BONSAI  BOOK  OF  DAYS

What Happened On This Date in "Recent" Bonsai History?



FEBRUARY



Days 1 - 10
Days 11 - 20

21 1940 -- The first of two lectures and demonstrations on "Dwarf Tree Culture" was given by Ronald Shigeru Kawahara at the Honolulu Academy of Arts in Hawaii at 10:30 on this Wednesday morning.  Kawahara was a graduate of Japan's Chiba Horticultural College.  [A week later the second lecture would be presented here.]  (Honolulu Academy of Arts' News bulletin and calendar: Volumes 13-15 and this link also.)   SEE ALSO:  Sep Also

1991 -- The Latin-American Bonsai Federation (FELAB) was formally organized in Cali, Columbia.  The Board of Directors representing nine countries included Solita Tafur as president.  ("Latin-American Bonsai Federation Organized" by Jose R. Santisteban, Bonsai Magazine, BCI, July/August 1992, pg. 15)
22 1952 -- Budi Sulistyo was born in Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia.  [He would start doing bonsai in 1976 right before he graduated from the Faculty of English teaching, IKIP Sanatadharma, Yogyakarta, Central Java.  Graduating from Civil Engineering at Gajah Mada University in 1979, he would move the next year to Jakarta, and then join the Indonesian Bonsai Society two years later at age 30.  That organisation would have been founded in 1979 and was dormant with only 7 members when Budi would join.  He would first begin to teach the art in 1984.  He would then give seminars and teach in classes and workshops throughout his country, and on national television for almost ten years since 1986.  He would be the first Indonesian to win an international award (1988, International Bonsai Exhibition in Osaka, Japan) and would become well-known and respected in the bonsai community.  Other awards would follow.  He would write three bonsai books in the Indonesian language and one, Tropical Bonsai Gallery, in English.  In 2007 he would be the chief of operation in the 9th Asia-Pacific Bonsai & Suiseki Exhibition and Convention in Bali.  He would be the vice president of the Indonesian Bonsai Society, the secretary general of the Indonesian Suiseki Association and a director of Bonsai Clubs International.  All of that would actually be second to his main job as the director of a real estate company developing houses, offices and shopping complexes.]


Budi Sulistyo, with Buta Buta tree, 05/02/05.
(Photo courtesy of Alan Walker, 05/11/07)

("About Budi Sulistyo," http://budi-sulistyo.ofbonsai.org/about-2/; Benz, Wilhelm  "Budi Sulistyo Will Be Headliner At IBC '95 In Australia," Bonsai Magazine, BCI, Vol. XXXIV, No. 3, May/June 1995, pp. 22-23; "The Bonsai of Budi Sulistyo," http://www.artofbonsai.org/galleries/sulistyo.php; "Budi Sulistyo -- Indonesia," http://whoisbonsai.com/oceania/budi-sulistyo-indonesia/)
23 1909 -- George Hull was born in New York City.  [As an author and photographer, he would go on to be a well-known figure in the horticultural world, and would be involved in the early days of both Bonsai Clubs International and the American Bonsai Society.]   ("About George Hull" by Dorothy Ebel Hansell, Bonsai Journal, ABS, Spring 1975, p. 15, with photograph; "In Memory...George Hull," Bonsai Magazine, BCI, Jan/Feb 1975, p. 16)   SEE ALSO:  Nov 21

1923 -- Kenko Rokkaku was born near Kanuma City, Japan.  [He would become a promoter of Satsuki (azalea) bonsai, including being the publisher of Japan's only magazine exclusively devoted to that subject, as well as the monthly Wildflowers and Alpine Plants.]


Kenko Rokkaku
(Bonsai Magazine, BCI, May/June 1986, pg. 17)


("Biography of Mr. Kenko Rokkaku" by Bill Spencer, Bonsai Magazine, BCI, May/June 1986, pg. 17)    SEE ALSO:  Mar 2

