Kokufu ten Japans Best Bonsai (Second show)

Back in Ueno Green, on our way to the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum for the second part of the Kokufu Ten. I'm just going to give a quick run-through of all the trees, but I'm not going to showcase every single one individually. I'll just highlight a few of them that I find are interesting or are some of my favorite species. We're not there yet at all. Nice cherry trees line the park here. When we get to the museum, I'll get back to you as we enter the museum. There we go, the Bonzo Metropolitan Art Museum. Right, here we go. Entering the exhibition, the first thing you see, Trident root of rock and a black pine in this very nice exhibition. And the pot that we also saw in the first part. But look at how busy it is today. Gorgeously refined Japanese maple. Look at that gorgeous nebari and, of course, the mosswork on this tree. This absurd of Cydonia is amazing. What is interesting is what we see here is that the deadwood on this tree has not been completely bleached with the inliquid, but it's left more natural. The foliage, of course, is not vibrantly green because these trees just came out of winter. And this tree is completely free of wire, so it's completely as is in the styling. Now let's look at this Japanese maple. This has a very, very big trunk. If you're wondering how do you create these, what you see here on the trunk is this circle in the middle of the screen now. That is where a big branch used to be, has been removed. Similarly here, another branch has been removed. So large cuts are made, reduction cuts. Also here on the side, I don't know if you can see it there, a large cut was made. So you have all these reduction cuts, and that leads to the taper. And then you let it grow out again, let it grow big. And here, actually, I wonder whether this branch in the middle of the screen was reduced as well. If you look at the left of the bark, you see that there's a very wide attachment point. Also here on this main trunk, you see another scar. So you let very big branches grow out, cut them back, and then go on with the smaller branches. We all know that I love my trident maples, and this is multiple trident maples on one rock. And also here, a little bit of wire is allowed to help the tree stay in shape. But most of this tree is completely without wires. And I mentioned I was busy. We are standing in a queue to see an individual tree. Now if you like that wood, this might be your tree. With the lifeline always visible, you see it following the deadwood on the right-hand side, all the way down to where it enters the ground, right in front. I should actually do a whole video on all the accents here with all these trees. Something I am not a specialist on. Highly intrigued with the work that goes into putting one of these together, of course. For me, it's more about the trees, like this Chinese juniper. Itoigawa variety, with large deadwood. So now we have one of the special trees of the exhibition again. This is one of the Japanese maples that has the sign of being a recognized Japanese masterpiece, or important bonsai. And you know that because those have these tiny little metal tags hanging from the branches. What I find very interesting is the, pretty much, absence of taxes. And also the deciduous trees are quite limited in the number of species. Come May 1st, I've seen tetsuya, I've seen junipers, I've seen pines. Not much more than that. So it seems that the variety of species is not all that high. Let's delve into this. Look at that tree. Just take a look at this accent. We would be quite proud to have this as a bonsai, but here it's just accompanying this magnificent juniper. Look at the balance between the deadwood and the live vein, and how old that live vein must have been. How much time that it had to grow, create such a big, spiraling, snaking live vein. So we're literally standing in a queue here to see one white pine, again one of the Japanese masterpieces of national importance, which is choyabai, grown over a rock. And in fact I'm assuming it's more than one tree. Gorgeous purple currants in between. Imagine what this will look like when it starts flowering, buds are starting to open. This is some kind of cedar, not sure which one. I'll look it up in the book. Look at that enormous trunk. Again, this is very big. That's the size. Individual small plant. Very, very nicely done. Very natural looking. And the first signs of spring are of course also present here. This of course, the aim is to get all the needles roughly in the same length, have every rosette in its own space, and jointly forming the canopy. Something they really did well with this Japanese white pine, with Japanese maple of course. The first thing you notice is this root flare, pancake root flare, which takes a lot of time and energy. But after that you need to start looking at the fine branching. Here the fine branching is a little bit long, but still amazing. Every branch in its own little position. A little branch that's coming together in little foliage pads, and the foliage pads coming together in the whole branch and then into the canopy. It's just been pointed out to me that the