BONSAI  BOOK  OF  DAYS

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

JULY


 1 1938 -- Jorge Lucero was born in Cordoba, Argentina.  [He would move to London, England in 1963.  During the mid-1960s, his interest in bonsai would start to develop after visiting the Chelsea Flower Show there.  In the late 60's following visits to New York, California and Florida, he would establish his residence in Florida.  His experience would grow after apprenticeships and tutoring under such masters as John Y. Naka, Toshio Saburomaro, and many others.  Since 1973 Jorge would be conducting lectures and workshops throughout the southeastern United Sates, and since 1975 throughout Central and South America, including Mexico, Costa Rica, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela.  He would be instrumental in several of these countries with the formation of their first bonsai societies.  A professional lecturer, teacher and instructor for more than 20 years, both in English and Spanish, Jorge's vast experience would include working with both cold climate and tropical plants in all the styles of bonsai, penjing, saikei and suiseki.  Also included would be the subjects of basic oriental garden design and oriental philosophies and religions in their relationship to bonsai.  In 1992 he would be invited to conduct bonsai courses at Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina; then at Emory University, in Georgia; Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; and at the Atlanta College of Art in Atlanta, Georgia.  In 1993 he would be invited to work at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit (Trappist Monks, Cistercian Order) helping in the conduction of their large bonsai business, started several years early by Father Paul Bourne, a long time friend.  Since then, Jorge would reside in Atlanta.  Other activities would include being editor for several years of the "Florida Bonsai" magazine; producer and editor of the "All About Bonsai" newsletter; and author of many articles published in different publications throughout the Americas.  He would be the recipient of several awards and citations including "George F. Hull Memorial Bonsai Photography Award" (Washington, DC, 1976) and "Bonsai Clubs International Outstanding Writer, Photographer and Artist Award” (New York City, 1979).  After a sabbatical of a few years from bonsai public life, Jorge would resume some activities in a limited way beginning in 2006.]  (Biography and personal e-mails from Jorge Lucero to RJB Sept 12 and 13, 2006)  SEE ALSO: May 2, Jul 10, Sep 22
 2 1994 -- George Gray of Dallas, TX died at age sixty-one.  He "first became interested in bonsai in the 1940's, when Ming tree lamps and table ornaments were all the rage; I didn't know the real thing existed until years later when I was wondering around the streets of Souel, Korea, on R & R.  It was there I saw a beautiful little [zelkova] forest of trees in a shallow, oval tray.  Time passed.  I came home, moved into my first apartment, started playing with plants, and never thought there were other 'nuts' like myself.  When I moved to Dallas, I gave my collection to friends and started again.  I had not been making any real progress for three or four years, when I happened to take one of my potted azaleas to work.  There, the program chairman of a local garden club saw my plant -- and thus started my involvement with bonsai." For thirty-five years George was very active in the bonsai community.  He and long-time friend Arch Hawkins founded the Bonsai Society of Dallas in 1965, and later they travelled to Austin to assist in the formation of that club.  Goerge served two terms as Director of the American Bonsai Society, and contributed several articles to the ABS Journal.  He was co-chairman, with Arch Hawkins, of the 1995 Symposium to be held in Dallas, the second at that venue.  [Ironically, Arch also would die shortly before the Symposium was held.]   ("In Memory of George Gray, Dallas, TX" by Arch Hawkins, Journal, ABS, Vol. 28, No. 3, Fall 1994, pg. 96; "Meet the Directors," Journal, ABS, Vol. 5, No. 2, Summer 1971, pg. 36 )  SEE ALSO: Apr 10, Apr 25
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 4 1910 -- Gloria Frances Stewart was born in Santa Monica, California.  [She would change her name to Gloria Stuart when she was a stage and film actress chiefly in the 1930s and 40s.  Her second husband would be Arthur Sheekman, a writer of several films, most notably assisting with the Marx Brothers' early movies.  Gloria would first pay attention to bonsai one evening at dinner at Joe Cohn's, an old friend from Arthur's MGM days.  She would be fascinated by Joe's centerpiece -- a classic bonsai in an antique Chinese pot.  Joe would acknowledge that it was one of his own and he had been studying for many years with Frank Nagata, the dean of bonsai masters in Southern California.  She would begin to study bonsai under Frank Nagata, every Sunday afternoon at Nagata-san's home downtown, in the early 1970's with about seven other students, ages twenty to eighty.  This would be in his small lath house, with their little trees in front of them, watching Nagata trim and wire his tree.  Gloria would take up bonsai with a passion partly because she had no place, no earth in which to garden at the time.  Her mother's family had been dirt farmers, and Gloria hungered for a garden.  (She had had some flower gardening experience during the previous decades at other houses.)  With bonsai, at least she could have growing things around her on the apartment's patio.  Soon she would have over one hundred miniature trees set along the patio wall.  A long-time friend, Susan Marx, wife of Harpo and a stage actress herself in the 1920s and on film in the 1930s, would study bonsai with Gloria.  Once one of Gloria's grandchildren would ask that she bring her bonsai and potting tools for a show-and-tell at his elementary school in Malibu.  She would demonstrate how these little giants were trained and shaped -- that the point was one (that is, you/a tree) can survive with grace and beauty and strength no matter what Nature throws at you.  The children were completely simpatico -- it was so rewarding!  A dozen years later, that same grandchild, Benjamin, and Gloria would find themselves strolling through the royal forest surrounding the palace at Fontainebleau, near Paris.  On their walk, they filled their pockets with French black oak acorns.  When she got home, she would plant them as three bonsai forests.  Seventeen years later, the tallest trees would be eighteen inches high, their leaves, instead of being a man's palm size, were two to three inches wide.  "And, true to my bonsai master's dictum, in their arrangement, there is space for the bords to fly through."  Gloria's bonsai -- and the friends that come with it -- among them John and Alice Naka, Frank and Margaret Goya, Kay Komai, Joseph Locke -- would long be an abiding comfort and joy.  Gloria would keep busy traveling, designing and printing artist's books, painting, giving parties, and exhibiting her bonsai.  One show in particular would be the California Bonsai Society's 1997 show, where she'd have a Sawara cypress.  According to the Bonsai Exhibit info sheet, her tree was number 4 (of 20): "Ms. Stuart is a retired motion picture actress, and her bonsai reminds you of a petite Shirley Temple, one of the many famous actors that Ms. Stuart co-starred [with]."  This would be about the time publicity for the film Titanic began.  She would go on to receive the Oscar® for Best Supporting Actress playing Old Rose.  During the banquet at the 5th WBFF World Bonsai Convention in Washington, D.C. in late May of 2005, she would introduce a video that celebrated John Naka’s contribution to the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum and the world of bonsai.]  (Stuart, Gloria with Sylvia Thompson  Gloria Stuart, I just kept hoping (Boston: Little, Brown and Company; 1999), pp. 191-192, 217, 231, 278; "The Marx Brothers Biography: Adolph Arthur 'Harpo' Marx," http://home.earthlink.net/~morewebspace6/harpo.htm ; "World Bonsai Convention," NBF Bulletin, Summer 2005, Vol. XVI, No. 1, http://www.bonsai-nbf.org/nbf/vol16no1.pdf )

