Kyuzo Murata Biography

KYUZO MURATA

The Father of Modern Bonsai in Japan

This Page Last Updated: September 23, 2009

Kyuzo Murata was born on June 23, 1902 in Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture. He entered Keio Gijuku University, Tokyo, some 140 miles to the southeast of his birthplace and two miles south of the Imperial Palace. (Kyuzo's parents were said to have been very successful in the silk industry in Takayama City and thus their son was able to go to a private school far away.) Murata, however, had to later leave without graduating in order to receive treatment for a severe gastric ulcer.

       On his doctor's advice, Kyuzo then went about twenty miles northwest of the capital to the town of Ōmiya (founded as a modern municipality in 1899), where the water was reputed to have health-giving properties for humans as well as for miniature trees. Sangan-shimizu (a natural spring) is one of the features of the ward's natural heritage.
       (In 1925, a group of professional bonsai gardeners who originally lived around the Dangō-Zaka (Hongō) area in Tokyo emigrated from there due to the crucial damages which had been caused by the Great Kantō Earthquake in 1923. These growers settled at the Toro and Hongō settlements of Ōsato village near Ōmiya. Ōmiya, lit. "Great Shrine," references the nearby major Shinto Hikawa Shrine.)
       Inevitably exposed to the profession practiced by several other residents, Murata tried his hand at it and presently found that he was blessed with a green thumb. He established his garden there in 1926. The acre-and-a-half plot was called Kyuka-En, the Garden of the Nine Mists. ("Kyuka" was the pen name of Ike-Taiga, a Japanese painter of the Edo period. The dual meaning of the nursery's name stems from the fact that Ike-Taiga had dropped in at the house where Murata would be born a century and a half later.) 1

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Kyuzo Murata and his associates from the Bonsai-Mura (Bonsai Village) at Ōmiya regularly went to Furukamappu on Kunashiri Island (to the east of the big north Japanese island of Hokkaido, and taken over by Russia following WWII). This was the native home of the Ezo spruce ( Picea glehni ). The place where they grew is called Yachi, a marshland having a thick mass of accumulated sphagnum moss. This is an inhospitable natural environment where the land is covered with deep snow from the middle of September until the middle of May, a place where the wind blows endlessly. Murata and company would pack up the trees they collected about the first or second of September every year and ship them down to Honshu, Japan's main island. The roots were packed in sphagnum moss, then wrapped in burlap and tied with string. The trees were then placed in specially constructed boxes for shipping. They would travel by rail and reach Ōmiya by the tenth or eleventh of September. At the time of collecting most only had one or two white living roots showing. By the time they were transported, and despite the poor condition after they arrived, they would have a profusion of vigorous white roots growing out through the burlap.
(The roots didn't initially last on containerized trees. The bonsai master Tomikichi Kato was the one who determined how to rectify that problem around 1928. During the 1930s perhaps the most prized group of bonsai trees were the Ezo spruce, to be found growing wild in the forests of northern Japan along the tundra zone.)

Kyuzo Murata came to serve the Imperial Household in Tokyo in 1931, caring for their magnificent collection of bonsai.

And he began to assist Masakuni I (Shichinosuke Kawasumi, 1880-1950) in developing additional tools for bonsai. A well-known manufacturer of flower arranging scissors and medical-use cutting tools, Masakuni in 1919 had established a company to carry Japanese bonsai tools. In the early 1920s he invented the first shears specifically designed for use on bonsai, and a little later came out with the epoch-making concave cutter. (Previous to this time ordinary garden shears were used to prune bonsai.)

Masakuni I
(International Bonsai, Autumn 1979, back cover)

       In early December 1934 the second Kokufu-ten bonsai exhibit was held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. Kyuzo had a tree on display at that event.
       The April 1937 (Vol. 22, No. 4) issue of the Japanese horticultural magazine Jissai Engei (Practical Horticulture) carried an article by Murata entitled "Bonsai to konshoku suru sanso no baiyo hiketsu" ("Secret technique of culturing mountain grass which is planted with bonsai tree").
       The following year, Murata exhibited one of his early creations, a thirteen-tree Ezo spruce group planting from collected material. 2

(In 1940, Ōsato village merged with other villages to form Ōmiya city.)

The bonsai growers at Ōmiya were just beginning to become prosperous again -- most had resettled there from Tokyo two years after the great earthquake of 1923 -- when World War II broke out. The military draft and the emphasis on raising foodstuffs reduced the number of Ōmiya growers from a peak of twenty-three families in the late 1930s to one, Murata. Tomekichi Kato (Mansei-en) and Seian Shimizu (Seidai-en) recommended Murata for head of the town-block association of Bonsai-chō (Bonsai Village) to trust him with the future of bonsai. At that time, a head of a town-block association was not commandeered for war service.
Although his health made Murata immune to the draft, local officials ordered him to forget about bonsai -- which required full-time care if they were to survive -- and get busy growing rice. He appealed to the general in command of the district, a family friend who was named Hisaichi Terauchi (whose father, Masatake Terauchi, was the 18th prime minister of Japan and also a general of the army). Gen. Terauchi countermanded the local officials' order with the characteristically Japanese dictum that "bonsai show the importance of the unimportant." (His words might also be translated as "bonsai shows the use of the useless.") Murata was free to give his bonsai all the attention they needed.

He collected and preserved as many as he could get together from other growers, and got permission to store and house them on his garden plot in Ōmiya.
A large number of outstanding trees handed down for many generations -- but not cared for by Murata or a very few other growers elsewheres -- were apparently lost in the fiery Tokyo air raids. To minimize care requirements at Ōmiya, the bonsai were removed from their pots and planted in the ground. Watering was done late at night. 3

Immediately after the Pacific War, the luxury tax on bonsai was so high that it nearly caused the disbandment of the growers at Ōmiya.
"[W]hen the war ended, Murata had no money to keep his garden growing and no customers to buy his trees. He was on the point of taking up some other occupation when, on a November afternoon in 1945, fate intervened. A jeep containing Lt.(j.g.) Leo R. Ball, of the U.S. Navy, and John R. Mercier, a newspaper correspondent from Washington D.C., drew up to his garden gate. They were horticultural enthusiasts who wanted to see the famous bonsai village. After they spent several hours in knowledgeable admiration of the beauties of the garden, Murata took out his Visitors' Book, which had been unopened in four years, and asked them to write in it. Both men wrote glowing tributes to the garden's beauty. When Murata had their inscriptions translated, the warmth of the messages left by his country's recent enemies gave him heart to carry on his work a little longer. Gradually, as more visitors came, he began to prosper."

