Monthly Archives: August 2012

Wisteria immersion at Kasuga Taisha Shrine and Shin-en Bot. Garden

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This is the follow-up post to my other recent post  Wisteria Bonsai.  Nara is a city full of history and should not be overlooked when visiting Japan.  The years of 710-794 are known as the Nara Period.  In 768 the capitol of Japan became Nara and the Fuiwara clan had Kasuga Taisha Grand Shrine built.  The grounds had been sacred to the Shinto faith for a very long time before and was likely a simple clearing in the ancient forest.  The shrine gained great prominence during the Heian Period.  I go no further with explanations as I have no business doing so.  Official Site Wisteria flowers are a symbol of Kasuaga Taisha and adorn the family crest of the Fujiwara clan.  After numerous questions and research, the most common symbolic meaning of wisteria is that of supplication or reverence (bowing flowers).  I’m sure there are other meanings as well. Perhaps just saying they are beautiful and moving on is best.   A few sources stated wisteria was the first plant to ever be referenced in poetry. Different plants have risen and fallen from grace here with Wisteria surpassing Prunus mume as the most popular during the Heian Period.   There are two types of wisteria commonly found Japan and for most of the garden world.  Wisteria floribunda aka “Nodafuji” (native to Japan) and Wisteria sinensis aka “Yamafuji” (imported from China).  My Japanese sources said there were two natives but I found no scientific literature to back that up.  Milletia japonica is called Himefuji, but not related.  Hence the danger of relying on common names.  If you call the Eastern United States home, we have Wisteria frutescens.  A cultivar called ‘Amythyst Falls’ seems very promising for use as bonsai stock.  America also has the two invasive non-natives and a wonderful hybrid of the two called Wisteria x formosa that eats small pets and nearby trees.  W. sinensis climbs counterclockwise while W. floribunda climbs clockwise.  There are a few other species, but rare.  Cultivars abound for the two commonly used Asian species and many are represented in my previous wisteria post and the bottom of this one. Wisteria have a symbiotic relationship with rhizobacteria so they can affix nitrogen.  Feeding with a nitrogen rich fertilizer is not reccomended; especially when flowers are desired as nitrogen will promote vegetative growth.  Young plants from seed may take years to develop short branches aka “spurs”.  Allowing plants to become pot-bound helps.  Another way is to provide mechanical stressors (my senior thesis) aka beating the crap out of the trunk to scare the plant into reproductive maturity.  Popular styles are semi / full cascade or an informal upright style.  Whatever shape you choose, the important thing is to give the racemes room to expand and fall.   On to the pretty pictures right?

The approach path up to Kasuga Taisha is about a kilometer long and lined with about 3000 stone lanterns; one for each Kasuga Taisha subsidiary shrine.  There are also plenty of “tame” Sitka deer          which have probably never foraged for food in their life.  All the ancient Cryptomeria japonica and wisteria vines in the primeval forest were truly amazing.

Only the lowest branches remain alive on this Cryptomeria. Likely the victim of lightning.

By far the largest single plant I've ever seen. I know, it doesn't come close to the one in California.....

Just inside the shrine, one of the two famous fujidana greets you.

Not massive, but with the historical preface, super cool.  A point Bjorn Bjornholm often makes about Japanese gardens is that gaining intimate knowledge of a place via dedicated research then seeing it in person allows for a whole new level of appreciation.  A flat rock is just a rock unless you learn it was the cornerstone of a Korean castle taken as a souvenir from a famous conquest.  This point can also be applied to bonsai in my opinion.  Some species and cultivated varieties take twice if not ten times as long to gain trunk girth or produce flowers / fruit.  It’s a matter of appreciation for the time and effort put into a bonsai.  An old formal upright Pinus parviflora is a good example.  It may not look “real”, but a truly good one is still amazing with all the careful attention to detail, branch placement, and knowledge of just how rare it is.

This 23 meter tall cryptomeria is estimated to be over 1000 years old. It appeared in a picture scoll called Gongen-kenki of Kasuga Taisha in 1309.

