in Concord, California.  He shared his vast store of Bonsai knowledge with many of the clubs of Northern California, and was the bonsai judge for the California State Fair for many years.  The Bonsai Issue of the Journal of the California Horticultural Society, XXI #2 for April 1960 has a picture of his garden on the cover, and an article he wrote.  He was the teacher of many of the best Bonsai teachers in Northern California..."  Iseyama died c.1976.)    ("Mas Imazumi" by Boon Manakitivipart, Bonsai, Jan-March 2004, pg. 11; "Sad news" thread on bonsaiTALK.com, with pictures of Mas, http://forum.bonsaitalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5203, "Napa Valley Bonsai Club Newsletter," July 2002, http://www.napa-valley-bonsai.org/July%2002.pdf ; "In Tribute" submitted by Gil. Pitman, Bonsai, BCI, Vol. XV, No. 5, June 1976, pg. 158.)  SEE ALSO: Nov. 3, Nov 6.
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28 1999 -- A reception to honor Harry Hirao was hosted by Mr. James Folsom, Director of the Huntington Botanical Gardens in San Marino, CA.  Over 100 of Harry's friends were present to honor him on the opening evening of California Aiseki Kai's tenth annual Suiseki and Viewing Stone Exhibition.  Seven of Harry's very large black Eel River Viewing Stones had been donated to the Golden State Bonsai Federation Collection at the Huntington the previous summer.  Each was now displayed on a large marble-like pedestal (plinth) in the entranceway to the recently expanded bonsai display area.  Touching of the viewing stones is permitted.  ("A Tribute to Harry Hirao" by Bill Hutchinson, Bonsai Today, 2000-5, No. 69, pp. 56-57)   SEE ALSO: Jan 1, Mar 12, Oct 1, Nov 3
29 1960 -- Marc Noelanders was born in Eastern Belgium.  (He would be influenced by eastern mysticism that would drive him at an early age of 13 years to Karate.  He would train for several years up to the international level when his Master would want him to learn Bonsai to balance the ying and yang of his personality.  Marc would never look back.  He would stay for a long time in Japan, initially only watering, fertilizing and pruning trees in a standard program until he would be allowed to work on trees.  He would work under Japanese masters like Sensei Masahiko.  He would be recognized by many, including the late John Naka, for his comprehensive knowledge of the trees he works with, and for his ability to capture perfection and yet maintain the ruggedness of his subject.  Marc would teach throughout Europe and in Russia, India, Canada, and the United States.  He would demonstrate at conventions for the European Bonsai Association (1992, 1995, 1999), Bonsai Clubs International (1997), International Bonsai Arboretum (1997), and Golden State Bonsai Federation (1999).  He would take care of the gardens of the Queen of Belgium, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Al Gore, among others.  His book Bonsai Art would be published in 1998 with forewords by John Y. Naka and Paul Lesniewicz.  Marc would pass on his knowledge and skill to small groups of pupils during the weekends.)   (Balbir, Shyama "An Unforgettable Visit by Marc Noelanders," Indian Bonsai Association, 2007 Bulletin Board, pg. 9; "Marc Noelanders To Be In Houston," Houston Bonsai Society, Inc., August 2005 The Bonsai News of Houston, pg. 1 )
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31 1961 -- The Midori Bonsai Club of San Jose, CA was founded.  ("Who's Who in North American Bonsai," http://www.lost-oasis.com/bonsai/bonsai/wwnab.html )

Also this month,

1988 -- Richard "Dick" Shaner died unexpectedly at his new home in southeast Missouri at age 71.  Born in England, he had moved with his family to Hawthorne, CA when he was only three years old.  Until very recently, Southern California had been his home.  He and his wife Dixie had helped found both the Santa Anita Bonsai Society (1965) and the Golden State Bonsai Federation (1978).  Dick had been Executive Director of the Bonsai Clubs International, guiding and on hand at all of the conventions until about 1982.  He and Dixie had been co-editors of BCI Magazine from the fall of 1976 until the fall of 1982.  Dick's interests included bonsai, photography, stamp collecting, computers, and general gardening.  He had retired as an Engineer in Chip Design from Kim Lighting, and had moved to Missouri just this past fall.   ("Bonsai Loses Good Friend," Bonsai, BCI, Vol. XXVIII, No. 2, March/April 1989, pg. 33)  SEE ALSO: Jan 1, Feb 25


 
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