During the Pacific War, the shortage of fertilizers and even of water affected the Imperial Palace's Collection -- which numbered over 3,000 specimens prior to the war -- as well as those almost everywhere else. Some trees outside of that Collection perished because of this, and many others inside and outside were almost killed off. Murata did his best to revive the heavily damaged collection. 4

In 1947, the Ōmiya Bonsai Association was officially established. Kyuzo Murata was its first leader.

From 1949 to 1955, Murata was chairman of the Nihon Bonsai Kumiai (Professional Bonsai Gardener's Association of Japan).

He was often in contact with Toshiji Yoshimura, a prominent bonsai and suiseki artist from Tokyo. At one point, Murata's wife Fumi introduced a lovely young Ōmiya lady, Kazuko Nagano, to Toshiji's son, Yuji. On March 11, 1948 Yuji Yoshimura and Miss Nagano were married. ( Yoshimura would go on to make his mark in the bonsai world outside of Japan.)

Two views of Murata's Nursery c.1951, from pg. 5 of The Japanese Flower & Bonsai Arrangement Calendar 1952,
edited and published by Mineko Chigira, Urawa City.

The caption for the picture above is as follows (typos and all):

"Snap photo of the Kyukaen-Bonsai garden
Hundreds of bonsai trees are cultivated in this bright,
pure and quiet garden where they are exposed sufficiently to the sun,
watered adequately and plumed properly with their masters motherly affection,
so that they enjoy very robust health and attractive styles,
some carrying 100 or 200 or even 800 years of age in their small dwellings."

Also from pg. 5 is the tokonoma there in the guest room of the house.
(Compare with 1989 photo below.)

The trees below are Murata's designs from this same "Daily Record of Engagements."


"Ezo-matsu (Picea ajanensis) came from the Kurile Islands. Aged more than 800 years: Hight 14 inches: trunk 5 inches in diametre. From both ends of the trunk, the roots have grown up and made an arch, so we call it 'Heiwa Mon' (Peace Arch)." (pg. 18)	"A Maple tree in a white china bowl Aged about 80 years. Hight 29 inches: trunk 2 inches in diametre." (pg. 74)


"A Sanzashi (Hawthorn) in a china bowl Aged more than 80 years Hight 29 inches: trunk 2 inches in diametre." (pg. 60)	"A Leafless Maple tree in a Chinese porcelain Aged more than 50 years: Hight 22 inches" (pg. 96)

(Photos courtesy of Roberto Pagnin, Italy, 7 May and 23 May 2008 in personal e-mails to RJB.)

Murata was head between 1954 and 1960 of the Japan Union of Bonsai Growers, in which capacity he contributed greatly to the cause of the art. (He also was in charge of bonsai belonging to some celebrities, such as one-time Japanese prime minister Shigeru Yoshida and the Imperial family Chichibuno-miya.)

(In 1957, the official suburb name of Bonsai-chō, lit. "Bonsai Town," was given to the precinct.)

Mr. and Mrs. Edward Holsten, two of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Trustees, returned from a world cruise in 1958 having procured a number of superior specimens from some of Japan's finest bonsai nurseries. This collection of trees was finally imported in 1961. Mr. and Mrs. Howard Phipps, Sr., also traveling to Japan in the 1950s, brought back several trees to start the collection that bears their name. Most of the high-ranking specimens in both collections came from Murata's Kyuka-en. 5

       Isamu Wakabayashi had been born on July 21, 1936 in Kawagoe City, west of Ōmiya in Saitama Prefecture. He was interested in plants from his early childhood. After graduating from an agriculture school, he took a job in a city office. But he soon realized that he was not suited for a clerical job and so left the office. His father felt that Isamu should have a job related to plants and thought of bonsai.
       The elder probably visited some of the bonsai nurseries in Ōmiya, and Kyuka-en must have gathered his attention. There he bought a bonsai for 10,000 yen (almost the same amount as the starting monthly salary for a university graduate at that time). But he paid two 10,000¥ bills, putting them together so that he made them look like a single bill. On receiving the money, Fumi (Kyuzo’s wife) realized that he paid double the price and said "Sir, you paid too much." It was Wakabayashi's test and knowing Kyuka-en's honest way of business, he decided on sending his son to Murata's. In the time-honored Japanese tradition, Isamu apprenticed under Kyuzo Murata, began to study bonsai in 1959, and, because the Muratas were childless, Isamu was adopted by them and took on that family name.
       Kyuzo regularly organized a group of growers and went to the Imperial palace to care for the Collection there. Naturally, Isamu was among the group as his apprentice. A woman named Rumiko was working in her youth at the Imperial Palace as secretary to the Lord Chamberlain. People who worked with them around the Palace followed the time-honored tradition of arranging to have the two young singles meet. Isamu and Rumiko came to know each other and would marry in 1966.

Now, Lynn Perry was a graduate of the Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women, and also studied in the Dept. of Landscape Architecture of the University of Pennsylvania. She became the first American to study bonsai with a Japanese master for an extended period of time. For one or two days a week from 1960 through the fall of 1962, she received instruction from Murata. After intensive practical and theoretical training, she was awarded a teaching certificate by her sensei. During this time she wrote Bonsai: Trees and Shrubs, A Guide to the Methods of Kyuzo Murata, which was published in 1964 by The Ronald Press. While in Japan she also served as a member of the staff of the Agricultural Attaché at the American Embassy in Tokyo.

Upon her return to the U.S., she was first employed by the landscape architect David Engel, and assisted with bonsai courses at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. She then become proprietor of Suzu-en Bonsai Company (a tool importer in Erie, Pa), lecturing, demonstrating and teaching throughout the country, especially in the East. 6

Also in 1964, the English publication was made of Kyuzo Murata's Bonsai: Miniature Potted Trees by Tokyo's Shufunotomo Co., Ltd. (Its twenty-fourth printing would be made in 1986.)