2000 -- The Hawai'i Bonsai Cultural Center in Waimanalo opened to coincide with the BCI Convention held in Honolulu from July 5 through 8.  Founders Walter and Ann Liew have been collecting and cultivating bonsai for almost 50 years.  In 1998 the couple moved to a 20-acre agricultural lot and developed the Center along with the adjacent Dragon Garden commercial bonsai nursery, which holds thousands of plants, pots and rocks.  More than 400 specimen dwarf potted trees are on display at the Center.  A retired furniture store owner, Walter grew up in northern China and moved to Taiwan when he was 13.  It was there that he became interested in penjing and began collecting.  Through his years in Hawaii as a businessman and teacher since 1976, Liew expanded his collection, both by growing bonsai in his Wai'alae Iki yard, and later by purchasing plants and other penjing pieces on many trips back to Taiwan and China. ("HomeStyle: Museum of mini trees" by Mike Leidemann, http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/2000/Jul/06/islandlife1.html ; "Hawaii Bonsai Culture Center" by Pamela Farris, Honolulu Weekly, May 16, 2001 reprinted on http://bonsaiculturecenter.com/BonsaiArticle.htm ; personal e-mail to RJB from Walter Liew, March 19, 2002)
 5 1929 -- Koji Amakawa was born in Japan.  [In May 1944 he would start to work at the Japan National Railroads, but in Dec. 1961 he would change occupations to bonsai.  He would then establish the Tosho-en Nursery at Ryuzan in the Chiba prefecture.  Many masterpiece bonsai would be trained by him using precise cultivation and shaping techniques.  His own, unique style would be impressed on the design of powerful coniferous bonsai.  Playing an active part in organizing important local bonsai exhibitions, he would contribute much to the development of the Japanese bonsai world.  He would also hold a Buddhist order priesthood at the Shingonshu Toyamaha Fudohin.]  ("IBC '77 Chicago, Crossroads of the World Convention News," Bonsai, BCI, September 1976, Vol. XV, No. 7, pg.210; "Demonstrators at World Bonsai Convention April in Omiya, Japan," Bonsai, BCI, Jan./Feb. 1989, Vol. XXVIII, No. 1, pg. 27)