The cryptomeria above overlooks the clearing at the center of the shrine.  This area, called the “Apple Yard” was the place farmers and gatherers met to barter long before the current shrine was concieved.

The other famous fujidana, and my personal favorite, is in the back of the site.  

I could have spent the whole day wandering through the ancient forest surrounding Kasuaga Taisha’s main shrine.  Shinto sites are often easy to spot from a distance (especially in small towns) as they actually have trees above 20 feet tall surrounding them.  Places such as this have hundreds, sometimes thousands of acres protected from commercial logging indefinitely.

The Shin-en Bontanical Garden is an excellent place to visit almost year-round.  The gift shop had a bunch of lady-slipper orchids so I quickly left before buying something and headed towards the back of the site for more wisteria immersion.  Along the way, I passed this willow
and longed for some privacy and a shovel : ).

Shin-en has a number of ancient trees that blew over in a storm long ago named “The Reclining Dragons”.  I have yet to meet an old Camphor tree I did not like.     

 

This bot gardens claim to fame is it’s Manyo Collection.  A compilation called Man-yo-shu of 4,500 poems written by everyone from Emperors to peasants often references plants (1500/4500 poems).  Many are no longer in widespread cultivation, but preserved here with great care.  My favorite was this green flowering cherry.

Shin-en has over 20 types of wisteria species and cultivars.  The fujidana (wisteria arbors) were often connected forming tunnels and garden rooms.              

Creative methods of display and support were around every corner.  At one point I got lost and did not care; perhaps goal for every garden.  

Thanks for reading and I hope Nara will be put on your list of things to see when you visit Japan.  It’s great to read blogs, books, and magazines about this wonderful country.  However, ask anyone who has been here what it’s like in person and they will likely smile, then have trouble pin-pointing exactly what makes the trip worth it.

Bonsai Buying Trip and Byodo-in

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I try not to look at regional maps too much; I remember how close North Korea is!

A client, Miyashta-san (87) of Takefu contacted Fujikawa-san as he was interested in decreasing the size of his collection; especially the heavy trees.  Takefu (near Komatsu on the map) is on the coast of the main island of Honshu so this was my first chance to see the Sea of Japan.   Mr. Miyashta was a sucessful rice farmer and niwaki professional specializing in Winter preparation work; namely using rope to protect trees from snow loads.  He owns two of my favorite chuhin bonsai here (a root-over-rock Acer palmatum and Juniperus rigida).  Both were in the 85th and 86th Kokufu-ten respectively.  The tosho has been at Kouka-en for 12 years and showing it this year was the culmination of this project.

Getting to his house was an adventure in itself with 3 extra hours of traffic jams and narrow small-town roads.  The traverse of the final 100 meters was especially tense with wheels not completely on the road.

The first order of business was tempting him with a tosho bonsai we have been improving for the last few years.  He bit on the tosho and was happy to have a tree worked on by Kimura-san and for the last two or three years, us.

Oddly enough, one of the most difficult things for me on a road trip is appearing busy with no marching orders or tasks to complete.  You can’t wander aimlessly through a clients property or the like, so I weeded the remaining collection.  His kusamono collection was small but excellent.  After loading the van, I raced to get some photos while they settled up.

    

A few of the bonsai we acquired.

    

After that stop, we headed to a local bonsai and ceramics dealer in Sabae City called Sabae Engei.  The owner makes Bunzan pots.  I bought a few and again raced around photographing kusamono with interesting plant combinations.

The ride home was uneventful so I decided to try and get some interesting sign photos while doing 120 km / hour.

          

The robotic flag man looks like a much better investment….

Top floor of the museum. The majority is in an underground bunker.