1955 -- French dramatist, poet, and diplomat Paul Claudel died in Paris.  (He had been born on Aug. 6, 1868 in Villeneuve-sur-Fère, into a family of farmers and gentry.  Having spent his first years in Champagne, he studied at the lycée of Bar-le-Duc and at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in 1881, when his parents moved to Paris.  Claudel was prolific, authoring many plays, essays, poems and Christian apologetics.  He had many admirers and detractors.  He made no concessions to the public.  Claudel's writings deal largely with man's inner spirit, and reveal the influence of his profound and mystical Catholicism.  In his theatrical works Claudel combined extensive use of symbols—primarily religious—and exotic backgrounds with the techniques of pantomime, ballet, music, and the cinema.  He was a diplomat from 1893 to 1936, and many of his works were written during this time, mirroring his global experiences.  He was first vice-consul in New York (April 1893), and later in Boston (December 1893).  He was French consul in China (1895-1909), in Prague (December 1909), Frankfurt am Main (October 1911), Hamburg (October 1913), ministre plénipotentiaire in Rio de Janeiro (1916), Copenhagen (1920), ambassador in Tokyo (1922-1928), Washington, DC (1928-1933), and Brussels (1933-1936).  In 1936 he retired to his château in Brangues (Isère).  During the 1940's Claudel opposed the Nazis, writing a triumphal ode to Charles DeGaul.  He was elected at the Académie française in 1946.  His poetry, at once devout and extraordinarily erotic, was then widely read.  His plays, many long considered unstageable, were finally being performed to enthusiastic audiences.  Said to be a misogynist, an anti-semite and an Islamophobe, he was also regarded as one of the 20th century's greatest dramatists.  At his death his mental powers were as keen as ever until the very end and, some say, his high temper and animosities stayed strong as well.)  (Ever since his death his reputation would fluctuate violently.  In France, the nature, meaning and acceptability of his work remain the subject of debate.  In the UK, however, he has largely slipped from view.)
     Why this is important to us: During his one earlier time as French Ambassador to Japan (1922-1928), he was profoundly moved when confronted by a bonsai forest of perhaps half a dozen trident maples (below).  He was seated upright and lost deep in contemplation in front of a maple tree treated as a bonsai.  "Looking at this deciduous tree," he explained, when asked why, "I cannot help imagining myself in a maple grove.  I feel as if I were hearing the chirrups of birds in the branches."  His appreciative words must have been ample reward for the proud owner of the maple.


Tokaede (Trident Maple) forest
(Kobayashi, Bonsai -- Miniature Potted Trees, frontispiece)


     Also, earlier Claudel had written in an introduction to his sister Camille Claudel's sculpture exhibition in France in 1905:
     "Just as a man sitting in the countryside employs, to accompany his meditation, a tree or a rock on which to anchor his eye, so a work by Camille Claudel in the middle of the room is, by its mere form, like those curious stones the Chinese collect: a kind of monument of inner thought, the tuft of a theme accessible to any and every dream."
(“Paul Claudel,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Claudel ; “Defender of the Faith: Paul Claudel,” http://ever-green.addr.com/claudel-1.html ; Ashley, Tim  “Evil Genius, ” http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1282765,00.html ; “Claudel, Paul,” http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/c/claudel.as ; Kobayashi, Norio  Bonsai -- Miniature Potted Trees (Tokyo: Japan Travel Bureau, Inc.; 1951, 1962, 1966), pg. 16.  Claudel apparently voiced his thoughts to Kobayashi -- who was the owner?; Scarrow, E.A.  "Bonsai," Bonsai Magazine, BCI, Vol. VII, No. 10, December/January 1968, pg. 7; Samson, Isabelle and Rémy Samson  The Creative Art of Bonsai (London: Ward Lock Ltd.; 1986), pg. 9; Rosenblum, Richard  "An Artist Collects" in Mowry, Robert D.  World Within Worlds, The Richard Rosenblum Collection of Chinese Scholars' Rocks (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Art Museums; 1997), pg. 116)   SEE ALSO: This quote from Claudel in 1900.

2018 -- John Naka's one-time right-hand man and American bonsai master in his own right, Ben Oki died of a heart attack at the age of 91.  See also this memorial from Bonsai Societies of Florida.. (02/23/18 Facebook postings by Robert Pressler, Ed Trout, Louise Leister, and others; 02/25/18 Facebook posting by Ted Matson)   SEE ALSO: Jan 26
24 1917 -- Toshio Kawamoto was born in the Kanto (Tokyo+) area of Japan, the first of seven children to bonsai master Tokichi Kawamoto.  [He would graduate from Azabu High School and continue studying and assisting his father.  At his father's death in 1960, Toshio would take over the family's nursery Meiju-En, establish the Nippon Bonsai-Saikei Institute, and form the Nippon Saikei Association.  After WWII, bonsai had still been a creative pastime of only a small number of wealthy enthusiasts and the sons of bonsai specialists.  Toshio would feel that this could become a popular hobby that anyone could enjoy, regardless of social or economic class.  He would combine the best of group plantings and rock-grown bonsai, which were increasing in popularity at the time.  Due to shortages of suitable mature material for bonsai, young specimens would be utilized by this author and lecturer to successfully depict sections of natural scenery.  These containerized living landscapes of trees, rocks and mosses would be known with the registered name of saikei.  His first English-language book would be Bonsai-Saikei (1963), followed by Saikei: Living Landscapes in Miniature four years later.  He would write and illustrate articles on saikei each month in a series published in Bonsai World magazine.  His first lecture-demonstration outside of the Kanto area would be in Kansas City, MO in July 1972 for a joint ABS-BCI convention and some 400 registrants.]