1995 -- Takeo Fukuda, the third president of the Nippon Bonsai Association, died at age 90.  He was also the first president of the World Bonsai Friendship Federation.  ("Takeo Fukuda," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeo_Fukuda )   SEE ALSO: Jan 14, Oct 20.

2002 -- Masakuni Kawasumi, president of Masakuni Co., Ltd., died at age 78.  Born in 1923 in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, where he was educated, he was introduced to bonsai early in life because of the work of his tool-making father, Masakuni I (1880-1950).  The younger later spent three years in the U.S. growing and experimenting with and writing about local species of trees.  In 1975 he said "America bonsai is still in its infant stages and you have not had the experience of long years of cultivating bonsai as we in Japan.  This, I feel, is a great advantage, for just as a pet takes on the disposition of its owner, so bonsai in the United States will reflect the personality of American enthusiasts.  When the American personality becomes expressed in bonsai, it will be the turn of the American bonsai to go abroad with the ambition of being recognized for both its reputation and its beauty.  This, I am sure, will take place in the near future."   The Masakuni Co.'s bonsai tools have long been held in high regard for their quality.  ("The Bonsai World Loses a Leader," in "News and Events," http://www.bonsaienthusiast.com/newsevents.htm, accessed Oct. 3, 2002;  Bonsai with American Trees by Kawasumi, dust jacket notes; Hanford Bonsai Society, http://www.gsbf-bonsai.org/hanfordbonsaisociety/News/2000/Nws00_02.htm, accessed July 4, 2004)
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 7 2000 -- Hong Kong Baptist University opened the Man Lung Garden at the main Li Promenade of the Shaw Campus to promote the Chinese heritage of penjing and enrich the lives of all who view it.  The garden is initially displaying 20 pot plants donated by Dr. Wu Yee-sun, founder of Wing Lung Bank.  The Wu Yee-sun Charitable Foundation has made a donation of HK$2 million for the promotion of penjing through the existence of the garden.  Dr. Wu is widely regarded as the Sage of Penjing for his decades of in-depth expertise and reputation as the leader of the Lingnan School of Penjing.  The original Man Lung Garden was founded by Dr. Wu in 1967.  At that time, the garden was a place where penjing lovers and experts came to talk about and show their unique pot plants.  The public had the rare opportunity of seeing beautiful exhibitions of priceless miniature trees.  Unfortunately, in 1978 the first Man Lung Garden was forced to close down due to the expropriation by the government of Hong Kong of the land for a railway station. ("Penjing Garden opens on Baptist University campus," http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~ours/pr_99/pe070700.htm ; "About Man Lung Penjing," http://www.manlungpenjing.org/eng-about.html )    SEE ALSO:  Mar 16, Mar 27, May 2, May 11, Dec 14
 8 1936 - Son Harold was born to Taketo Sasaki, a Nisei Japanese coffee farmer in Kona, Hawaii.  [His early fascination with trees in containers would begin when his father pointed out a juniper planted at his birth.  Growing up on a coffee farm he would trim trees on his family's land.  At age 18, Harold would pick up a pamphlet, "Enjoy the Four Seasons Through Bonsai," and he would read it three times before sunset.   He would then "take the plunge" in 1955, committing himself to the art of bonsai, starting with tropical and ornamental plants.  Enjoying the four seasons would prove difficult in Hawaii, so Harold would move to the mainland, earning an associate's degree in forestry from a community college in northern California.  He would then move east to attend Colorado State University, but as he would have no affinity for organic chemistry, he would drop out of CSU, and settle with his wife, Marcia, in Wheat Ridge just west of Denver.  There they would raise two children, son Eric and daughter Lisa.  Harold would work briefly as a stockbroker in the Mile-High City.  Discovering that many native plants of the Rocky Mountains were good material for bonsai -- including Ponderosa pine and Englemann spruce -- Harold would join the Rocky Mountain Bonsai Society, and later would serve as its President in the late 1970s.  He would become a Director of the American Bonsai Society during the 1980s.  In 1985, Harold would expand his hobby to a full-time business, Colorado Bonsai Limited, selling trees to enthusiasts across the country.  (Marcia would be a registered nurse who does holistic medicine and would help her husband with his business.)  Harold would then regularly conduct classes and lectures in several Colorado locations, in addition to lectures and presentations from coast to coast.  Conventions he would demonstrate at would include the joint ABS-BCI Washington D.C. 1986; the BCI Minneapolis/St. Paul 1987, Memphis 1992, and Toronto 1997; and the ABS Denver 1997 and Milwaukee 2002.  This nationally recognized expert teacher would become famous for his "photosynthesis talk" in which he would emphasize the importance of light for the health and growth of bonsai indoors and outdoors.  Sasaki would also teach bonsai classes at the Denver Botanic Gardens and at his own greenhouses.  He would direct the growth of trees using wires and the Sasaki Bonsai Training Ladder, a simple device he patented in 1997.  (Harold's father would still be alive and gardening at age 101 in Spring 2008.)] (Conversation with RJB by Harold at Pikes Peak Bonsai Society meeting, Apr. 12, 2008; "Harold Sasaki," http://www.cincinnatibonsai.com/harold_sasaki.htm; Hovendick, Briana  "Branching out - Bonsai gardener sees life through the trees," MileHighNews.com, Apr. 12, 2007, http://www.jeffconews.com/Articles-i-2007-04-12-190682.112112-Branching_out.html.)
