In Japan - Kinashi Bonsai Center

[SLR5000]

Back in Japan - been here for 10 days now, travelling around looking at bonsai etc. This is our 4th trip to Japan.

A couple of days ago we travelled down to Kinashi which is on Shikoku Island. This is such a fantastic place for bonsai. There are over 100 bonsai growers in the area. We were lucky enough to visit the Kinashi Bonsai Centre on the 5th and, taking place, was a monthly bonsai and plant auction. They have three auctions per month. It was bitterly cold and lightly snowing!

We met up with Bjorn Bjorholm yesterday whilst visiting the Nijo-jo Temple in Kyoto. Bjorn is running another tour to attend the Kokufu-Ten. We attended his tour in November 2016, so it was nice to have a quick catchup before seeing him at the exhibition.

Today, we headed back to Tokyo. We are here for the Kokufu-Ten which starts tomorrow. This evening we bumped into Tyler and Matt at our hotel, former apprentices with Mr Suzuki, whom we met on our previous visit to his nursery in Obuse. Both are now freelance bonsai artists in the States.
Then who walked up but Bill Valavanis, also staying at our hotel. It was nice to catch up with him also, as we had attended two of his bonsai tours in 2014 and 2015. Our hotel, The Park Side is a bit of a meeting place for enthusiasts, being not far from the Green Club in Ueno, where the vendors sell their bonsai and related items. A free bus service is run from there to the exhibition.

Here are some photos of the auction in Kinashi and, yes, that white stuff in the bonsai pots is snow. I will post more photos shortly on the Kinashi Bonsai Village and the Kokufu-Ten.
Lance

[SLR5000]

Part Two - More Photos

Kinashi is well known for its pine growing. Not many maples etc down in this area.

[delisea]

Thanks for posting Lance. Bring on the Kokufu piccies.
Cheers,
Symon

[bodhidharma]

Thanks for the effort of posting Lance..Lucky Buggar being over there with all that happening, a bit jealous

[Hal]

Wow! some excellent aged specimens there...would you know the price for any of those trees by any chance?

Cheers
Hal.

[SLR5000]

Hi Hal,
Regarding the auction prices, it was a bit hard to follow their auction language, it is really different with their hand signals.

I did try to ask a couple of growers but, no luck due to the language barrier.

In saying all of that, due to the amount of stock on offer, I feel they were very reasonable. Most of the trees are bought to grow on, others of better quality would go into bonsai pots.

Back to the Kokufu-Ten now, hope to post photos later on.
Lance