Seventeen members of the Bonsai Society of Greater New York went to Japan in March 1967 to study for a week with Kyuzo Murata. The tour had taken a year to plan and coordinate, with Lynn Perry Alstadt making arrangements. The group, including Alstadt, Jerry Stowell, Marion Gyllenswan, George Hull, and Constance Derderian, flew from San Francisco to Honolulu where they met with members of the local clubs there, and then on to Ōmiya. On Sunday night the group had dinner with Mr. Murata and his wife at the Japanese inn where the Americans were staying. The morning after they walked through the gates of Kyuka-en: "Apricots and plums were at the peak of their flowering, magnificent old bonsai with pink and white blossoms, spotted in between the evergreens and dormant deciduous trees." As this was the first organized group from the U.S. to take a class from Mr. Murata, he had a classroom built especially for the visit. The National Television Company of Japan came every day to film the Americans and then frequently would run a segment on national television. Each day there was a lesson on the principles of wiring, potting and grafting. Afternoons they visited the trees in the other bonsai nurseries there. In attendance at Kyuka-en were Murata's colleague, Masakuni Kawasumi, and two of the former's best students, Masao Komatsu and Yasuji Matsuda.

Classroom scene at the Murata Nursery during a Beech Forest Planting class.
From left: Marge Schweenensen, Lee Firth, Ed Watizak, Marion Gyllenswan, and Jerald Stowell.

       The next week consisted of seeing collections in Tokyo and touring the countryside. Murata arranged for the group to visit the Emperor's bonsai collection at the Imperial Palace, a most rare privilege. The group arrived at the palace grounds at 8 o'clock in the morning, but there was a long line of people waiting to see the grounds. Murata's daughter-in-law went to the head of the line and spoke to a guard at the closed gate. Within seconds, the American group was ushered in through a small secondary gate and shortly thereafter the enthusiasts were viewing the incredible collection.
       The group met with some Tokyo Bonsai Club members at Ueno Park the day preceding one of their auctions, and inspected the many trees, rocks and containers offered. Some of the Americans entered successful bids through Murata. The following week was spent south of Tokyo and included visits to Kyoto (where the local bonsai society put on a special exhibition in honor of the visit), Takamatsu's Kinashi Bonsai Village (where the trees are mass-produced by 3rd or 4th generation owners of small plots for marketing in the capital) and Nagoya (where the enthusiasts saw a kiln firing the hand-made containers shaped in hand-pressed molds by skilled artisans).
       On June 15 in Cleveland, Ohio, the American Bonsai Society (ABS) was founded by many of the persons who had been on the Japan tour. (This was, in part, to spread the knowledge learned about bonsai through a national organization, and also to have a national society take over the responsibility, expense and labor of the nearly one thousand subscriptions for the New York Bonsai Society's magazine.) At the closing of the ABS rolls a year later, there were ninety-nine individuals and fifteen groups as the charter members. Kyuzo Murata was the only non-American member at the time. Jerry Stowell was elected as the first ABS president.
       That summer also saw a visit to Kyuka-en by Mrs. Becky Lucas of South Africa. (In 1960 she had founded the Bonsai Society of South Africa in Cape Town.)
       The September issue of The Reader's Digest included an article on Murata, "The Lilliputian World of the Bonsai" by Noel F. Busch (with four color photos).

Murata in his garden, from pg. 184 of the Reader's Digest article

The cover b&w photograph of the Spring 1968 issue (Vol. 2, No. 1) of ABS' Bonsai Journal was of a 400-year old, 40-year-in-training Sargent juniper ( Juniperus chinensis var. Sargentii ) from Murata's nursery. The container was a gray, unglazed antique Chinese pot. 7

       February and March of 1969 saw the second ABS tour of Japan, led by Lynn Alstadt and Jerry Stowell. After touring Takamatsu, Kyoto, and Nagoya, a five-day stay with Kyuzo Murata was further highlighted by visits to the nine other prominent bonsai nurseries in Ōmiya and the opportunity to see the prestigious annual Kokufu-ten Bonsai Exhibition in Tokyo. 8
       And a November issue of the New Yorker magazine mentioned the arrival of the celebrated three foot tall tree "Fudo" to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The page and a half long article was appropriately titled "Old Juniper."
       Considered to be between 600 and 1,000 years old, the tree was reportedly found in 1910 by the famous bonsai tree hunter Tahei Suzuki and was first wired by Kinsaku Saida, said to be the greatest wiring master of all time. Making its first public appearance in 1929, the bonsai received the first prize -- and promptly vanished. Its owner at the time was a Japanese oil magnate who was afraid that exhibitions would spoil the tree. A special place deep inside his mansion was built for the "Phantom Shimpaku" (as it would be called by people who saw the tree during its only exhibition).

From pg. 88 of the article "Japanese Miniature Trees," Life, October 7, 1946
about Keibun Tanaka's 20-year-old 5,000-tree collection in suburban Tokyo, this picture of what we would know as "Fudo."
Has the erroneous caption of "300-YEAR-OLD PINE TREE IS VALUED AT $2000."
(The image in a copy of an article long in our files was brought to RJB's attention again
by Roberto Pagnin, Italy, 27 May 2008 in personal e-mail.
This copy gotten from Google's Life Magazine photo archives at http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=8cd0f6b1f74e3fb5&q=bonsai+source:life&usg=__yyitvInu85JOjeVhUaTDff7t5Rw=&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbonsai%2Bsource:life%26hl%3Den.
Photographer is listed as Alfred Eisenstaedt.)