"Mr. Kawamoto and Saikei Exhibited at Expo '70."
(Bonsai Magazine, BCI, June 1972, pg. 12)

("Sokumenzu - Profile" by J. A. Dillon, Bonsai Magazine, BCI, June 1972, pg. 12; Saikei: Living Landscapes in Miniature by Toshio Kawamoto, 1967, pp. 7-8)

1925 -- Norman Nelson was born, born in St. Louis, MO.  [He would grow up on a farm in Dixon where his family would live during the Depression.  He would graduate from Dixon High School in 1943, then attend Washington University in St. Louis for three years, where he would study horticulture.  After college, he would do window displays for the Famous-Barr department store in St. Louis, where he would meet his wife, Mary, in 1949.  The couple would marry on Feb. 18, 1950, and move to Fort Lauderdale two years later.  Norman would work as a landscaper for a local nursery.  He would become a bonsai expert and Curator of the Morikami Gardens in Delray, FL for about 10 years.  Norm was a Lifetime Member of The Lighthouse Bonsai Society, The Gold Coast Bonsai Society, and The Naples Bonsai Society.  Norm was also a member of The Bonsai Society of Florida; The Bonsai Clubs International; The Southeast Florida Bonsai Study Group; and Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church.  He was an instructor in the Art of Bonsai in the Broward and Palm Beach County Adult Education programs and at his nursery, Bonsai Too in Coral Springs.  He would own several nurseries during his lifetime before opening the nursery in Coral Springs, in April 1989 which would specialize in oriental gardens.   ("Norman, Nelson," http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1996-07-10/news/9607100097_1_funeral-services-pompano-beach-collins/4; James, Sallie with Carol Lewis  "Norman Nelson, Curator Of Morikami's Gardens," http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1996-07-09/news/9607080309_1_nelson-family-bonsai-mr-nelson; "Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens," http://www.heathermccurdy.com/archives/2011/03/morikami_museum.html)    SEE ALSO: Jul 8

1986 -- Robert "Bob" Yoshio Kataoka died in Denver, CO at the age of 77.  (Born in Hiroshima, Japan in 1909, Bob came to America at age 17 with the intent common to most Japanese immigrants to make his fortune overseas and then return to Japan.  But with his marriage to Hanayo Kameoka in 1937 and the birth of his two children, and the realization that truly America was the land of opportunity and future for his family, he stayed and worked diligently, sinking his roots in Delano, California.  But the attack of Imperial Japanese forces on Pearl Harbor in Dec. 1941 brought tragedy and bitter hardship to the Kataoka family, as to 120,000 others of Japanese ancestry, of being driven from their home and then interned for the duration in American concentration camps in California, Arkansas, and Arizona.  Released in May 1945, the Kataokas permanently settled in Denver, Colorado, where Bob earned his livelihood as an upholsterer.  With the building of the Kataoka home in 1955, Bob began collecting mountain trees to create his Japanese garden.  The collecting and sculpturing of these mountain trees for landscaping would easily and naturally lead to Bob's interest in bonsai.  He was a founding member of what would become the Rocky Mountain Bonsai Society.  His bonsai unmistakably reflected the style, flavor and influences of Japanese bonsai upon truly mountain-collected native American tree material -- junipers, fir, spruce, and Ponderosa, Limber and Lodgepole pines.  He was a bonsai scholar who sought to adapt the techniques of black pine bonsai culture to the native Ponderosa pine.  He kept careful records of his trials and their results.  His best Ponderosa Pine became the logo of the Denver Junior Bonsai Club c.1969.  It remained the logo when, during the latter part of 1975, the Senior and Junior Bonsai Clubs worked toward merging into one club, the Denver Bonsai Club, which then changed its name to the Rocky Mountain Bonsai Society in 1983.  Bob was always ready to demonstrate grafting and other techniques.  He was an expert in grafting all kinds of trees, particularly nishiki (corkbark) pines.  His bonsai philosophy was pure, that you should enjoy the essence of the tree and the effort of the hobbyist, rather than look for faults.  He explained that bonsai are trained, not tortured.  "It is not neglect that creates the weathered look, but the right training."  He was a guiding light for the RMBS as the result of reading many of the Japanese bonsai magazines and adapting the methods to local native trees, such as ponderosa pines.  Bob's reputation and expertise as an American bonsai master was recognized before his untimely death and acclaimed by such acknowledged teachers as John Naka, Ben Oki, Ken Sugimoto, and Frank Okamura.  Bob's bonsai reputation extended beyond the borders of the U.S.A. when he was acknowledged by Japanese bonsai master Kyuzo Murata, who, after viewing Bob Kataoka's bonsai garden in Denver, asserted his opinion that Bob's bonsai were one of the great representations of American bonsai art he had seen, and his artistry in creating bonsai was superlative and adhered to the purest traditions of the art.)
        [In 1986, the Bob Kataoka Memorial Award, "Artist of the Year," would be established in his honor and presented each year at their annual bonsai show at the Denver Botanic Gardens to a member who has developed a bonsai that is outstanding.  His vision would be kept alive in the private garden by his daughter, Lily Uyeda, who uses the skills that he taught her.
        [Bob's magnificent forest of 47 Alpine Firs was prepared to honor the 47 Ronin, a revered and hallowed story of forty-seven masterless samurai who displayed eternal virtue and sincerity.  This bonsai would become part of the Weyerhauser Company's Pacific Rim Bonsai collection in Federal Way, Washington State.  Bob's wife Hanayo would join him twenty years later in January 2006.]


