- Issue No. 4
- JULY 15, 2002
- By David W. Fukumoto
- Founder & president
- Fuku-Bonsai Inc.
- 1962-2002
- The Fukumotos celebrate
- 40 years of pioneering
- True Indoor Bonsai™ ! ______________________
- 1972-2002
- FUKU-BONSAI celebrates
- 30 years of being committed and growing for the future!
- SUMMER 2002 CONTENTS
- " The hand of friendship
- is the key to the world as it opens hearts.
- The key to friendship is respect, courtesy, and justice."
- The Spirit & Philosophy of
- Fuku-Bonsai (May 2, 1995)
- Fuku-Bonsai staffers (from left): Michael Imaino, Edison Yadao, and Cliff Tanaka at the end of the June 8, 2002 Bonsai Day. This is training session three for a unique bonsai named: "Toppled Survivor!"
- SUMMER!
- ALOHA! Summer is the tropical season of vibrant growth, sunny skies, and warm rains. It's the busiest time of the year at a bonsai nursery with the potting of seedlings and the training of plants at all stages, including our most mature custom collection plants. It's the time of the year that tropical bonsai love and when the most aggressive bonsai training techniques can be employed.
So we saved a major training session for this time of the year! As Fuku-Bonsai continues to recover, we're investing more into expanding the nursery facilities and training our crew. Michael Imaino continues to blossom and increases the number of hats that he wears: Fuku-Bonsai Inc. director and senior plant manager, collections curator, research and development associate, and president of the non-profit Mid-Pacific Bonsai Foundation.
Michael joined Fuku-Bonsai in 1983 and has become a bonsai master in his own right. He's developing a stronger sense of how to nurture trees to strongest health. In teaching the next generation of Fuku-Bonsai masters, we've selected a non-traditional tree to be the symbol of the challenge. This month's feature story began sixteen months ago. See "PROFESSIONAL TRAINING TECHNIQUES."
- INTRODUCING FUKU-BONSAI OHANA NEWS
- In Hawaiian, "ohana" means an extended family. Here at Fuku-Bonsai we are blessed with a great customers, supportive stockholders and corporate directors, and a hardworking staff. All of this means that there's always a lot happening. With this issue we introduce a new feature to "show and tell" some of the stories that add a wonderful flavor to life at a bonsai nursery!
UPDATES OF PREVIOUS STORIES
- This issue contains a number of updates that show progress since the articles were first posted. In reviewing them you'll be able to judge the validity of the principles, procedures, and techniques used.
- LOREDANA'S PAGE: Seven
- months after first contact, the
- story continues and the now
- rooted cutting is potted.
- NEW ARTICLES
- CONTINUING OUR FOCUS
- ON EDUCATION
Whenever I have a chance, I like to "talk story" with visitors. But what I learn is often disturbing. I ask visitors:
"Have you grown bonsai?"
Too often the answer is: "Yes, but I killed the juniper."
The overwhelming majority of our visitors have grown and killed juniper bonsai. To many, bonsai means buying one at the store, keeping it alive for as long as possible, killing it, and going to the store to buy another one!
"Did they tell you that it could be grown indoors?"
"Not really, but that's where I want to enjoy it!"
"Do you like to kill trees?"
"No, but that's the only kind I could get!"
Too often that's how the talk story begins. Increasingly the story ends with them completing a Keiki Bonsai Workshop with Mike, Eddie or others in our staff. Many thought "training bonsai" was just keeping it alive as long as possible. Some who were introduced to our plants got really excited when they began to see new growth and realized that they would actually have a chance to train bonsai!
After we introduced Keiki Bonsai and workshop packages, there was a huge increase in enthusiasm and we began getting a lot of emails requesting more information. So we kept trying to answer customer questions and adding the answers to the website. Past visitors suggested that we install the information they learned when they visited us and we were happy to do so. We believe that bonsai is relatively simple once you understand basic principles. So to help everyone to be successful, it was necessary to explain the principles.
IS IT TIME TO GO BEYOND "BONSAI 101"?
Many who grow outdoor temperate climate bonsai learned traditional Japanese bonsai basics that teaches a smattering of a lot of different things crammed into "Bonsai 101" type courses. I put together the original Hawaii Bonsai Association's team-teaching course back in the late 1960's which was such a course.
It's a good starting place if you intend to devote your life to learning bonsai as the Japanese have been the most meticulous in codifying all aspects of bonsai. You'll be taught the Japanese names for every style, concept, and facet of bonsai. It's a great cultural activity if you like the Japanese way of doing things.
In Japan, bonsai is very structured. In the last 75 years, someone or some group made up a lot of rules, established styles, and set up standards. Since they organized it, they became the original teachers, judged the bonsai contests, and became the leaders of organizations.
