Dwarf Potted Trees in Paintings, Scrolls
and Woodblock Prints
 

JAPAN -- INCOMPLETE IDENTIFICATIONS


This Page Last Updated December 25, 2023

The following are graphic images which have not been identified enough to warrant inclusion with the other portrayals.  Due to the special nature of these subjects, for educational purposes we have included here the entire image as known to us.  (Once identified, only the dwarf potted tree portion will be used.)  Whatever description that has been received from the source and/or has been determined by RJB based on other portrayals is given here.  We need your assistance in further placing these and determining their makers.  Also let us know if you have additional details about the other portrayals -- not all of them are totally identified either.  Send as many details as possible to rjb@magiminiland.org .
  Town of dwarf tree masters, 17th cent  (1)
  18th cent. (2)

 
  Europeans viewing dwarf trees (& ikebana?) in Japanese house, 18th cent  (3)
  Japanese gardener/dwarf tree merchant, 18th cent  (3)

 
Dwarf trees in marketplace? 18th cent?  (4)
Dwarf tree in pot, literati style, Edo period  (4)

"No. 104 -- Pruning the Pine Tree.   From Banreki "  (5)
  Samurai with dwarf flowering plum and pine in pot.  (6)

 
(7)




Hiroshige? (8)
Kunisada? (8)


(9)
(10)




(11)



(12) (12)



(12) (12)


(12)



(12) (12)



(13) (13)


(14)


(15)



(16)


(17)




NOTES

1.  Personal e-mail to RJB from Tomas Melo of Slovakia, April 17, 2001.  A Chinese portrayal actually?

2.  Personal e-mail to RJB from Tomas Melo, October 3, 2001.  From  The art of chinese gardening by Zdenek Hrdlicka. 

3.  Personal e-mail to RJB from Tomas Melo, March 27, 2001.  Pictures "found in library." 

4.   Personal e-mail to RJB from Tomas Melo, April 27, 2001.  Pictures from Bonsai Slovakia 2001. 

5.  Cover of American Bonsai Society Bonsai Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3, Fall 1968.  Smaller copy on pg. 3 for article "Japanese Bonsai - 1912" by Marcus B. Huish, LL.B.  Our researches have not yet found who or what exactly Banreki was in this context.  Per http://www.library.tohoku.ac.jp/kichosho/kicho/rekisi/reki6s-e.html, the Banreki/Wanli period were the years 1573-1620.

6.  Personal e-mail to RJB from Chris Cochrane, December 23, 1999.  With the bamboo-decorated screen behind, this is an interesting depiction of the "three friends of winter."

7.   Personal e-mail to RJB from Tomas Melo, May 17, 2001.  From a Czech bonsai magazine.

8.     From Riley, Scott Lynn "Tree Story," Wingspan, All Nippon Airways Inflight Magazine, November 1996, pp. 28, 29.  From Takagi Museum collection.

9.   From 'The history of bonsai," http://www.my-bonsai.com/en/history.html.  "Japanese print: The sape [sic] of the white pine bonsai and the decoration on the pot indicate the strong chinese influence in japanese culture of this period."

10.    From http://www.bonsaimuseum.org/e/tenji_t.html, accessed 08/26/2004, with the label "t011210_5.jpg".  The tryptych is another of the Hachi No Ki portrayals.

11.    Lesniewicz, Paul  Indoor Bonsai (Cassell Illustrated, division of Octopus Publishing Group Limited, London; 1985. 2003 Reprinting.), pg. 7 with caption "Japanese woodcut: a bonsai grower offering some of his specimens for sale."

12.    From Alan Walker, as posted on IBC in reply #4 - 9 http://internetbonsaiclub.org/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=133&topic=21016.0".  Images were photographed at David Fukumoto's place in Hawai'i.  This collection of bonsai-related ukiyo-e was up on the wall behind the counter in his shop, framed behind glass and hanging on a wall some distance away.  They had been the collection of the late Dr. Horace Clay.

13.    Larger b&w copies of left and middle panel of above, Bonsai Magazine, BCI, Vol. XIX, No. 4, May 1980, pg. 128 with caption "Three wood block prints from the collection of Lee Richards, renowned artist who is well-known for her silver logos and other jewelry."  (Right-hand panel not seen to contain a tree or landscape.)

14.    B&w photo, Bonsai Magazine, BCI, Vol. XIX, No. 9, November 1980, pg. 303 with caption "Another wood block print from Lee Roberts, well known artist and silversmith. Photo submitted by Lee Roberts also."

15.    "Tea House Garden at Tokyo" by Ogawa, Kazumasa, http://oldphoto.lb.nagasaki-u.ac.jp/unive/target.php?id=2638.  Poorer quality print with photographer's name at http://oldphoto.lb.nagasaki-u.ac.jp/unive/target.php?id=2638. Probably from the late 1800s.

16.    "A Woman Holding a Folding Fan" at http://oldphoto.lb.nagasaki-u.ac.jp/unive/target.php?id=2143.  Probably from the late 1800s.

17.    "Porcelain and Pottery Shops" at http://www.baxleystamps.com/litho/meiji/ogawa_brink.shtml.  Hand-Colored Albumen Photo, 8x10" by unknown photographer, from in Vol IX of the 10 volume set Nagasaki Edition, Deluxe Edition.


See also images from various turn-of-the-century postcards here.


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