AusBonsai

Last Sunday our bonsai tour group travelled by train to visit Mr Kimura's bonsai gardens. This is one nursery that I wanted to visit again to see Mr Kimura's rock plantings.

I am very interested in bonsai landscapes and penjing, and Mr Kimura is well known for his rock plantings in Japan. It seemed a bit tense when we arrived at the nursery and the apprentices seemed on edge a bit. They were running, not walking, conveying messages back to their master to let him know we had arrived.

The apprentice from Russia, in his second year, told us that there was a very important man from Spain there looking to buy trees for the Spainish bonsai collection, and that Mr Kimura would see us later on.
This would explain why the apprentices were on edge. But Bjorn told me that this is how it is at this nursery. Other nurseries seem to be little bit more relaxed when you visit them.

Back to the rock plantings - they were all housed in a type of hot house at this time of year, as many of the plantings are Shimpaku junipers and, over here in the winter, they turn to a brown/golden colour. The plantings were all for sale except the old rock plantings which you might recognise from other postings or in bonsai books.

One other apprentice told me that the rock that the they use is man-made from a lightweight concrete and painted, but that’s all he would say.

Anyone who does rock plantings knowns that it is hard to find rock to use in Australia, especially the size they use over here.

Enjoy the photos.

Lance

Hi SLR5000. I have been inspired by Kimura's work for years but to see all these rock plantings " Ishitsuki " in one place has sparked a little light in the soul . I needed something like this to get me motivated into using some more stock and creating what i like to do best .

Thanks for sharing these fantastic pics .

Cheers Alpineart

Wow
Now that's a sight
They are amazing

Amazing! thanks for sharing

Nice rocks!
Are they all single stones or combinations gloued together?

Ken

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OK... I guess it looks like you may've had a reasonably nice trip to Japan then... and saw some pretty good bonsai stuff and went to some "better than OK" gardens, shows, nurseries etc... and I think your pics might've inspired me to rethink a few travel plans in the medium to long term... Maybe just marginally... Maybe. cheers!

Are they all single stones or combinations gloued together?

I read from this

One other apprentice told me that the rock that the they use is man-made from a lightweight concrete and painted, but that’s all he would say.

that all those rocks are manufactured to order. I'd guess the lightweight concrete is what we know as Autoclaved Aerated Concrete or Hebel which is light and can be carved with hand tools or power tools to make any shapes you can imagine.
A couple of members of our club have done some work with this and other products to make custom rocks that are light enough to move and transport. One member (Alpine again?) even trialled polystyrene carved and rendered which looked good and was light but I'm not sure of the long term durability or stability.
I'm sure Alpine has posted a thread on how he makes rocks like this. The fig rock planting he showed at Myrtleford last weekend was made from cement sheet glued together then rendered and coloured and looked really good.

Yep. No.1 Reminded me a lot of Alpine's creations!

These are all absolutely stunning!
Thanks Lance!

Thank you for all your comments. I'll answer some questions to the best of my knowledge.

The upright mountains are all one piece. The other mountain scenes consist of a number of rocks, maybe 2 or 3 pieces and they are locked in together e.g. like mitred timber joins.

When I did have a good look at them, they looked like real rock. When I asked Bjorn where would this type of rock come from he told me it was made from lightweight concrete. I know we can buy a type of cement called Ciment Fondant (a friend in Sydney told me about it).

Whoever makes these mountain rocks is an artist, and the way they are painted makes them very real-looking, with crevices and folds. In my travels in Japan I have not seen any other thing like it. They are definitely not carved Hebel blocks.

After seeing these rocks, I went on to Youtube and found this site. They could be made this way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDRN4VZ8oTo

I asked Bjorn about the price and he told me that he worked on one of the rock plantings recently in England similar to photo 6 and it sold for $US17,000.

The height of the plantings would be 800mm to 1200mm.

I think the price is like art work, it depends who did the painting.

Even Bjorn did not know a lot about where they were made.

I hope this helps.

Lance