In 1946, having survived the war, the tree was purchased by Yoshimatsu Hattori and received the name of "Fudo." The name comes from the "God of Fire Fudo," an imaginary guardian of the Buddha against all evils, standing amid burning flame without moving. "Fudo's" appearance suggested swirling flames.
Yoshimatsu Hatori died in 1960, and his entire bonsai collection was put up for sale, except "Fudo" which was taken by his son Osamu. Although Osamu was not keen about bonsai, it took Kyuzo Murata several years to persuade him to sell that particular tree. It was finally in the summer of 1969 that "Fudo" came to Murata at Kyuka-en, by which time not many people had actually seen the tree except in a photograph.
Per Dr. George S. Avery, director of the BBG who was instrumental in introducing tens of thousands of Americans to bonsai and in developing the Garden's outstanding collection:

       "[This tree] was first seen by Botanic Garden representatives in November 1969 when a tour group of garden members visited the Murata Nursery, while in Japan. After admiring many of the trees available for purchase, two members of our group kept wandering back to look at a gnarled and twisted "old timer," a shimpaku (Sargent juniper). To see it was to read at a glance its autobiography -- lonely centuries of a frugal existence in an out-of-the-way mountainous region somewhere in Japan, buffeted by continuous winds and winter storms, but always with the strength to survive. The tour member whose gift made possible its ultimate purchase prefers to remain anonymous, but as a Botanic Garden trustee she has long-admired and appreciated fine bonsai.
      "A few days after the visit [it was decided that the tree] ought to be [sic!] in the Botanic Garden's bonsai collection...and, through a Japanese friend, we telephoned Mr. Murata the next morning, reporting probable interest in acquiring his tree for the Botanic Garden. He was noncommittal but said he would mail a photograph of the tree, to reach us after our return to the United States.
      "In December, the photograph arrived. A letter was promptly dispatched from the Botanic Garden to Mr. Murata, accompanied by a purchase order for the tree. No acknowledgement was received so in the ensuing weeks other letters were written [in English and Japanese]. It seemed that we had failed (or were failing) to convince Mr. Murata that the tree should come to make its life in America...
      "In early July, 1970, a beautiful letter arrived from Mr. Murata. [It expressed his sincere apology for not responding earlier. He had had to travel to Osaka several times to set up the Bonsai Show exhibit at EXPO '70.]
       [When people found out that Murata was contemplating sending the shimpaku to America, they tried to persuade him to keep the tree, but at long last he decided not to. As he wrote in his letter to the BBG,]
       "'Personally, I do wish to keep this fine tree in my private collection as long as I live; but since I am in the trade, I am willing to sell it only if some vital qualifications are met. Recently, air pollution in Japan is becoming unbearable for both human beings and especially for trees in the garden. The pollution is caused mostly by motor cars. I am not against progress, but trees do not understand it. They just have to suffer and sometime die quietly. I have been told that Brooklyn Botanic Garden is large enough that it cannot possibly have a pollution problem within its premises. There is no place in America like the Brooklyn Botanic Garden where all necessary facilities are available for proper care. Above all, it is highly important that American people, most of whom are still relatively strange to our fine art of bonsai, will have a chance to appreciate the tree.
       "'These were a few of my many reasons, and at the end everyone [to whom I explained my reasons here] understood. I have said to my friends that I would not sell it even for a million dollars, if the Brooklyn Botanic Garden were a commercial nursery; but I know BBG staff would love and care for my tree, not just professionally, but wholeheartedly. Anyway, it is all right now, and I feel as if I am giving my own daughter to an American to be married.'"

"Fudo" (b&w from ABS Journal article;
color photograph copyright Yukio Murata and reprinted by permission.)

"Fudo" arrived in New York via Pan American Airways and was officially met at Kennedy International Airport by Robert S. Tomson, Assistant Director of the BBG, together with representatives of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The prescribed fumigation treatment was carried out. "Fudo" was put on display at the BBG in a screened quarantine cage -- where she remained until release by the Plant Quarantine Division of the Department of Agriculture. This hardly seemed a fitting wedding reception for so distinguished a bride; yet it complied with plant importation law and was a justifiable precaution against the introduction of plant pests which, though perhaps no problem in their original homeland, might be difficult or impossible to control if they were to escape in a new environment. 9

Close-ups of "Fudo" showing protective wrap around weak branch and the magnificent deadwood.
(Copyright Yukio Murata and reprinted by permission.)

       In October 1971, the fine shimpaku "Fudo" was declared dead without ever having become acclimated to its new home, despite extraordinarily special care. Her ancient body with its unique beauty is still preserved at the BBG where it remains inspirational in a special case in the rotunda of the Garden's Administration Building. Probably the oldest living plant of any kind ever shipped to the U.S., it was said to be about eight hundred and fifty years of age when it died after a year here. A photograph taken in 1970 in Japan "shows the lower branch, where all the trouble apparently began, not showing any visible change, but the foliage on that branch was thinner than the rest of the foliage."
       "She departed this world leaving many pleasant memories and the love of many people. I consider that 'Fudo' is still a valuable asset to us all."
       (On October 7, 2008 a memorial ceremony was held for "Fudo" at the BBG.) 10

The September 1971 issue of Shizen To Bonsai (Nature and Bonsai) magazine contained an article by Murata regarding the early days of ezo spruce bonsai. (The article would be translated into English, edited and reprinted nineteen years later in International Bonsai magazine.)
And on October 3 of this year Isamu and Rumiko Murata welcomed their son, Yukio, into the world. "At that time, Mr. William Valavanis [later of International Bonsai fame] was living in Bonsaimura and he [would later tell] me that he remembered how excited my mother was to show me to him," Yukio would later recall. The Muratas already had a daughter. 11

In November, 1971 a Workshop and Study Tour of Japan took place, endorsed by the ABS. Lynn Perry Alstadt, Constance Derderian, George Hull, and Jerry Stowell led the tour which featured a four day seminar at Kyuzo Murata's Ōmiya garden.

One year later, Luther and Dorothy Young led a trip with classes to Japan and Hong Kong. Visits were paid to Kyuzo Murata, Toshio Kawamoto, Wu Yee-sun, and other hosts and locales.

