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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.
"Beverly Oliver, President of Bonsai Clubs International, reading a proclamation honoring the Hindses."
(
The Bonsai Saga
by Dr. John Creech, pg.17) SEE ALSO: Feb 19, Jul 9
(International Bonsai Digest Presents Bonsai Gems, Fall 1974, pg. 89) |
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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) SEE ALSO: Jan 4
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2010 -- Ruth Stafford-Jones died today at about age 89. Many who knew Ruth will remember a lady who
made a large contribution to the British bonsai scene at a time when few bonsai societies existed.
(She saw her first bonsai in 1959 in a Japanese hotel near Mount Fuji. "They had them in the garden.
I had always known bonsai existed, but when I saw them, I said, 'They're for me'." There was plenty of time
to indulge this new-found interest because, over the next quarter-century, she spent six weeks of every year in
Japan, accompanying her husband, Kenneth, who exported cloth for the fashion industry. Not long afterwards she
made plans to study there. She first studied under Isaburo Nishiyama in whose nursery all conversation had to
be in Japanese. Nishiyama-san was a very gifted careful and traditional grower. His trees were much
sought after by the top nurseries in Omiya to finish off before selling. Ruth later studied under Susumu Nakamura (b. 1932, Yokohama), she being one of the first westerners to study in Japan under him. At his Shonan School of Bonsai (est. 1976) she obtained a proficiency certificate -- the only non-Japanese to possess one at that time. Apparently when he taught at various organisations Nakamura-san took her along as "a teacher from England," which embarrassed her terribly as she felt she was neither a teacher nor fluent in Japanese. He wanted her to become a teacher so that she could pass on what she had learned. This was something that she was able to do in her own country without embarrassment. During her prolonged periods in Japan she made many bonsai connections and got to know the principal growers in Nagoya and Kyoto, as well as Omiya, and was thus able to bring a number of Japanese bonsai specialists to England where they gave lectures and demonstrations which did much to raise enthusiasm for the art in the UK. During those early years she acquired the bulk of her imported collection of interesting high-quality trees, many of them mature, and they all now bear the imprint of forty years of Ruth's care and devotion. She would buy a few more bonsai in Japan and have them sent back to London. "I would meet the tree at the airport and wait for it to clear quarantine," she said. Later, she started collecting seed in Japan. "If we went to visit a temple, everyone would be looking up, oohing and aahing -- and I would be looking down for seed." She was for many years a member of the Japan Society of London, part of which evolved into Bonsai Kai. In 1964 she joined the Bonsai Kai and was soon a committee member. She became a Royal Horticultural Society judge at the Chelsea Flower Show -- a duty she carried out for 27 years. She ran courses in bonsai at her home and gave talks. She showed her large collection of slides of top Japanese trees to clubs and societies throughout the country for many years. Throughout these years she generously lent trees for Chelsea and other national exhibitions and events. Her special affection for and extensive knowledge of maples was widely known. For a large part of her life, she lived with her husband in Surrey. It became apparent a decade ago that her collection had become so large that it was beginning to be a burden, so she decided she should find it a good home where people could still see it. Her trees were donated to the Kew Gardens in 2001. Her bequeathed collection were the first bonsai Kew had and those 50, some more than 200 years old, reside now with others in the Bonsai House there. Sometime after that she moved down to Cornwall to be close to her family, still caring for some bonsai. Following the establishment of the Association of British Bonsai Artists, Ruth was to become the first ever recipient of that organisation's "Most Prestigious Award," presented to her for her lifetime contribution to bonsai at the 4th ABBA Symposium on Sunday, 16th June, 2002. Those who were privileged to know Ruth will recognise a person very dedicated to bonsai and who engendered motivation and enthusiasm to many, particularly during the 1970's and 1980's when bonsai was emerging as an ever more popular hobby. The UK bonsai scene will be forever in her debt.)
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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 Magazine, BCI, October/November/December 2004, pg. 5) SEE ALSO: Jun 16.
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