| 11 |
1902 -- Toichi Domoto was born in Oakland, California to nurseryman Kanetaro "Tom" Domoto
(c.1866-1943). [By age 13 he would be helping at his father and uncle's nursery and
see a plant that would continue to be identified with him long after his death in 2001:
the Domoto Maple bonsai.]
(personal emails to RJB from Ken Tsukada, Toichi Domoto's nephew, Oct 11 and 18, 2023)
SEE ALSO: Feb 20, May 6, Oct 7, Nov 4, Nov 6
1935 -- On this day a boy was born into the Betto family in Tokyo where he would grow up. [As the bombings during WWII became more frequent and extensive, all school children, including him, would be evacuated to a safer area which separated them from their family. At age 24 in 1959, Betto would apprentice under Tokichi Matsuura, proprietor of Kan-koen bonsai garden and study that art. Four years later, he would be adopted as the son of Tokichi to carry on the name and profession of the Matsuura family. As his interest in suiseki became serious, Matsuura would decide to study under Kenji Murata (b. 1901), father of Keiji Murata (b. 1926). (The Murata family were leading intellectuals in the bonsai and suiseki worlds. The family operated the well-known Koju-en bonsai garden and was publisher of many books and monthly magazines.) In 1969 after three years of apprenticeship, Arishige Matsuura would become the second proprietor of Kan-koen, which was known at that time as one of the best bonsai gardens in Tokyo. The most significant achievement of Matsuura to the suiseki world would be the publication of the magnificent picture album, a complete survey photographs and historical archives of outstanding Japanese stones, Nippon Suiseki Meihin Taikin (1988). Published and commissioned through Kodansha, it would be made in collaboration with Kinishi Yoshimura, Yuji's younger (5th) brother. Prior to his NSK chairmanship, Matsuura would be a member of the Board of Directors of the Nippon Bonsai Kyodo Kumiai (Japan Bonsai Professional Union) and president and member of the Tokyo District. By the beginning of this century he would have been a popular guest speaker in Europe for over a decade -- Italy (five times), Switzerland, Germany, Spain, France, and England and also every year to South Asia. His North American debut would come at the Golden State Bonsai Federation Convention in 2001.] ("Demonstrator -- Mr. Arishige Matsuura," Aug. 27, 2010, 11th ASPAC, which also states that Matsuura in "1949~ : Apprenticed to owner of Kankoen" which would have been at age 14; "History," Nippon Suiseki Association; "The 50th Anniversary of the Nippon Suiseki Association's Meihinten," California Aiseki Kai newsletter, Vol. 28, Issue 7, July 2010, pp. 7-10; Metaxas, Hideko "Suiseki with Arishige Matsuura," http://web.archive.org/web/20011124112646/http://www.gsbf-bonsai.org/suiseki.htm) SEE ALSO: May Also, Dec Also 1955 -- Toru Suzuki was born. [In 1975 he would apprentice to Shintani Seihouen in Hiroshima. The following year he would succeed his father Toshinori as the owner of Daijuen Bonsai Garden in Okazaki, Japan, a town some thirty kilometers southeast of Nagoya and 150 km east of Osaka. He would become Managing Director of the Nippon Bonsai Growers Cooperative and Chairman of the Nippon Bonsai Daikan-Ten Exhibition Organizing Committee.] ("Demonstrator -- Mr. Toru Suzuki," Aug. 27, 2010, 11th ASPAC) SEE ALSO: Jan 28 1963 -- A first organizational meeting of the Toronto Bonsai Society was held in the East Room of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre. Approximately 50 to 60 persons were present, a very small number of them having informally met since 1957. [The group's first general meeting would be held the following February 3.] ("A Brief History of the Toronto Bonsai Society," http://web.archive.org/web/20031117102051/http://torontobonsai.org/Journal/Journal.2003/jun.2003/history.tbs.1.htm ) |
| 12 | 2017 -- Henri Frits Vermeulen died after a long battle with cancer. (He graduated in 1974 from Loy Norrix High School in Kalamazoo, MI. He wrote an article that was published in the ABS Journal, "Winter storage for bonsai," (1989, Vol. 23, No. 3 pg. 2), and also "Taking the Information Highway to the Art of Bonsai" (Winter 1994-95, Vol. 28, No. 4, pg. 144) which introduced RJB -- and others -- to bonsai on the internet. Henri was American Bonsai Society Director from 1993-2003, on the Publications Committee 1996-1999, Vice-President 1997-1999 (during which time he put together the ABS Convention in Kalamazoo), and President 1999-2002. He lived in Michigan until at least 1996, Jacksonville, FL since at least 1998 (he was Vice President of the North Florida Bonsai Club in 2004), and then New Castle, Delaware by 2006. He was a Technologist at Hercules Inc. As a Brandywine Bonsai Society (PA) member, Henri led a meeting March 19, 2016 on the use of tropicals in bonsai, with the assistance of then President Nancy Klabunde and others. Henri's own collection was weighted heavily to tropicals and many other members had included tropicals in their collections. Henri was Show Chairman at the time. He participated in the MidAtlantic Bonsai Societies shows. (Louise Lester post on Facebook Dec. 12, 2017; The Indices 2004 ABS; "Henri Vermeulen, 61," https://www.mylife.com/henri-vermeulen/henrivermeulen; "Henri Vermeulen and Others -- 'Tropicals as Bonsai'," Brandywine Bonsai Society, Newsletter 3-16, pg. 1.) SEE ALSO: Aug 25 |
| 13 |
1920 -- Ted Tsukiyama was born in Honolulu. [He would serve in the 10th Army
Air Force in the China-India-Burma Theatre during WWII. In mid-1943 he would be one of 250 members of the
100th Infantry Batallion -- which was comprised of second-generation
Japanese Americans -- to be picked for training by the Military Intelligence Service Language School.
