Page 51 - Tạp chí bonsai cây cảnh BCI 2014Q3

Tennessee exhibiting there, unusual even today to
find foreign exhibitors. Mike and Amy’s exhibit was
sourced from Kouka-en. Mark and Ritta were im-
pressed and inspired by Mike and Amy’s achievement.
Mark kept in contact with them until Mike sadly died
recently. The impression had been made—they want-
ed to exhibit in Japan. On their visit to Kouka-en,
they discovered several large high quality goyomatsu
(Japanese White Pine); unfortunately, they were not
available for export. They hadn’t completed their two
years in quarantine on the nursery and anyway, ama-
teurs did not import directly from Japan—or so they
thought. But the idea had taken root. They spent a thor-
oughly enjoyable day on the nursery and daylight was
fading. It was time to return to their hotel and dream.
On the train back to their hotel in Kyoto, they started
to plan. With images of the trees they had seen at Kou-
ka-en still fresh in their minds, they began to think
how they could, maybe, possibly, arrange to get a tree
home from Kouka-en to the UK. If it was possible, it
certainly wasn’t going to be an easy ride, and thereby
hangs another tale.

An article on how Mark and Ritta import a tree from Japan to the
UK is under development and will be published in a future issue
of Bonsai & Stone Appreciation magazine. —Ed.

Left column, top to bottom;
Ezo matsu group planting.
Deshojo maple at Bonsai
Museum in Omiya.
Right column, top to bottom;
Tokonoma display at the
Bonsai Museum in Omiya.
Kuchinashi (Gardenia) shohin
bonsai and Shohin trident
maple.
Mark and Ritta at Ritsurin-
Koen, Takamatsu.

July/August/September 2014 | BCI | 49