In 1973 Kainan Shobo published a work that Kyuzo surpervised. Bonsai no Tsukuri Kata (How to Create Bonsai) was written by Nagai Kazuo. Also this year, Kyuzo edited Ko Katō Tomekichi-Ō 27-kaiki tsuizen chinretsu kinenchō (Commemorative Bonsai Exhibit on the Occasion of the 27th Anniversary of the Death of Tomekichi Katō), a catalog of an exhibit held at Manseien on September 20 and published by Shutsurankai. 12

       In May of 1975, Kyuzo Murata (left, above) flew to the U.S. to inspect the rare and valuable bonsai at the U.S. National Arboretum that had been given by Japan to commemorate the Bicentennial. He returned in July with Masakuni Kawasumi (right, above, born in 1923 and successor to his father's now international distribution business) and four others from Ōmiya.
       Murata visited the Brooklyn Botanic Garden where a gathering of 300 people heard his talk on the art of bonsai. Quoting from The New York Times, July 9, 1975: "Bonsai is the art of pruning and wiring branches and cutting roots which eventually result in controlling growth so that trees are trained to live in pots,' said Mr. Murata. Because Mr. Murata, a Zen Buddhist, believes that trees have feelings, he said it hurts them to be cut. 'But it has to be cut,' he continued, 'The tree must understand that I do it out of love -- it's like spanking my own children [sic] .'"
       Murata and Kawasumi were the guest artists at both the BCI convention in Miami Beach, FL ("New Bonsai Horizons," running from July 2 through 6 and attended by 319 people) and the ABS convention in Kansas City, MO (held July 10 through 12). In Miami, a styling criticism Murata noted was that the foliage crowns of American bonsai were too full and ill-defined. Murata's closing remarks to ABS following a wide-ranging overview of "my favorite and the only subject I have known all my life" were: "Again, I wish to emphasize that bonsai is not a mere sketch of nature but a reflection of the heart of the creator. Please create your own Americanized bonsai and fill the world with this peaceful art. Sayonara, I shall see you in Tokyo." 13

The visit was also a promotional tour for Kawasumi's new book, Bonsai with American Trees (Tokyo: Kodansha International, Ltd.). Murata had penned the Introduction to this work. (In 1971 Japan Publications, Inc. had come out with Kawasumi's Introductory Bonsai and the Care and Use of Bonsai Tools. That first volume was supervised by Murata.)

From pp. 14-15 of Bonsai with American Trees,
with the modest caption "A view of a typical Japanese bonsai nursery."
(Photo courtesy of Roberto Pagnin, Italy, 27 May 2008 in personal e-mail to RJB.)

The biggest problem for sending bonsai abroad anywhere is the soil: every country prohibits soil of another country from being brought in due to microbial and larger pests. In the case of ordinary trees, the soil attached to the plant is completely removed and is subjected to strict examination. This would not do for fifty-three bonsai which were part of Japan's Bicentennial gift to the U.S. -- perhaps the lesson with "Fudo" was still fresh on everyone's mind. As an exceptional case, the U.S.D.A. decided that the bonsai together with pots would, instead, be carried to the National Nursery and subjected to quarantine and cultivation with help from Japan for one year. At the end of the period, quarantine would be finished. The Nippon Bonsai Association representatives were very pleased with these arrangements, saying that America not only recognized bonsai as Japan's traditional art, but also fully understood the trees themselves. The fact that all the gifted trees survived with this nonstandard treatment could be considered a nod to "Fudo."

The 10th American Bonsai Society Symposium was held in Tokyo from Oct. 17-21. About 200 persons participated and a special exhibit of 15 to 20 trees was arranged by Kyuzo Murata at the opening ceremonies held in the Chinzanso Restaurant, previously an estate of a Japanese general during the Sino-Japanese War. One of the trees was a magnificent 350-year-old black pine. Much of the rest of the time was spent visiting various sites from Ueno Park to the Masakuni tool factory, from a stop in Ōmiya with a welcome by Mr. Murata and his family to a viewing of Kamakura's Great Statue of Buddha.

On Nov. 3, 1977, a group of 52 Hawaii enthusists on a two-week tour of various Japanese bonsai sites sponsored by the Hawaiian Bonsai Association visited Kyuka-En and three other Ōmiya nurseries.

Kyuzo Murata contributed the Foreword to Jerald P. Stowell's 1978 book, The Beginner's Guide to American Bonsai (Tokyo: Kodansha International Ltd.). As a matter of fact, in July 1975 when Mr. Murata was in the U.S., Jerry had shown him a copy of his first book which the publisher was letting go out of print and stated that Jerry was interested in publishing another one with more information. Murata took the book back to Japan and soon afterwards a contract came from Kodansha. As the publisher also had an office in New York, the new manuscript was faxed back and forth during its two years of gestation. (By 1997 about 29,000 copies had been printed and the book was in its eighth or ninth printing.)

The following year, an Ezo spruce ( Picea glehni ) trained by Murata from collected material and in the sinuous style won an award at the Sakufu-ten, Japan Bonsai Creator's Exhibition. 14

In 1984, Kyuzo Murata's book Bonsai no shiki was released.

Three years later, the United Press International newsservice circulated a long one-column-length article which began "More than 60 years ago, Kyuzo Murata discovered the joys of creating a universe in a clay pot. Today, he likes nothing better than to share his secrets with novices..."

In 1988, the Japanese Ministry of Education awarded Kyuzo Murata the prestigious Order of the Rising Sun in recognition of his contribution to Japanese culture and society. He was the first bonsai gardener to receive this honor. 15


Kyuzo Murata	Fumi and Kyuzo Murata

(Photographs copyright Yukio Murata. Reprinted by permission.)

Alan Walker, Kyuzo Murata, Lynn Perry and Dorothy Young, 04/07/89

(Photo courtesy of Alan Walker, 05/11/07)

An English translation and adaptation of Murata's last book was published by Kodansha as Four Seasons of Bonsai in 1991.

And on that September 6, at the age of 89, the grand master Kyuzo Murata passed on from this life. At the time, his private collection of some one thousand trees on an acre and-a-half Ōmiya plot called Kyuka-en, Garden of the Nine Mists, was considered by many to be the finest collection of bonsai in the world. He was Highest Counselor to the Japan Union of Bonsai Growers and also Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Kokufu Bonsai Association, which holds the most prestigious and invitation-only bonsai exhibition annually. 16

"...I could not help but compare the bonsai of his early and later years to the sculptures of Michelangelo in his early and later years. The early works are superb, controlled, and perfected; the work done near life's end, Murata's flowering material and Michelangelo's uncompleted studies, in stone, of slaves in chains are less detailed. They are vital, impressionistic studies of great power with an appearance of freshness and spontaneity that belies the control we know guided the mature hands of these masters.
"Bonsai like all great art grows and changes and is influenced by its successful practitioners. Does Mr. Murata's [ Four Seasons of Bonsai ] herald a change for bonsai to fresher more spontaneous expression?" 17

After Kyuzo's death, Isamu took over the job of organizing a group of growers and going to the Palace to care for the Imperial Collection, and also of running Kyuka-en, dealing in bonsai, plant pots, tools, and fertilizer.