As bonsai interest greatly increased after Japan became a prosperous country, the original group could not keep up with production to supply the bonsai classes. So they assisted former rice farmers in the country to learn how to efficiently grow bonsai starter stock like uniform vegetables. Most farmers didn't know fine art principles so the codification became more and more detailed. The art of bonsai evolved into a cultural craft.
INTERNATIONAL BONSAI PHILOSOPHY
It's great if you admire Japanese efficiency. Some never get past "Bonsai 101" which can be mastered within a year. As they get comfortable with the simple basics they are asked to teach. They learn Bonsai 101 in-side-out; and after a number of years, begin to accept the honorific title of "sensei." They become so busy teaching that they don't have time to keep learning! After 10 years, do they have 10 years of bonsai knowledge or do they have Bonsai 101 ten times? It's really something to think about.
The principles of all forms of artistic pot plants are very different. So which is the best?
That's the question that I bluntly asked Japanese bonsai grand master Saburo Kato in 1979 when he, Mrs. Kato, and Haruo "Papa" Kaneshiro flew over to the Big Island to look for trees for Kato's International Bonsai Congress 1980 Hawaii presentation. His answer surprised me and I instantly pledged my full unqualified support toward his mission to create world peace through bonsai.
Bonsai are all forms of artistic potted plants and include Japanese bonsai, Chinese penjing, Hawaiian outdoor tropical bonsai, Fuku-Bonsai's True Indoor Bonsai™. All forms of bonsai are beautiful. Each requires commitment and nurturing care. Each is very special just as each child is special. Bonsai is a god-given gift to mankind and its true beauty is in man and nature in harmony.
Saburo Kato's dream of peace goes beyond bonsai. It's based upon the universal appeal of bonsai. In today's cynical world, international peace begins with the thread of a simple honest international friendship. As more threads are formed, it becomes a string, then a rope, a cable and eventually a bridge for international friendship and peace! For another slant, and to meet Saburo Kato's successor, see "A NEW INTERNATIONAL BONSAI ERA!"
FUKU-BONSAI PHILOSOPHY
A young bonsai receiving loving care will grow and develop if you provide for its horticultural needs, develop a visual styling goal, and effectively use appropriate training techniques. There are no secrets!
Fuku-Bonsai's introductory educational materials cover only what needs to be known to train the prepared workshop plant that we supply. It's simple and successful and can be completed in 30 minutes. Hopefully, it creates enough satisfaction to begin a life-long hobby. I consider myself a student and invite everyone to learn along with me.
We appreciate the compliments on the comment sheet following Premium Keiki Bonsai Workshops. When the workshop plant is shipped, the cost is the same as when the workshop package is sent to anywhere in the US. There's no educational or instruction fee. Follow-up reports verify that most have no problems. In the beginning, we had concerns that we made it too easy, but the common response is always, "EASY IS GOOD!"
There really are no bonsai secrets. Grow only plants that grow well in your environment, start with trees that already have character, and create optimum growth! Customers who have problems are often those who don't read directions or who insist that plants should adapt to the care they are willing to provide. Fortunately, there are fewer of these each year.
Having covered most of the basics on the website and in previous issues of FBnews, in this issue we begin to address blending tropical bonsai techniques and concepts into the larger international bonsai world. There are significant differances in the way basic techniques are utilized. Much of the adaptations can also be applicable for use in temperate climate bonsai. Fuku-Bonsai's Bed-Spring Wiring is probably the ugliest and slowest method of wiring. But if done properly, it works and can be left on for long periods without danger of creating wire marks.
At IBC 80 Hawaii, Saburo Kato gave his now famous "Bonsai no Kokoro" speech that included:
" People who love bonsai appreciate the beauty of nature and plant trees in small containers. In doing so, they learn from nature and learn a philosophy of life. Even a person who doesn't understand bonsai can appreciate and be moved by its beauty. "
I invite you to join us!
- ~~~David W. Fukumoto, president & founder, Fuku-Bonsai Inc.
- Editor, FBnews
- RECOMMENDED PUBLICATIONS
- MAN LUNG PENJING is a new hardcover limited collector's edition hardcover book available only by donation. There are a decreasing number of copies and I highly recommend it. See the special information for obtaining a copy at the bottom of the article: YEE-SUN WU; The Spirit of Man Lung Penjing!
FORESTS, ROCK PLANTINGS, & EZO SPRUCE by Saburo Kato. Originally printed in Japanese in 1962, this book became a classic that taught many of today's bonsai leaders the art of training forest arrangements. Saburo Kato is considered the spirit of the International Bonsai Peace Movement and in giving the National Bonsai Foundation permission to reprint it in English, much of the proceeds go to support very worthy bonsai organizations! See Book Review & Ordering Information