accent and the main tree here are actually the same tree when it comes to styling. You know what? My wife is not wrong. My wife of course is never wrong, you know that. But this is a twisty pomegranate. Look again at the way this trunk twists up, going from the nebari, a very low first branch, and all the twisting that you see is natural. Gorgeous white pine cascade. Let's take a look under the hood. Isn't that great? Really it's cueing and cueing and cueing here. It's very very busy. It's interesting how many camellias are in Japan in general. I see them on the street everywhere, but in this show as well. I see them here but also in accents. They're nice in flower. Also out on the street right now you see them flowering. So already in February here we've got flowering camellias. Too early. Here is a yu, a Taxescus Pidata. Very old, semi-decaying deadwood. So this is how full it is. It's really pushing in the corridors to see all the trees. There are some gorgeous trees down there though. I haven't been in that corridor yet. It was still full as we were passing by. It seems like a prize-winning tree. Look at the workplace here. Look at this nebari. And of course look at the tree as a whole. Elegantly displayed on a very light table in a three-tree display or two-tree in accent display. A little accent and a tiny little choyo bai. So for this Japanese white pine it's impossible to show the complete structure of this tree. It is snaking six or seven trunks. I'm going to have to shut up because there's a lot of people. But look at this tree. How many trunks there are in this composition. All coming from one root base. And the needles are about the smallest that I've seen on a white pine. And of course it's a little bit white because this has been sprayed with lime sulfur. Being said that you only need three branches to create a bonsai. This is a very nice example of one of those trees. It's a little bit more than three but this is one branch. Comes all the way here from the back and it splits into two creating the whole back foliage that you see. And in the front here there's this one branch going up along the trunk. And we have a tiny little branch here on the side. And then the whole canopy is created basically from one growing tip as well. And when we bring it all together. That's it. And this tiny little accent here. The second bonsai in this three-point display. Gorgeous Japanese maple overall. And just continues like it's here right. Part of the exhibition shows trees that have been here before. So the one on the right was already in the 95th exhibition for instance. All trees worthy of a second showing here. The 100th edition. All very very big trees of course. Look at this Hanomelis. What do I say Hanomelis? It's a pseudocydonia. It must be about one and a half meters or five feet tall. And an endless number of branches. I think I have found my favorite tree here at the show. That's this Chinese juniper. Oh you can't see it. Now you can. And why do I like it? Well first of all it is a very elegant light tish. It's on a very elegant light table. Look at this gorgeous pot. Don't underestimate the size. Once again this is quite a large tree. And then the deadwood twists up. Note here on the side you see the living vein coming up. It remains visible here. Comes behind the deadwood up on the trunk. And then the spectacle starts of all this foliage. Individual small pads. Some old dead branches in there. Completely unbalanced. Completely separated. Broken up foliage. Which makes it all come together if you take a little bit of distance. It's a nice elegant old tree. I think everybody knows Mark and Rita Cooper. At least everybody in Europe knows them. Because they are the showman champions. If you look at these foliage pads they look really really really sharp. This is of course also part of the scaling right. Because if you look at it more and more detail appears if you zoom in. And if you zoom out then it all comes together as one nice pad. This juniper has a massive gorgeous trunk. Perfect deadwood. Well done. This I really really really like. Not per se for the pancake root base. But just the simple elegance of still very large strided maple trees. This is really what I think bonsai is about. Simple, elegant, but so hard to do. No obvious cuts. No massive scars. Just very fine elegant twigging palm trees. You see here two big trunks. A very small one in the background and even further in the back. An even smaller one and all at individual distances. Yet not blocking each other's view. Very very cool. And in case you're wondering. Yes all these people are looking at a very very big enoki forest. Beautifully done. Interestingly also some trees which I would not very much expect in European shows. Very tall straight trunk. It's a prunus mummum. And all the way at the top the branches occur. Just from one spot where the trunk flips over. This is a very large Japanese white pine. Perfectly carved out. Look at the positioning of each individual foliage tuft. Beautiful. And with minimal wire. Only tertiary branching. And here a few of the secondaries are wired. But most of this tree is without wire. Testament to the age and the care of this tree.