An Internet website was established for Kyuka-en in 1998, http://www.iris.dti.ne.jp/~kyukaen. Examining the text and photos in the "Celebrities" section reveals some of the significance of the nursery during the twentieth century. (Click on the "Celebrities" button and look at the entry for "IWASAKI Koyata" to see what Kyuzo's appearance was in 1938.)
Also this year, Mainichi Shinbunsha (Mainichi Newspapers) published a collection of photographs of the Imperial Collection of bonsai pots, under the title Koshitu no Bonki. Isamu categorized the Imperial Collection of pots, naming each pot, and writing comments for this book.

A posthumous work, Bonsai, Nature in Miniature, was published by Shufunotomo Ltd. and Japan Publications in the year 2000. Isamu Murata is listed as co-author with Kyuzo of this book, essentially a significantly revised and updated version of the 1964 Bonsai: Miniature Potted Trees. Many new color and b&w photographs and line drawings are to be found in this step-by-step work.

In an article on pages 36-39 of the #3 issue of International Bonsai this year -- "Some Thoughts on Displaying Bonsai" (originally published in 1982 and translated by Craig W. Risser), Kyuzo Murata was noted as saying that bonsai need a depth for exhibiting of about 24". He said that individual spaces in the National Bonsai Exhibition / Kokufuten displays were ~80" (or 2 meters) wide in 1982, but before the war they were ~120" (or 3 meters) wide. He further noted that in the Kokufuten before it moved to Ueno Art Museum, bonsai on exhibit were primarily cascade or semi-cascade and were placed on tall stands or naturally carved stands. Immediately after the war, cascade-style bonsai and stands were thought too difficult to transport as well as being difficult to grow. He thought the interest in the cascade style was re-emerging in 1982.

(On May 1, 2001, Kita-ku (lit. "North ward" where the Bonsai-mura is) and the rest of Ōmiya city were merged with the neighboring cities of Urawa and Yono to form the city of Saitama.)

(In October 2002, an 80th anniversary event was held commemorating the establishment of Ōmiya Bonsai Village.)

(On 1 April, 2003, Saitama city became the 13th city designated by government ordinance, Kita-ku being sectored as well as eight other wards. Saitama is the prefectural capital located in the southeastern area of Saitama Prefecture.)

Fumi Murata died in September 2004. Isamu Murata was still alive as of late August 2007, "so healthy as to walk his dog everyday." His wife Rumiko was alive also. Their son, Yukio, is engaged in garden keeping and small transaction of business, but is not the third generation of Kyuka-en. He, however, does not deny the future possibility of his involvement.

(On April 1, 2005, Saitama merged with the city of Iwatsuki to its east, which then became the tenth ward of Saitama City.)

(As of 1 July, 2006 the population of the 217.49 sq km Saitama City was 1,182,115 persons.)

        To the question "About how many visitors to Kyukaen are there every year, and about what percentage of them are not Japanese?" Yukio sent the following response in July 2007:
        "The number of visitors is very small now. Probably around 500 a year. Of them, about 20% are not Japanese. Saitama city's recent policy to publicize Bonsai Village as a tourist spot results in only increasing the number of visitors who are not at all interested in bonsai. To keep a quiet atmosphere for real enthusiasts, we have put down the signboard and locked the gate for over 10 years. But we always open the gate on request regardless of the closing day of Bonsai Village and Kyukaen is the only bonsai garden in Bonsai Village which has never put up a sign 'No shooting photos'."
        In response to a follow-up question, Yukio elaborated in late August:
        "From July 28th to August 27th, we had 73 visitors including 31 from outside Japan. (This period, the number of foreign visitors was rather large.)" 18

(As of 1 January, 2009 the population of the 16.91 sq km Kita Ward was 137,205 persons.) 19

NOTES

1 Murata, Kyuzo Bonsai: Miniature Potted Trees (Tokyo: Shufunotomo Co., Ltd., 1964), pg. 115; Busch, Noel F., "The Lilliputian World of the Bonsai", The Reader's Digest, September 1967, pg. 184. Busch also wrote the 1962 Simon and Schuster book, Two Minutes to Noon, about the 1923 Tokyo earthquake which, among many other things, resulted in the creation of the Bonsai Village at Omiya in 1925; Personal e-mail correspondance between Yukio Murata and RJB on 12/21/2004 and 04/22/2006; "Hikawa Shrine (Saitama)"; "Kita Ward"; "About us: Kyukaen," http://www.iris.dti.ne.jp/~kyukaen/kyukaen/kyukaen-top-e.htm, accessed Aug. 20, 2001 and re-accessed Dec. 18, 2004 with revised URL, which gives 1929 as the establishment date for Kyukaen.

2 Murata, Kyuzo "The Early Days of Ezo Spruce Bonsai," International Bonsai, International Bonsai Arboretum, 1990/No. 2, pp. 14-17, pg. 15 with b&w photo of the group planting; Tayson, Dr. Juyne, "Bonsai Personality -- Kyuzo Murata", International Bonsai Digest Bicentennial Edition (Los Angeles: International Bonsai Digest, 1976), pg. 94; Nozaki, Shinobu Dwarf Trees (Bonsai) (Tokyo: Sanseido Company, Ltd., 1940), pg. 34; Masakuni Kawasumi's Bonsai with American Trees, pg. 7; Kawasumi's Bonsai Tools and User's Manual (1979, seventh edition, 1989), inside front cover and pg. 5. How did Murata come to care for the Imperial trees -- was it, perhaps, by way of introduction from Kato-san? Personal e-mail correspondance between Yukio Murata and RJB on 08/30/2007; Per a review by Cheryl Owens of the book The Imperial Bonsai of Japan in the Fall 1977 issue of the Bonsai Journal, American Bonsai Society, pg. 66, in 1926 there were more than 5,000 bonsai in the possession of the Imperial Palace, compared with about 600 in 1976; Japanese horticulture article per Yukio Murata in personal e-mail correspondance to RJB on 07/24/2007, which includes the note "But it is highly probable that there is an [older] article before this."