"Colorado's Sensei's Bob Kataoka (left) and [curator of the Denver Botanical Garden's Japanese Garden] Kai Kawahara inspect
some of the local Ponderosa Pine just outside the [Aspen Rocks L]odge on the morning before
the collecting tour began [on May 17, 1985 outside of Estes Park, CO]
(Bonsai Journal, ABS, Vol. 19, No. 3, Fall 1985, pg. 13)



Subalpine Fir, Abies lasiocarpa
Height forty-five inches
From the Pacific Rim Collection

        "According to Bob's wife, Mary, she and her husband collected approximately eighty seedlings along a logging road near Echo Park, Colorado in 1960.  Forty-seven of these seedlings were selected for this group planting.  It was originally on a sandstone slab that was broken in transit to Washington State.  It is currently on a fiberglass slab, but will be returned to a natural stone in two years, when re-potting will be completed." (Excerpted from Bonsai Journal, ABS, Winter 1994, pg. 153)

(Tsukiyama, Ted T.  "Bob Kataoka: Rocky Mountain Bonsai Legend," Bonsai Magazine, BCI, July/Aug. 1991, Vol. XXX, No. 4, pp. 3-8; Robinson, Jim  "The History of the Rocky Mountain Bonsai Society," http://web.archive.org/web/20100105002824/http://www.rockymtnbonsai.org/html/ClubHistory.htm; Lee, Kathy  "Kathy's Korner," Fort Wayne Bonsai Club Newsletter, Vol 10, Issue 12, Dec. 2006, pp. 1-2 http://home.earthlink.net/~centaura/fwnewsletters_files/12-06%20december06.pdf; "Yoshio Bob Kataoka," http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Kataoka&GSfn=Yoshio&GSby=1909&GSbyrel=in&GSdy=1986&GSdyrel=in&GSst=7&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=47394380&df=all&)  SEE ALSO: Jan 5, Jan 12
25 1924 -- Kiichi "Wayne" Takayasu was born in Toyama, Japan to Sato and Chojiro Saiki.  He was 1 of 12 children: There were 5 brothers and 6 sisters.  [Wayne and his wife, Hatsuko, would marry on March 20, 1946.  They would move to Guadalupe, California in 1957 and relocate to Santa Maria in 1965.  Wayne would become a gardener in 1962 and be a member of the Santa Maria Gardener's Association.  He would retire in 2002 after forty years.  Wayne would be involved in Bonsai and be a founding member of the Santa Maria Bonsai Club in 1968 with 11 other persons.  He would be a President of the Bonsai Club at one point and be a member for 39 years.  On October 1, 1990 one of Wayne's bonsai, a California juniper in training since 1967 and which he named "Kyokuryu" or "Sunrise Dragon," was selected to be on permanent display at the National Arboretum's North American Collection Pavillion in Washington D.C.  After over 40 years, Wayne would officially become a United States citizen on March 10, 1999.  Wayne would be a member of the Tenrikyo Church in Guadalupe and Lompoc.] ("Kiichi 'Wayne' Takayasu," http://santamariatimes.com/lifestyles/announcements/obituaries/obituaries/article_d308c10e-3908-52f5-acb6-0111b4765c2d.html)    SEE ALSO: Apr 14

