Page 17 - Tạp chí bonsai cây cảnh BCI 2014Q1

go back home. I stayed with some strangers for an- Top; Common
other month in Tokyo and suburbs visiting gardens. I Juniper, Juniperus
spent a week with saikei master Toshio Kawamoto in communis.
his urban studio, and I was in heaven. When I came Middle; Trident
home, I started to tear my house apart and designed Maple, Acer
buergerianum, “Best
a Japanese styled home that was finished about 1987. Deciduous Award”
bci: What motivated you to add viewing stones to your (1st National Exhibit
Rochester, NY).
bonsai practice and how does this enrich your experi-
ence and collection?
ms: Everyone is attracted to stones in one fashion or
another. People stop and stare at stone formations
and who doesn’t find some interesting ones at the
shore and take them home! Stones have incredible
energy to them if you are receptive to it and practice
looking. All cultures have understood the mystery
and magic of stones. Like trees, they are of the earth,
are highly evocative and add a soulful dynamic to a
bonsai garden. I was exposed to suiseki in 1982 while
in Tokyo, where I would go to the department stores
and look at them in the glass cases. They had a mag-
netic effect on me. I waited till the last day that I was
there and used my last $140.00 to buy one. I still have
it to this day, and it is indeed magical.
bci: What advice do you have for bonsai enthusiasts
who do not yet appreciate viewing stones?
ms: I have given this much thought and its a bit of
a mystery. I don’t think that you can make people
feel it. Stone appreciation is deeply spiritual, and has
been for virtually all cultures through the ages. I have
always naturally found them to be powerfully evoca-
tive. If you do bonsai, how can you not be aware of
the bones of the earth and the awesome, quiet beauty
inherent in so many stone forms? Like many appre-
ciations, the magnetism, the attraction, comes from
within. Stones have enormous energy, and you are
either receptive to it or not. Once this energy is real-
ized, you must practice how to be receptive to it. The

Bottom left; Pitch
Pine, Pinus rigida,
(2nd National Exhibit
NY).
Bottom right; 275+
year old Pitch Pine,
Pinus rigida, in
training.

January/February/March 2014 | BCI | 15