3 "Ōmiya Bonsai Village"; Busch's article, pp. 184-185, which on the former page states "That bonsai growing survived Japan's dark days during World War II must be credited almost entirely to Murata."; Tayson's article, pg. 13, which states that "only Murata San was allowed to continue as a bonsai entrepreneur, because he was the official entrusted to care for the Imperial Bonsai Collection."; Nippon Bonsai Association's Classic Bonsai of Japan (Tokyo: Kodansha International; 1989), pg. 154; Fukumoto, David W. "Saburo Kato: The Gentle Spirit of International Bonsai and Peace," Bonsai Journal, ABS, Vol. 22, No. 4, Winter 1988, pg. 6 states that the Katos at their Ōmiya nursery were criticized for taking care of bonsai during the war; Personal e-mail correspondance between Yukio Murata and RJB on 12/21/2004; "About us: Kyukaen," http://www.iris.dti.ne.jp/~kyukaen/kyukaen/kyukaen-top-e.htm, accessed Aug. 20, 2001 and re-accessed Dec. 18, 2004 with revised URL.

4 Busch's article, pp. 185-186. Where and when was Mercier's article[s] published? Our researches have not yet tracked it down; Kempinski, Robert "Trip to Japan," Bonsai Journal, ABS, Vol. 39, No. 1, Spring 2004, pg. 26, which also states that the current Imperial collection contains over 1,000 trees; "About us: Kyukaen," http://www.iris.dti.ne.jp/~kyukaen/kyukaen/kyukaen-top-e.htm, accessed Aug. 20, 2001 and re-accessed Dec. 18, 2004 with revised URL; Personal e-mail from Yukio Murata to RJB on 12/16/2004,

"Dear sir,

I am a grand son of Kyuzo Murata, the founder of Kyuka-en Bonsai Garden.

I am always deeply impressed at your detailed history on my grandfather.
http://www.phoenixbonsai.com/KMurata.html

In your article, I found an episode about Leo R. Ball of the U.S. Navy, who
visited us shortly after World War II.

I attached the image of Mr. Ball's comment on our Visitors' Book. If you
are interested, please feel free to use it in your web site.

With best regards.

Kyuka-en Bonsai Garden
http://www.iris.dti.ne.jp/~kyukaen/

Yukio MURATA"

5 Personal e-mail correspondance between Yukio Murata and RJB on 12/21/2004; Murata, Four Seasons, dustjacket notes; "Yuji Yoshimura: A Memorial Tribute To A Bonsai Master & Pioneer" by William N. Valavanis, International Bonsai, IBA, 1998/No. 1, pg. 31; Murata, Bonsai, pg. 115; "Ōmiya Bonsai Village"; Scholtz, Elizabeth "Japanese Beginnings at Brooklyn Botanic Garden," Bonsai Journal, ABS, Vol. 13, No. 1, Spring 1979, pp. 5-7. "In consultation with George S. Avery"; "About us: Kyukaen," http://www.iris.dti.ne.jp/~kyukaen/kyukaen/kyukaen-top-e.htm, accessed Aug. 20, 2001 and re-accessed Dec. 18, 2004 with revised URL.

6 Personal e-mail correspondance between Yukio Murata and RJB on 12/21/2004 and 08/30/2007; Perry, Lynn Bonsai, front biographical information; Bonsai Journal, ABS, Spring 1987, pg. 7; "History of Bonsai East" by Dorothy S. Young, International Bonsai Digest presents Bonsai Gems (Los Angeles: International Bonsai Digest, 1974), pp. 92; Per "The Catalyst" by Dorothy S. Young ( Bonsai Journal, ABS, Vol. 8, No. 2, Summer 1974, pg. 40), Perry was introduced by Kaname Kato to Kyuzo Murata. Kaname Kato, "a quiet Japanese gentleman, a scholar, and horticulturist," was also the one who introduced Dr. John L. Creech to bonsai in 1955 during one of the latter's plant exploration travels to Asia. Creech, later as Director of the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, D.C., subsequently worked to establish the National Bonsai Collection there, with Kato-san serving as an intermediary between Dr. Creech and the Japan Bonsai Society. Per personal e-mail correspondance between Dr. Creech and RJB on Nov. 26, 1999, Kaname Kato is not related to Tomikichi (and Saburo, Hideo, et al) Kato.

7 Bonsai Journal, ABS, Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring 1967, pp. 3-5 and Summer 1987, pg. 6; Stowell, Jerald "People, Place, Plants, Revisted," Bonsai Journal, ABS, Vol. 23, No. 3, Fall 1989, pg. 10; Stowell, Jerald "The 30th Anniversary of ABS," Bonsai Journal, ABS, Vol. 31, No. 1, Spring 1997, pp. 4-7, b&w photo from pg. 4; Hurd, Jill "Interview with a Legend, Bonsai Journal, ABS, Vol. 31, No. 4, Winter 1997, pp. 145-147; "Maxson, Bob "Japan Visited," Bonsai, BCI, Vol. VII, No. 4, May 1968, pp. 10-11; Lucas, Becky "A Summer in Japan," Bonsai, BCI, Vol. VII, No. 3, March 1968, pp. 8-9.

8 Bonsai Journal, ABS, Vol. 2, No. 2, pg. 19.

9 Avery, George S. "'Fudo' Comes to America," Bonsai Journal, ABS, Vol. 5, No. 1, Spring 1971, pp. 3-5. In the quote, "as if" has emphasis added by RJB because per personal e-mail correspondance between Yukio Murata and RJB on 08/30/2007, Kyuzo and Fumi "didn't have a single child". The cover of that ABS issue is a b&w photo of the tree. The b&w photo by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, reproduced here, is from pg. 3; Color photographs courtesy of Yukio Murata in personal e-mail correspondance to RJB on 07/24/2007; Keibun Tanaka apparently was a renowned numismatist, per pg. 142 of http://www.boj.or.jp/en/type/exp/about/data/foboj09.pdf and pg. 8 of http://www.oenb.at/de/img/abstracts_of_the_icomon_meeting_tcm14-66644.pdf. Was Tanaka the fearful oil magnate? If not, then there was another transaction with Fudo which was not recorded in the source article. See also Tanaka photo at http://www.gettyimages.com/Search/Search.aspx?EventId=80817443.