As we appoached Kyoto on our way back home, Fujikawa-san asked (rhetorically) if we should stop at Byodo-in. Official Site  This event was a super rare chance on the order of pigs flying; especially during a work trip.  With an hour before closing we blew through and snapped a few quick photos.  Byodo-in has quickly become one of my favorite sites in Kyoto.  The ultra-modern museum blends very well into the landscape and there is perfect separation between this new structure and the 959 year old Phoenix Hall below. The museum is chock-full of national treasures  Going just to see the Bosatsu on Clouds would be worth the admission fee.  Another great success of this site is the separation of the temple and gardens from a bustling city that surrounds it.  In my opinion, the best gardens and historic sites in Japan make you forget what century it is : ).
My first visit with Fujikawa-san a few days before was a bit rushed so I returned on my next day off.  The temple will have almost two years worth of repairs done starting next month so it seemed like a good idea to experience this place without a bunch of walls hiding the good stuff.     The roof will be replaced on the hall and likely be painted the original flashy colors.  I fear the historically accurate restoration will change the feeling the whole place to that of a circus, but I’ve got my photos and memories of the current look.  The faded paintings on the doors and inside the Phoenix Hall leave something to the imagination.  A re-creation of this structure with something closer to the original color scheme is in Oahu, Hawaii.  Being a University of Georgia alumni, tacky orange colored things just don’t sit right with me…..  They should spend the money keeping the water clear.   A few more photos of the site for posterity:

        

That last one of me was for solidarity….

Thanks for reading.

Wisteria Bonsai

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With the dog days of summer upon us (in the Northern Hemisphere), it seemed like a good time to share a trip I took this Spring to immerse myself in the world of wisteria viewing.  Much like bamboo displays, wisteria bonsai have a light and cooling feeling.  Anyone who loves this genus should consider timing a trip to Japan.  There are many uber-famous wisteria viewing locations here; one being in Nara and the another in Kitakyushu.  The latter is a horticultural marvel I have yet to experience.  Hard to follow that kind of a showing, but Nara’s draw is especially nice for us bonsai nerds with a two-week-long wisteria only exhibition.  This show is put on by a bonsai professional specializing in Wisteria spp. and Prunus mume bonsai; two of the most water needy plants ever to be grown in a pot.  This exhibition is no small task.  The Nara Shokubutsuen (Botanical Garden) and Kasuaga Taisha Grand Shrine filled out my day.  As for information on styling and maintenance of wisteria in bonsai, I will leave that out for now.  Michael Hagedorn’s blog post covers some aspects well.  For now, crank down the thermostat and enjoy the flower show!

In an upcoming post, I’ll share some photos and history about the other wisteria “hot-spots” in Nara, Japan and this plant’s significance to Japanese culture.  The botanical garden there boasts 25 different species / cultivars of wisteria with a whole section of the grounds filled with Fujidana, or wisteria arbors, devoted to the annual Spring show.  Kasuga Taisha Grand Shrine has the oldest wisteria I’ve ever seen and two famous fujidana inside the shrine.  Outside the main walls, vines the size of horror movie anacondas dot the old-growth forest.

 

Thanks for reading and for all the support I’ve received thus-far.

Pinus densiflora Styling

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Some of the clients at Kouka-en have species and styles they gravitate towards.  We have one customer who tends to buy the largest pine bonsai we have in stock a few times a year to account for something……  Another client loves bizarre exposed root bonsai.  In early June, a client whose collection is filled with bunjin style red pine and shimpaku was clearing some space on his benches and sold this tree to Kouka-en.   Now that almost every notable blog on the planet has covered shoot removal, I thought it would be nice to highlight what is also possible during this time of the year.  Peter Tea’s post on the matter was especially well laid out HERE.  The matter was also partially covered in the Bonsai Art of Japan Series Episode # 7.

Just after pulling needles and cutting candles, black and red pines are very sparse looking; a wonderful time to wire.  Because I needed to style this tree between shoot removal and the next flush of new growth, shoot cutting was carried out in the all-at-once method of cutting weaker shoots all the way to the base and leaving a small stub (a few millimeters) when removing the more vigorous shoots.  This allowed for wiring to start immediately.  Again, Peter’s post as well as a few dozen others cover the processes that work reliably.  Amazing how far we have come from starving pines of water and fertilizer to get shorter needles and inter-nodes; thanks to Daiju-en and others for little tweaks in the currently accepted techniques.  Last year’s needles were also thinned at this time.  I must say, this is the most full and healthy red pine I’ve seen so far.