 9 1976 -- The official dedication ceremony took place of the Japanese Collection of the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum at the U. S. National Arboretum in Washington, D.C.  Japan's gift to the U.S. Bicentennial consisted of fifty-three bonsai and six treasured viewing stones. ("How the Japanese Collection was Assembled," http://www.bonsai-nbf.org/japan/assembly.htm ; see also pp. 41-44 of Dr. John Creech's The Bonsai Saga, How the Bicentennial Collection Came to America )   SEE ALSO:  Feb 19, Mar 20, Jul 21, Aug 6
10  1995 -- Father Paul Bourne, O.C.O. died at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia, where he had spent the past 47 years of his life.   Born May 2, 1908 in Seattle, Washington, he had been exposed during his youth to the art of bonsai through a Japanese neighbor and on his subsequent trips to China and Japan in the 1930s.  Before the priesthood he studied art from ballet dancing with Martha Graham to painting and sculpture at the Sorbonne in Paris.  His Masters Degree from Yale was in Art and Architecture.  At the monastery in 1963, Brother Paul built a glass and wood-framed greenhouse to house orchids, which he grew and displayed as a hobby.  He also began puttering around making bonsai, although he had no formal training.  Bonsai was pursued as a personal way of solitude, meditation and prayer.  The first "sale" of a tree happened one day while Brother Paul was away from the greenhouse.  Upon his return, Brother Pius, who ran the small monastic gift shop, confessed that he sold one of the "little plants" to an insistent customer.  It was Brother Paul's favorite and Brother Pius had charged all of five dollars for it.  From this unlikely start the bonsai business began.  Soon enough, pilgrims from near and far began asking to buy his "little trees."   Brother Paul began a pioneering journey that strongly influenced the growth of bonsai throughout the Southeastern U.S. and elsewhere.  He transcended the canons of traditional bonsai, referring to his style as "American Bonsai."  One of the characteristics that set him apart was his use of a rock, placed advantageously with almost every tree he worked on.  The result was always the same: a very natural and pleasing setting.  This particular trait created an encounter with Frank Okamura, from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, during a workshop in Atlanta.  Observing a bonsai done by Brother Paul, complete with the usual rock, and referring to the definition of bonsai, Frank said, "Bonsai say no rock, you must remove rock!"  To which one would imagine Brother Paul probably answered," My bonsai say YES rock!," as indeed the rock did stay in place.  ("Eulogy To A Bonsai Friend" by Jorge Lucero, Bonsai, BCI, September/October 1995, Vol. XXXIV, No. 5, pg. 51; Bonsai by the Monastery website: http://www.bonsaimonk.com/frpaul.html   )
11  1981 -- "An American Fantasy” was the title of the 5-1/2 foot long Bonkei (tray landscape) created by Mr. Yuji Yoshimura at the International Bonsai Convention in Atlanta today.  He was assisted in the demonstration by long-time students Marion Gyllenswan and Phyllis P. Wishnick.  The entire 1-1/2 hour program was coordinated by Edwin C. Symmes, Jr.  Created by Mr. Yoshimura as a tribute to the country that has supported his efforts in teaching and creating bonsai for over two decades, “An American Fantasy” was comprised of three parts: 1) “The Rugged Mountains,” 2) “The Verdant HilIs,” and 3) The Welcoming Shore.”  The landscape depicted a cross section of the American landscape.  Starting on the left with the high mountain waterfall as a source -- and planted with dwarf juniper, Sawara cypress, Kingsville dwarf box and azalea -- the water then runs through a rocky mountain gorge.  As it enters the second tray, it flows around a hill -- planted with dwarf juniper, serissa, andromeda, cryptomeria, and Trident maple -- and into a pond before continuing out through the flatter landscape.  The water continues past a hardwood area with Trident maple in the third tray, into a swampy area with bald cypress and then into the sea.  Every aspect of the program was carefully chosen to heighten the dramatic effect.  The lighting, music, and drama was effective creating a very dramatic demonstration of the art involved in this creation.  Typical of Yoshimura, months were spent preparing the plant material and the entire tray landscape was actually assembled the week before for Symmes to photograph.  After the slides were developed the composition was taken apart and replanted in to training containers only to be recreated at the convention.  Then immediately following the convention presentation, which was done in the dark with lights only on the plants and no photography permitted to spoil the mood, a complete set of slides was available to memorialize the event.  (Symmes, Jr. , Edwin C. "Bonkei - Saikei And Penjing," Florida Bonsai, Vol. XXXV, No. 3, Issue 143, Aug. 2005, pp. 22/15; Valavanis, William N. "Yuji Yoshimura, A Memorial Tribute To A Bonsai Master & Pioneer," International Bonsai, IBA, 1998/No. 1, pp. 38-39.)