10 shows the lower foliage quote per Tayson's article, pg. 13; She departed quote per Kyuzo Murata in Bonsai Journal, ABS, Summer 1987, pg. 7; Color photographs courtesy of Yukio Murata in personal e-mail correspondance to RJB on 07/24/2007; "Fudo -- Dead But Living," Bonsai, BCI, Oct 1976, Vol. XV, No. 8, pg. 254; memorial ceremony per http://internetbonsaiclub.org/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=133&topic=24196.0.

11 Murata, "The Early Days" article, introduction, which also states Murata authored several Japanese texts and was "the advisor to several organizations and the Imperial Bonsai Collection." The latter seems to imply that he no longer was directly caring for those marvelous trees -- who was and what sort of apprenticeship program and/or "résumé" was required for that position?; personal e-mail correspondance between Yukio Murata and RJB on 12/24/2004.

12 Itinerary Brochure for this trip. In the spring of 1970, the first Japanese edition of the Japan Bonsai Society's Nippon Bonsai Taikan (Grand View of Japanese Bonsai and Nature in Four Seasons) was published. The ninety page English book, translated by Yuji Yoshimura and Samuel H. Beach and published in August 1972, included a small b&w photo of each original color one in the 352 page Japanese edition, along with a rendering of most of the text. On page 324 of the Japanese (pg. 81 of the English) can be found a picture of Kyuka-en. The conical thatched roof of the workshop behind the many orderly rows of bonsai catches one's eye. The edge of the roof is visible in the upper right corner of the first picture in Busch's article (reproduced above); Personal e-mail correspondance between Yukio Murata and RJB on 08/30/2007; Catalog per http://books.google.com/books?id=KiYNGwAACAAJ&dq=Omiya+%2Bbonsai&lr=.

13 Stowell, Guide, pg. 83, and Murata's Foreword to on pg. 7; NY Times quote per "Kyuzo Murata in U.S.," Bonsai Journal, Vol. 9, No. 3, Fall 1975, pg. 64; Banting, Vaughn "A Photographic Essay: The Trials And Tribulations Of A Juniper Cascade," Journal, ABS, Vol. 28, No. 3, Fall 1994, pg. 87; Murata's address to ABS was reprinted as "Spirit of Bonsai," Bonsai Journal, Vol. 21, No. 2, Summer 1987, pp. 6-7; a similar version of his talk was published as "Spirit of Bonsai," Bonsai, BCI, October 1975, pp. 243-245, with the additional note "From Jim Barrett, President of BCI, Translated by Mike M. Miyano." Other convention details are on pp. 256-257. Color photo from inside back cover of dust jacket of Kawasumi's Bonsai with American Trees.

14 Murata, "The Early Days" article, pg. 17 with b&w photo; Photo of signatures courtesy of Alan Walker, 05/11/07; "Tokyo -- Oct. '77," ABStracts, Vol. 6, No. 1, February 1978, pg. 2; Hurd, "Interview" article, pg. 147; Tsukiyama, Ted T. "An Odyssey to Our Bonsai Roots," Bonsai Journal, ABS, Vol. 13, No. 3, Fall 1979, pg. 64; Reed, William "Japan -- Day One, The ABS Tour to Japan," Bonsai Journal, ABS, Vol. 12, No. 4, Winter 1979, pg. 85; Cunningham, Leo "My Impressions of Japan, Bonsai Journal, ABS, Vol. 12, No.2, Summer 1978, pg. 39.

15 Snyder, Janet "Tree twister: Master gives key to bonsai," Arizona Republic, Feb. 22, 1987, page not noted; Murata, Four Seasons in Bonsai (Tokyo: Kodansha International Ltd.), dustjacket notes.

16 Photographs courtesy of Yukio Murata in personal e-mail correspondance to RJB on 01/05/2005, which included these lines: "As for my father [Isamu], he has a strong belief that a grower should be a hidden existence. He often describes himself not as an artist, not as an artisan, but a "watering hand". He thinks what should appear in the world is trees, not the grower, so his photographs seldom appear in the magazines or books even in Japan." ; Bonsai Journal, ABS, Spring 1992, pg. 28; Snyder's article states that the garden is 38,000 square-feet in size, only about 58% of what one-and-a-half acres would be (65,340 square-feet). Does the acre-and-a-half include the house and other not-strictly-garden constructions?

17 "The Trees - Kate Bowditch" in "Books" by Max Braverman and Kate Bowditch, Bonsai Journal, ABS, Spring 1992, pg. 28. A review of Four Seasons in Bonsai, which also includes "The Pots - Max Braverman."

18 Personal e-mail correspondance between Yukio Murata and RJB on 12/21/2004, who also stated that Kyuzo was not related to the prolific bonsai authors and editors Keiji and Kenji Murata. ("Murata is a common family name."); Personal e-mail correspondance between Yukio Murata and RJB on 12/24/2004 and 04/22/2006; "Kita-ku, Saitama"; "Ōmiya, Saitama"; "Saitama, Saitama"; "Profile of Saitama City"; "Saitama, Saitama"; Murata, Bonsai, Nature in Miniature, dustjacket notes, which give the date of Kyuzo's death as 1993; Per conversation RJB had with Jerry Stowell during the International Scholarly Symposium on Bonsai and Viewing Stones, May 18, 2002, Washington, D.C., this son was an adopted apprentice. (This latest book was first seen by RJB in Feb. 2002 and no mention of Isamu had been seen prior to this.); Chris Cochrane in posting to the Internet Bonsai Club, Aug. 7, 2003 ; "About us: Kyukaen," http://www.iris.dti.ne.jp/~kyukaen/kyukaen/kyukaen-top-e.htm, accessed Aug. 20, 2001 and re-accessed Dec. 18, 2004 with revised URL; Per Yukio Murata in personal e-mail correspondance to RJB on 07/24/2007 and 08/30/2007.

19 "Kita Ward"

See also this on-line article in Italian, "Spirito del Bonsai," http://www.geocities.com/adoyit/spirito/spirito.html.

And episode #3 of Lindsay Farr's World of Bonsai at the 5:05 mark.

A series of photos of trees from Kyukuen can be found on this French site, http://forumbonsai.mwik.com/t193-Le-jardin-d-Isamu-Murata.htm.

Home > Bonsai History > Kyuzo Murata