1978 -- The two-day organizational meeting of a group whose name was chosen to be "Golden State Bonsai Federation" (over 5 other contenders) began today in Santa Maria and ran from noon until 4:30 p.m.  Thirty persons from Santa Barbara and the South and seventeen people from Santa Maria and the North attended.  Jim Barrett was elected President.  As early as three years previously, discussions had started lamenting the fact that there were so few opportunities to become better acquainted with the art of bonsai among the 40+ California state socieities.  An initial meeting had been convened at Jim Barrett's on Sept. 15, 1977 with Jim Everman, Khan and Kay Komai, and Dick and Dixie Shaner to get the ball rolling.  A letter and questionnaire were drafted over the next week and sent out to all known state bonsai clubs and teachers.  The response was so overwhelmingly positive that additional letters were sent out settling on a convenient date for all parties to meet regarding a "Federation of California Bonsai Societies."    ("The Early Years: Part 1 -- Getting Organized" by Bill Hutchinson, Golden Statements, GSBF, Vol. XXV, No. 1, January/February 2002, pp. 15-17; "The Early Years: Part 2" by Bill Hutchinson, Golden Statements, GSBF, Vol. XXV, No. 2, March/April 2002, pp. 12-14)   SEE ALSO:  Jan 1, Mar Also, Sep 9, Dec 22.

2005 -- Hideko Metaxas of Larkspur, California was awarded the Agricultural Society of Japan's Green and White Award, during a conferment ceremony held at Consul General Yasumasa Nagamine's temporary residence in San Francisco, for her enduring contributions towards US-Japan understanding in the fields of Bonsai (miniature potted tree cultivation) and Ikebana (flower arrangement).  (Established in 1881, the Agricultural Society of Japan was the first nongovernmental agricultural organization formed in modern Japan.  Since 1894, it has conferred the Green and White Award to recognize and honor those who have made significant and lasting contributions to mutual understanding and friendship between Japan and California.  The society is a non-profit, public benefit corporation and all of its patrons have been members of the imperial family.)
     (Hideko Hidemika Metaxas was born in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan and she studied English as a young woman.  She worked as a telephone operator at a U.S. Army base, where she met her future husband.  After their marriage, they moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1953.  She continued her education and received a degree in ornamental horticulture from City College of San Francisco.  She began her study of bonsai in 1970 with Bob Kato and by 1974 she had begun ikebana studies with Mrs. Kinko Saiki.  She now teaches that art as a Senior Professor, 4th grade.  She has been a bonsai artist for an even longer period of time.  Her bonsai activities have won her an international recognition.  Thanks to her bonsai contacts in Japan, Hideko was responsible for introducing to the Western Hemisphere the following bonsai sensei: Masahiko Kimura, Yasuo Mitsuya, Kunio Kobayashi and Masamitsu Kubota!  Hideko has held major offices in Bonsai Clubs International and was the 1990-91 president of the prestigious Golden State Bonsai Federation.  She is also well-known as an interpreter for visiting Japanese teachers at conventions and club meetings.  And she began to study the art of suiseki by 1980.  She was a charter member of the San Francisco Suiseki Kai, under sensei Keiseki Hirotsu.  She co-wrote "Introducing Suiseki," one of the earliest and best articles on suiseki in the March/April, 1984, issue of the journal Golden Statements.  The GSBF awarded her its President's Award for distinguished service in 1996, for she also was a trustee, committee chair, program coordinator, and convention demonstrator for them.  A woman of abundant vigor, she also manages to study calligraphy, ceramics, and brush painting.)