2001 -- Ted T. Tsukiyama was formally presented with the Japanese Imperial Award of the Order of the Rising Sun with Silver Rays at a ceremony at the Japanese Consulate in Honolulu, Hawaii.  The BCI Bonsai Magazine Contributing Editor and author, and a Past President of the Hawaii Bonsai Association, was acknowledged for his contribution to international friendships through bonsai and his life-long service to his community. (Bonsai News Department, Bonsai, BCI, Vol.40, No. 5, September/October 2001, pg. 39)  SEE ALSO: Dec 13
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13 1901 -- Kanichiro Yashiroda was born.  [He would be a student gardener at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London from May 1925 to May 1926, and then a Brooklyn Botanic Garden correspondent since WWII.  His home and Acclimation Garden (Junkaen) would be located on Shoda Island, Kagawa Prefecture, just north of Shikoku Island and in Japan's Inland Sea.  There he would have "the largest number of genera and species of mature palm trees grown out of doors in Japan."  During WWII, he would be "obliged and forced to destroy most of them... to cut down and clear away many rare trees and some of the commoner kind."  (It is not clear how the destruction of his collection could have aided the Japanese war effort.)  Yashiroda would submit an article to Gardener’s Chronicle in 1930 regarding the Japanese technique of growing chrysanthemums in the ‘cascade’ style.  He would also contribute an article on "Notes on Varieties of Camellia Sasanqua" to the 1950 issue of The American Camellia Yearbook.  In 1952 Dr. George Avery, Jr. of the BBG would invite Yashiroda to be guest editor of a special bonsai edition of the BBG's educational quarterly.  Bonsai -- Dwarf Potted Trees would be published as the Autumn 1953 issue of Plants & Gardens and become an overnight success.  Then in the spring of 1955 the BBG would invite him to come, on a short-term fellowship named in honor of C. Stuart Gager, to teach a bonsai class at the Garden.  (This teacher would also be given the Gager fellowship in 1963.)  A May 23 Life magazine pictorial would have nine photos on Yashiroda and his classes at the BBG.  The following year he would have ninety-nine students.  Handbook on Bonsai: Special Techniques would be a companion BBG volume also edited by Yashiroda and released in 1956.  More than 150 students in all would register for his classes and take home the promising young trees they learned to train and grow.  And he would also receive the BBG's Forsythia Award this year in recognition of his world-wide plant interests and his interpretation of the horticulture of his native Japan to the Western World.  His Bonsai, Japanese Miniature Trees -- Their Style, Culture and Training would be published in 1960.  He would die in the early 1980s.]  (Per personal e-mail from Richard Kernick of Kew Gardens to RJB on 10 Nov 2006, and, by permission, excerpts from Kernick's unpublished article "KANICHIRO (KAN) YASHIRODA: KEW STUDENT, BONSAI SPECIALIST, PALM COLLECTOR," e-mailed to RJB 17 Jan 2007; biographical info on inside front cover of BBG's Handbook on Dwarfed Potted Trees; "Contents of 1950 The American Camellia Handbook," http://camellia-ics.org/_ics/journal/usa/us50.htm.)   SEE ALSO: Aug 3