Shoot removal was nice and simple with no major surprises (dead interior branches, heinously bad wiring, etc).  A few branches had been removed recently that I would have liked to use, but oh well.

Talk about a happy tree!

Old Front

After shoot removal and a few thin branches unnecessary to any design were removed, the tree’s potential was much easier to evaluate properly.  Due to the time of year, angle changes or other actions requiring repotting were not possible.  If I had my druthers, I would lean the tree more to the left.  The new front Fujikawa-san and I both liked was about 30-45 degrees to the right of this one.  The ideal viewing angle we liked had one issue though; the lowest branch……..

                                                                    The Problem
This branch was likely kept to increase the feeling of depth when the the was younger, but now it is too thick and takes all the power out of the bend in the trunk it emerges from.  So, how to proceed?  Leaving this area and styling would require heavy-gauge wire and no matter what bends I added, something would still stick out as “heavy”; not desirable in a bunjinji tree.

Cutting this off would remove about 30% of the branching. But, no guts no glory!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a photo progression of the how the branch was removed and tissue reduced to turn an issue into an asset:

        

The final photo is the “before”.  Although the zoom is a bit different, you get the idea.  Leaving parts of the secondary branching would have made the jin too busy.  Wood was removed to accentuate the bends while also making the jin look more thin.  Complete removal of the whole branch was also an option, but in time I felt it would add character to the tree when the wood aged.

The new front (about 30 degrees to the right of the original).

Wiring was quick and painless with so few needles and shoots to watch out for.  The goal here was to compact the tree, space secondary branching to fill out the desired form, and accentuate the good points of the tree by balancing the overall visual weight.

Another issue with this tree was the lowest right side branch is too long.  If dropped, a full and rounded canopy would again cause this tree to look like it did before styling commenced in the future.  We are going for a new direction and feel here.

This long, uninteresting branch with branching only at the end (viewed from below). Leaving it would require dropping it low and crossing the first major bend in the trunk.

With this branch removed, styling was straight-forward.

Wiring the apex of many trees can be a challenge. I was fortunate not to have a leggy apex with this one requiring the "deceitful coiled snake technique".....

Having so many branches to choose from is a good problem to have.  It is often overlooked that styling a crappy tree and producing something of worth is much harder than taking a well maintained tree and getting a good resulting finished product.

 

 A few more small branches were cut.  Any needles I broke were quickly and quietly cut with some really sharp scissors before the final “thumbs up” from Fujikawa-san.

The Final Product before new buds initiated.

 

The tree looks pretty good as it has a nice trunk line, reasonably old bark, and is definitely healthy.  There are some faults that warrant note and as usual, these are shown so you the reader can avoid similar issues while working with your trees.

 

 

Issue 1:  When viewed from the left, the whole tree is leaning forward too much; an issue to resolve during the next re-potting.

 

 

 

 

 

Issue 2:  The lowest left branch had no fork but is solo.  Developing branching in sets of two allows for options during future cutting back.  Not sure why this was cut but it happened last year by my guesstimation.

Issue 3:  It’s not mine : )

After taking 100-some-odd photos of this tree, seems like a waste not to share a few more.  The final tree after a few months of growth is coming up soon I promise….

  

Before work started.

After shoot removal on the back half.

 

After major branch removal and wiring.

Amazing just how much can be cut off in order to set a tree on the right path.  It is important to note that this is the initial styling and this tree will not be “ready” for a while.  Another round of shoot thinning later this year and potentially 2-3 more years of fine tuning are required.

A few months have passed and the tree has responded very well to the work.

 

Thanks for reading.  I apologize for all the spam in the comments section.  This has been resolved.  Any comments or constructive criticism are welcome.