Hideo Metaxas, 09/06/03.
(Photo courtesy of Alan Walker, 05/11/07)

("Agricultural Society of Japan Green and White Award Conferment Ceremony," 02-16-2005, http://www.sf.us.emb-japan.go.jp/archives/PR_e/2005/pr_05_0216.htm; http://www.sansui-kai.com/announcements_layer.htm; "Hideko Hidemika Metaxas," http://www.felixrivera-suiseki.com/galleries/hideko.html; "Friday, November 17, 2006, IN TOUCH WITH NATURE, Hideko Hidemika Metaxas, Ikenobo School, http://www.ikebana.org/Events/Nov2006/OnStage11172006.html)  SEE ALSO: Mar 4, Mar 31, Apr Also, Sep 14.
26 2021 -- Ivan Watters passed away at the age of 85 after a severe illness.  (In 1960 he began styling bonsai after being injured and was no longer able to play a violin.  He started serious study in 1975 with Harold Lenz (Chicago) and Toshio Saburomaru (California).  He began teaching bonsai in 1979 and instructed all levels.  Ivan continued advanced studies with Susumu Nakamura in Yokohama Japan, beginning in 1987.  He was one of the founding members of the Midwest Bonsai Society, and was a current board member and sensei.  He also was one of the founders of the Prairie State Bonsai Society.  From 1996 to 2005 he operated the Yasukanai Bonsai Garden in Morton Grove, IL.  He visited the Kokufu-ten in Tokyo at least 20 times, was a long-time member of the Nippon Bonsai Association which sponsors the show, and was instrumental in getting Nakamura to donate 19 of his Kokufu-worthy trees to the Chicago Botanic Garden in 2000.  Ivan was curator of the bonsai collection at the CBG from 2007-2014.  With Nakamura he co-wrote Bonsai: A Patient Art which was published in November 2012.  See Ivan's CV here.)   ("Ivan Watters Passsing," posting in Bonsai Nut, Feb. 28, 2021; MacNeil, Kathy "Living art: Bonsai teaches lifelong lessons, NWI Times, Aug. 11, 2011, Updated Jun 18, 2017; "The Art of Bonsai," Anderson Japanese Gardens, May 2016; Cooper, Dean "March 2021 Message from the President, Prairie State Bonsai Society, March 2, 2021 ; "Journey to Kokufu," Chicago Botanic Garden blog, April 4, 2013; "Ivan Waters Achievements"; "Bonsai: A Patient Art, Yale University Press)   SEE ALSO: Jun 4, Jul 25
27 1921 -- Yuji Yoshimura was born at the Taiko-En Bonsai Garden in Tokyo, Japan.  He was the second son of Toshiji Yoshimura, a leader in the bonsai world whose father himself was a samurai and renowned garden designer.  [Three years later, the elder brother would die in childhood and the family bonsai tradition would pass on to Yuji who would one day leave his mark on the art in many places outside of his native land.]   ("Yuji Yoshimura, A Memorial Tribute To A Bonsai Master & Pioneer" by William N. Valavanis, International Bonsai, IBA, 1998/No. 1, pg. 30; Golden Statements, Golden State Bonsai Federation, Sept/Oct 1994, pp. 23-24)   SEE ALSO:  Jan 12, Apr 23, Jul 17, Dec 24

1972 --  Nonkey Torazo Ishiyama, died at the age of eighty-one.  The McLean, VA  owner of Beeches Nursery was a graduate of Chiba University in Japan, a professional horticulturist in landscape design, Japanese gardens, nursery ornamentals and bonsai.  Nonkey had three articles published in the ABS Journal from 1969 to 1971, the last one being "Historical Notes on Japanese Bonsai" (Fall 1971, pp. 43-44).   (Note at the end of the reprint of "Pruning Of Bonsai" by Nonkey T. Ishiyama, Journal, ABS, Vol. 21, No. 2, Summer 1987, pp. 8-9)
28 1917 -- Masaharu Imazumi was born.  [Born in the U.S., he would move with his family to Fukuoka, Japan when he was three months old and live there until he was thirteen years old.  His father would then move them back to the U.S. where Masaharu would serve in the Army during WWII.  Then starting with gardening and landscaping, he would become involved with bonsai and be a teacher, primarily in California.] (SSN Master File by Birthdate)   SEE ALSO: Dec 24

1963 -- The Bonsai Society of Greater New York was organized under Yuji Yoshimura's guidance.  [The group would start meeting, on May 15, at the New York Botanical Gardens where it didn't have to pay any rent.  An annual show would be held and a bonsai bulletin would be printed for the membership.]  ("Interview with a Legend" by Jill Hurd, Journal, ABS, Winter 1997, pg. 146)  SEE ALSO: Jun 9