1972 -- The first joint assembly of combined memberships of the Bonsai Clubs International and American Bonsai Society was opened in Kansas City, MO.  Running through July 16, the event's official theme was "Learning Together."   The guest artists were Yuji Yoshimura and Toshio Kawamoto.  ("Kawamoto Accepts Invitation to Bonsai Congress '72," Journal, ABS, Vol. 5, No. 4, Winter 1972, pg. 63;  "Letter From Our President," Bonsai, BCI, Vol. XI, No. 7, September 1972, pg. 5)
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16  1994 -- Kazuo Fujii, curator of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's C.V. Starr Bonsai Museum, died.  A native of Japan, he had joined the BBG staff in 1979 to succeed retiring bonsaimaster Frank Okamura.  ( "In Memorium," Plants & Gardens, Vol. 50, No. 3, 1994 )
17  1976 -- A special two day bonsai exhibition honoring twenty-five years of instruction by Yuji Yoshimura began today at the Yoshimura School of Bonsai.  The featured trees for this came from the Muriel R. Leeds Collection.  A Commemorative Album would be published the following year. (Yoshimura, Commemorative Album: The Muriel R. Leeds Collection ; Briarcliff Manor, NY; 1977, pg. 61)  SEE ALSO: Jan 12, Feb 27, Apr 23

1999 -- Mary Parker Case, 82, died at Hilton Head Medical Center and Clinics in South Carolina.  She was born in Scranton, Pa., and went on to graduate from the School of Fine Arts of Syracuse University.  Her graduate studies in ceramics were done at Ohio State University and she went on to teach ceramics at the University of Georgia in the early 1940s.  She lived in Africa, India and the Far East for many years until the mid-1960s when her family resided in Bedford Village, NY, then relocated to Houston, TX in the early 1970s.  She retired to Hilton Head Island in 1979.  During her lifetime Mary continued her extensive interest in the arts, continuing ceramics as well as painting, crafts, photography, sewing, needlework and gardening.  A founding member of both the American Bonsai Society in New York and the Hilton Head Miniaturists, she also taught ceramics at her home studio on Hilton Head.  (Personal e-mail to RJB from Roger S. Case, 25 July 2005)   SEE ALSO:  Nov "Also This Month" (at bottom of page)
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20  1944 -- Walter Pall was born and grew up in the mountains of Austria.  [After completing his education in the U.S. and Austria in economics, he would serve as director of several large companies in the electronics industry.  In 1978 he'd see a bonsai exhibit at a local garden center in Munich, Germany which would be  most intriguing: always keenly interested in arts and horticulture, he could see here how both interests could be combined, and yet this seemed so difficult, almost impossible.  He would then purchase his first bonsai, which would die a few weeks later.  In 1980 he would buy several again and never stop doing bonsai from then on.  In 1991 he would become an independent consultant near Munich in order to be able to dedicate more time to his trees.  Although he would have other interests and sources of income by then, he'd spend most of his time with and around bonsai.  Walter would become one of the most popular bonsai artists to perform on many international stages.  He would visit the vast majority of European countries and also South Africa, Canada and the United States -- in a seven year period Walter would give more than 100 performances in America, mostly on the East Coast.  His lectures would provide a basis of high quality bonsai work, add a substantial amount of explanation for the audience to clearly understand his development process, and also tell amusing anecdotes along the way.  He would often be called a walking encyclopedia on bonsai and he'd share his knowledge freely.  (In fact, for many years Walter would work on a lengthy and comprehensive encyclopedia about bonsai -- as yet unpublished.)  He would receive several dozen national and international awards for his beautiful, dramatic bonsai.  He would win the most prestigious Crespi Cup Award of Italy for his well-known Rocky Mountain Juniper, and would come in among the top six places every time he entered.  Walter would also win second and third places in the Gingko Cup Awards of the Belgium bonsai competition held every two years.  From 1993 to 1997 he'd be a member of the Board of Directors of the Bonsai Club of Germany, in 1996 be named a director of Bonsai Clubs International, and in 1997 be picked as vice president of the European Bonsai Association.  Walter would be one of the first Europeans to work with indigenous species, which he'd collect in his beloved Alpine mountains.  By the turn of the century he would own a collection of more than 500 quality trees in varying stages of development and keep a store reserve of about 1000 handmade pots to compliment the bonsai.  Besides his famous conifers he would also be well known for his beautiful deciduous trees.  The longer he would be involved with tree development, the more he would move away from traditional bonsai styling to his own concepts of design. 
On August 28, 2001 the first annual "Yearly Late Summer Meeting" would be held at his 11-1/2 year old Bonsai Atelier.  These would become THE meeting point of bonsai enthusiasts from all over Europe where one could watch new techniques, see one of the biggest collections of bonsai in Europe, THE  biggest collection of outstanding bonsai material, and have a lot of fun for two days.  He would also write and often provide photographs for more than 100 articles which would be published in Western bonsai magazines, and be a very active, vocal participant on the Internet in the bonsai scene.  He would be married to Hanna, with one son, and live near Munich, Germany in sight of the Alps where he grew up and still loves to ski. 
His philosophy would be stated as such: "I feel that it does not make much sense for you to see some European trying to show you what he thinks is Japanese bonsai.  So I want to present my own bonsai philosophy.  I start from the roots of what bonsai is all about.  What is a bonsai?  A bonsai is a small tree in a pot which touches my heart.  It touches my heart because it conveys to me the spirit of a big tree out in the wilderness.  To create a small tree that touches my heart and maybe someone else’s.  I have to go to the origin of that spirit.  This would be the real trees out in the countryside, mostly in the mountains.  Mind you, the origin is not the Japanese bonsai masterpieces.  Then I go back and try to put this spirit into this piece of material that I am working on.  While it is possible to do bonsai with all sorts of wooden shrubs, it helps a lot if the tree is a tree which comes from  my beloved mountains.  I try to give the feeling of the shapes of the trees that I saw and a feeling of the overall spirit of these trees.  Mind you I said, ‘feeling’ – I do not try to copy the shape exactly, but I try to get the 'feeling' of it.  Then I try to put this tree into a pot that compliments it well.  This may be a traditional imported one, but often it can be a different sort of container.  The result can be called naturalistic bonsai.  Some call it naïve art, some call it bad bonsai because it seems to be a step back from what we have learned so far from traditional instruction. 
"This notion is understandable because I dare to break some taboos.  I think that bonsai is no longer only a Japanese art form, but has become an international art form.  Bonsai is not about playing only with Asian trees, it is about playing with trees native to your surroundings.  Bonsai is not about trying to make a little tree look as much as possible like a Japanese masterpiece.  I have learned from John Naka that bonsai is trying to make a little tree look like a big tree and not to make it look like a bonsai. 
"To take a piece of material and form it into a bonsai is a type of abstraction.  The Japanese have developed a very refined way of abstracting.  We have learned a lot from them and still can learn a lot more from them.  But we are not forced to copy forever.  To copy is craft, to be creative and innovative is art.  There are many ways or at least nuances of how to abstract a piece of material into a bonsai.  Just think of the Chinese way which is often misunderstood as being inferior while it is just different.  The outcome of my attempts may not always please the observer, nor does it always please me.  But I attempt to go one step further than most and encourage all bonsai enthusiasts to give this some consideration.  I have discussed these notions with some Japanese masters and I was most encouraged about their positive response."]
(Personal e-mails with RJB Oct. 23 thru 27, 2002, which included bio by Jim Doyle, proprietor of Nature's Way Nursery in Harrisburg, PA, and WP personal philosophy as submitted to GSBF;  "About the author" in "The carpinus betulus as bonsai" by Walter Pall, Bonsai Today #70 (2000-6), pg. 14.)

1990 -- " Bonsai," a set of four postage stamps, was issued by the Republic of China (Taiwan).  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, Aug 20, Aug 22, Sep 22, Oct 1, Oct 4, Dec 9.