1963 -- The First Annual Meeting of the Bonsai Clubs Association, a group of six California clubs, was held.  Robert C. Miller, Jr., the BCA Newsletter Editor, was elected the first president.  [In five years the BCA would be renamed Bonsai Clubs International.]  ("Hindsight on BCI" by Tom Heitkamp, Bonsai Magazine, BCI, Jan/Feb 1978, pg. 4; "The President's Message" by Ray Boardman, Bonsai Magazine, BCI, Vol. XVI, No. 1, Jan/Feb 1977, pg. 11)   SEE ALSO:  Jan 30, Apr 16, May Also, Oct 22

2003 -- The declaration and signing of the Asia Pacific Bonsai Friendship Federation (ABFF) Charter and By-Laws was conducted smoothly at the Saiseki Restaurant in Manila.  Attended and signed by Malaysia, Philippine, Thailand and Indonesia, the event was also witnessed by Pius Notter (Switzerland), I Chi Su (Taiwan) and an Indian representative.  [Although representatives from Vietnam and Korea did not come to Manila, the Vietnam representative would sign both the declaration and the Charter at the subsequent first ABFF meeting in Jakarta, and the Korea representative would send its approval through fax, so 6 out of 7 of the initial country members would have signed off.]

Pius Notter, 06/12/2001.
(Photo courtesy of Alan Walker, 05/11/07)

I.C. & Helen Su, 06/04/2001.
(Photo courtesy of Alan Walker, 05/11/07)

("News" based on a report from H. Ismail Saleh, SH., Director of the Asia-Pacific Region, World Bonsai Friendship Federation,  http://www.bonsai-wbff.org/news.shtml, accessed 01/09/05.)

2023 -- Marybel Balendonck passed away at age 97.  (She was born in Dallas, Texas, grew up in the city and graduated from Sunset High School there in 1943.  She worked in a variety of professional offices in Dallas including the electronics firm Texas Instruments, and obtained a pilot's license while working at a Dallas area airport.  This was before she had a driver's license, chiefly because she hesitated to drive after a serious car wreck with her family when she was a child.  Marybel married William (Bill) Balendonck in 1949 and the couple lived and worked in Dallas before moving to Fullerton, California in 1965.  They bought an apartment four-plex soon after arriving, and two other small apartment buildings nearby in subsequent years.  They rented units while Marybel worked as a contract administrator for Hughes Tool and Bill worked in sales for a meter company.  Asian arts captivated her, and she became intrigued with the ancient Japanese discipline of bonsai cultivation.  She began to teach herself bonsai through the relatively few books then available.  She started her formal training in 1965 as one of John Naka's principal students and dear friends but also studied under prominent artists like Melba Tucker and Harry Hirao.  Marybel hosted classes in her Fullerton garage led by John Naka.  She joked that she was trying to keep up with her husband Bill, an avid musician who played saxophone with a local jazz group at area clubs.  When John Naka invited her to join his select study group of bonsai artists based in Southern California, Nampu Kai, she was the first non-Japanese member.  Although she was worried that she didn't speak Japanese, Naka reassured her that what mattered most was that she spoke bonsai.  Husband Bill passed away in 1977.  In 1982, Marybel helped found the National Bonsai Foundation, which was created to oversee the national bonsai collection at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum at the National Arboretum in Washington D.C.  A great and tenacious fighter and promoter of NBF and the Museum, she served on the NBF Board of Directors until 2020.  "My Bonsai Hero" was an article about Ted Tsukiyama that she wrote which was in the Winter 2001 NBF Newsletter.  She was instrumental in raising funds to build the John Naka American Pavilion of Bonsai adjacent to the Japanese Pavilion, which houses bonsai given to the U.S. by Japan to celebrate the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976.  She stood next to John Naka and his wife Alice when the Naka Pavilion was dedicated in October 1990.  Her own magnificent windblown elm (Ulmus parvifolia 'Catlin') forest of at least 16 trees was begun in 1970 and has been part of the museum collection since 1990, once on display at the White House.  Her liquidambar grove and other bonsai she cultivated are housed at the Huntington Library and Gardens, the Japanese American Cultural Center Los Angeles, and the Bowers Museum in Orange County, California.  Marybel was a key player in the fundraising efforts for several Museum structures and was known for her generous heart.  The California Bonsai Society and other friends of Marybel helped to fund the Research Center of the Museum's exhibits gallery, recognizing her contributions toward the Museum's completion.  She was active in bonsai clubs including the California Bonsai Society (creating brochures for this and Nampu Kai), Santa Anita Bonsai Club, and was an original member of Kofu Bonsai Kai.  She also was a founding member of the California Aiseki Kai club for suiseki.  She was awarded the 1994 Ben Oki Award by the American Bonsai Society.  She led a long life of achievements in the field of American bonsai, world travel to help connect the far-flung bonsai practitioners in East Asia, the U.S., and Europe, and enjoyed a long career in office administration and contract management in Texas and California.)