21 1973 -- Dorothy Young, President of the American Bonsai Society, and Beverly Oliver, President of Bonsai Clubs International, signed a resolution extending wholehearted support for the establishment of a National Bonsai Collection at the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C.  This was during the joint Bonsai Congress in Atlanta, Georgia.  There Dr. John Creech, the Third Director of the Arboretum, put forth the concept of a National Bonsai Center to house trees to be gifted to this country by the Japanese as part of the U.S. Bicentennial three years hence.  The concept had initially been discussed at the 1973 spring show of the Potomac Bonsai Association.  Its acceptance now by these two principal bonsai organizations -- and master Yuji Yoshimura, who was in attendance and who had expressed earlier his dream that the richest nation in the world should have a National Bonsai Collection -- helped persuade the Japanese people that America was earnest about participation in this gardening art. ( The Bonsai Saga by Dr. John Creech, pg.17)   SEE ALSO: Feb 19, Jul 9
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23 1982 -- The two-day "Art of Bonsai Exhibition" began at the Royal West of England Academy of Art in Bristol.  This exhibit was the first to be held in an art gallery in the United Kingdom.  The excellent facilities and lighting proved to be the perfect setting for the finest display yet sponsored by the Bristol Bonsai Society.  Visitors attended from across the country to view predominantly British trained trees.  Sixty percent of the bonsai were British, while forty percent were developed from imported stock.  Educational displays, including an audiovisual presentation, were popular with the general public.  ("The Art of Bonsai Exhibit6ion," International Bonsai, IBA, 1983/No. 1, pp. 24-25 with 8 b&w photos)
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26 2004 -- Jerome "Jerry" Meyer died.  Born on March 20, 1909, he would be a president of the Bonsai Society of Greater New York before founding the Yama Ki Bonsai Society in 1973.  He authored The Bonsai Book of Practical Facts in 1988.  ("Bonsai News & Notes," Bonsai, BCI, October/November/December 2004, pg. 5)   SEE ALSO: Jun 16.
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Also this month,

1949 -- John Kiktavi published his How to Grow and Cultivate Miniature Living Trees this month.  The 48-page 8-1/2"x11"-format booklet also made mention of "The International Living Miniature Ming Tree League, a national club, open free to all persons that are interested in growing Miniature Ming Trees and who have purchased this instruction book."  (His National Nursery Supply in Inglewood, California would place advertisements in various national periodicals over the next decade offering "Rare Tree Seeds for Cultivating Living Miniature (Ming) Trees."  Several enthusiasts would later admit that their entry into this hobby/art was due to them ordering and attempting to grow these seeds.  (No other info about John or his League has yet been discovered in our researchers.)]   (Kiktavi's book, title page, pg. 45, and Order Blank taped to inside front cover.)

1968 -- Nine bonsai growers attended an organizational meeting set up by John Robert Flynn and the Bonsai Society of Greater Kansas City was formed.  (The Kansas City bonsai movement started in the early 1960's with small groups gathering on patios for pruning and potting sessions.  Progress continued at a steady pace as the interest developed, but not without much effort by some individuals.  Flynn was instrumental in kindling the early enthusiasm, and Dr. John Philip Baumgardt used his influence as director of the Garden Center to include two classes for bonsai in the 1964 annual summer flower show.  Six exhibitors displayed two dozen trees in the lobby and drew interest from unexpected enthusiasts.
The bonsai growers, numbering about 20, staged their own show in 1965.  Bonsai and saikei were exhibited in the Fall of 1966, and repeated the following Spring.  The group brought George Fukuma from Denver in the Fall of 1967 to demonstrate and lecture.  A television appearance by Marian Gault, Herbert Brawner, and Flynn in October uncovered many new friends -- some had handsome collections and a strong interest in forming a bonsai society.)  [A letter would be sent to local enthusiasts and result in a charter membership during the Fall of 1968 of 45 members.  It would be resolved to limit the group's membership to 50 members.  Three years later the limit would be raised to 75.  The Kansas City club would unite "in brotherhood" with the Bonsai Societies of Denver in 1971, and the group would host the joint BCI-ABS Bonsai Congress '72 in Kansas City in July.]  (Brawner, Herb  "Kansas City Has Plans For You," Bonsai, BCI, Mar 1972, Vol. XI, No. 2, pg. 18.)

1992 -- Punjae Artpia, the world's largest bonsai park was opened on Cheju Island about 40 km northwest of Cheju City, Korea.  Some 2,000 trees of about 100 species are displayed outdoors and indoors on a 33,000 sq.m. site.  Mr. Bum Young Sung dedicated 30 years to the planning and construction of this private park which is opened to tourists. ( http://www.icpop-korea.org/second/chejutour.html )


 
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