Marybel Balendonck, Goshin and John Naka, undated.
(Photo courtesy of Alan Walker, 05/11/07)

("Marybel Balendonck Obituary," The Orange County Register ; "In Memoriam: Marybel Balendonck," National Bonsai Foundation Blog, March 27, 2023; Manning, Cheryl  "Vision Accomplished" ; Schoech, Wayne  "The Last Of The North American Collection, Bonsai Bark, May 8, 2023)   SEE ALSO: Mar 12, Aug 26, Oct 1, Oct 3, Dec 13

29


Also this month,

1965 -- The Bonsai Study Group of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society was formed with the help of Carlton B. Lees, Executive Secretary of the Society and a bonsai enthusiast himself.  Since that time, the group has met for lectures and workshops at Horticultural Hall in Boston. ( Bonsai Journal, ABS, Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring 1967, pg.19)

1970 -- Although already on the newstands for a few weeks, this month's issue of Galaxy Science Fiction magazine contained Theodore Sturgeon's novelette "Slow Sculpture."  The title object of this quirky tale (pp. 34-53), which also concerns a self-exiled scientist, a woman seeking health and understanding, is a fifteen-foot-tall cypress or juniper bonsai.  Despite its size, the tree otherwise fits the classic definition.  Several profound observations of our art/hobby are scattered throughout the read, including the brilliant line: "It is the slowest sculpture in the world, and there is, at times, doubt as to which is being sculpted, man or tree."  [The story would go on to win the Nebula Award for Best Novelette of 1970 by the Science Fiction Writers of America and the 1971 Hugo Award for Best Short Story as chosen by supporting or attending fan members of the annual World Science Fiction Convention.  It would be anthologized several times.  It would come to our attention also as excerpts in the ABS Bonsai Journal, Fall 1970, pp. 9, 13, and BCI's Bonsai Magazine, October 1976, pg. 265.]




1979 -- Fusazo Takeyama died early this month at age 65.  (His nursery was Fuyo-en in Omiya.  He was one of the world's foremost authorities and artists for deciduous species and group plantings.  He conducted many programs in Japan, and was most recently editor of Bonsai Shunjyu, the monthly magazine of the Japan Bonsai Association.  He had contributed a large number of articles for other bonsai books and magazines in Japanese.  Takeyama was part of a private bonsai study group which included such friends and prominent members as Yuji Yoshimura (Naka Meguro Kofu-En Bonsai Garden), Toshinori Suzuki (Daiju-En Bonsai Garden), Kamajiro Yamada (Seiko-En Bonsai Garden) and Hideo Kato (Yagumo Mansei-En Bonsai Garden).  A century-old Japanese Hackberry (Celtis sinensis) by Takeyama became part of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden collection in 1960.  In 1967 Kodansha published a book he had written with Nobukichi Koide and Saburō Katō (as the Directors of the Japan Bonsai Association), The Masters' Book of Bonsai.  One of his treasures illustrated there was a 26"H informal upright twin-trunk 5-needle pine (pg. 38); another was a rather rare winter-yellow-blooming 24"H informal upright jasmine considered a masterpiece (pg. 30).  Along with Kato in 1977 in Japan he helped teach Robert Drechsler to further understand the latter's role as first curator of the 53 Japanese bonsai gifted to the U.S. for the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum in Washington D.C.  Takeyama had originally been scheduled to be the headliner for the joint ABS-BCI Convention that July in New York City.  His son, Ko Takeyama, a bonsai master in his own right, would take on the responsibility for Fuyo-en.)  ("The Passing of a Bonsai Master," International Bonsai, Summer 79, pg. 11; Hinds, John "A Greenhorn's View of the Japanese Bonsai World, Part II," Bonsai Magazine, BCI, Vol. XIII, No. 5, June 1974, pp. 22-23; The Masters' Book of Bonsai, pp. 38 and 30; "Robert F. Drechsler Biography, " http://www.bonsai-nbf.org/nbpm/drechslerbio.htm ; Brooklyn Botanic Garden, http://www.bbg.org/exp/360/bonsai_object_small.html ; "Yuji Yoshimura, A Memorial Tribute," http://web.archive.org/web/20071022024253/www.bonsai-wbff.org/nabf/newsletter3/yoshimura.htm )  SEE ALSO: Apr 1, Apr 15.



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