(The other 1,300 or so members of the 100th would soon be on their way to the Salermo, Italy beachhead.
By war's end the 100th would have compiled and contributed an incomparable record of 338 killed in action, 3
Presidential Unit Citations, 1 Congressional Medal of Honor, 24 Distinguished Service Crosses, 147 Silver Stars,
2,173 Bronze Stars, 30 Division Commendations, and 1,703 Purple Hearts. The first Japanese American
combat unit in U.S. history, only one generation removed from a nation that was fighting fantastically against
this country, would be fighting just as fanatically for it.) Meanwhile, Ted and the other 25 members of
the Radio Intercept Section 6th AAF Radio Squadron would be charged with intercepting Japanese air force
air-ground communications between fighter planes and the towers at six airfields between late 1944 and September
1945. Sgt. Tsukiyama would go on after the war to be the noted historian for the 100th, which included the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and MIS. He would additionally become the first Yale Law School graduate of Japanese ancestry. Ted would serve as a mediator and arbitrator for more than 30 years and be known as the founder of Alternative Dispute Resolution in Hawaii. With bonsai, he would attend a beginner's course at the public school night class in 1965, and the following year commence experimental importation of temperate zone-grown plants. After years of declining success, in 1969 he would learn of artificially-induced dormancy by way of "ice-boxing" from Sadakichi Sugahara, the leading old-timer on the island of Kauai. An optimum period of 10 to 12 weeks of hibernation would be discovered. He would be co-founder in 1970, secretary-treasurer and then president of the Hawaii Bonsai Association in Honolulu. The group would receive its non-profit charter in 1972. About three years later, through his close friendship with Haruo "Papa" Kaneshiro, Ted would become acquainted with Saburō Katō, and become a strong advocate for Katō-sensei's idealistic philosophy. Ted would be co-founder and secretary of the North American Bonsai Federation, and beginning in 1989 be legal advisor and editor for the World Bonsai Friendship Federation. He would play a prominent role in forming the National Bonsai Foundation in 1982 and be chief fund-raiser in 1990 for the Kaneshiro Conservatory at the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum at the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. Ted would also be a director and editorial committee member of Bonsai Clubs International, contributing several articles to Bonsai magazine. In 2017 his autobiography My Life's Journey: A Memoir would be published. See also this more recent piece.] 
"Ted T. Tsukiyama"
(Bonsai Magazine, BCI, Vol. XXVI, No. 6, November/December 1987, pg. 9) 
Ted T. in Okinawa City, 10/1999.
(conversation with RJB during the International Scholarly Symposium on Bonsai
and Viewing Stones, May 18, 2002, Washington, D.C.; "Radio Intelligence in CBI" by
Ted Tsukiyama,
http://www.javadc.org/Tsukiyama%20on%20Radio%20Intel.htm
; "A Salute to 'The One Puka Puka" by Ted T. Tsukiyama,
http://www.ohanamagazine.com/marapr2001/feature.html
; "Building a Career in Alternative Dispute Resolution,"
http://www.hsba.org/sections/hwl/newsletter/publish/May%202001/page2.html
; "Bonsai Hero" by Marybel Balendonck,
NBF Bulletin, Vol. XII, No. 2, Winter 2001, pp. 1,7; "Fuku-Bonsai History,"
http://www.fukubonsai.com/pp3.html
; Tsukiyama, Ted T. "Fooling Mother Nature or Growing Temperates in Tropical Hawaii,"
Bonsai Magazine, BCI, Vol. XVIII, No. 9, November 1979, pp. 314-315, 317
; Tsukiyama, Ted T. "'Bonsai No Kokoro' (The Spirit of Bonsai)," Bonsai Magazine,
BCI, January/February 1985, pp. 11-14; personal e-mail correspondance between
RJB and David Fukumoto July 4, 2001) SEE ALSO: Feb 13, Jul 11, Apr 6,
Sep 23, Sep 24
(Photo courtesy of Alan Walker, 05/11/07) |
| 14 | 1979 -- A minor planet was discovered at the Purple Mountain Observatory at Nanking, China and was provisionally designated as 1979 XO . [In 1998 this 3,570th known asteroid would be named in honor of the 3rd generation penjing master, Wuyeesun.] ("Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets (1)-(5000)," http://scully.cfa.harvard.edu/~cgi/ShowCitation.COM?num=003570 ) SEE ALSO: Mar 16, Mar 27, May 2, July 7 |
| 15 |
1995 -- The American Bonsai Society home page http://www.paonline.com/abs/ was established. The initial webmaster was
Brian Corll, president of the Susquehanna Bonsai Club and owner of the MicroFolia Bonsai Nursery in Camp Hill, PA. [Within
a year-and-a-half the URL would be the current http://www.absbonsai.org/.]
("Introducing The American Bonsai Society Home Page," Bonsai Journal, ABS, Vol. 30, No. 1, Spring 1996, pg. 11;
http://web.archive.org/web/19970529164313/http://www.absbonsai.org/)
SEE ALSO: Mar 16, Mar 27, May 2, July 7
2008 -- A water-heater malfunction sparked a 4:15 a.m. fire at the Franklin Park Conservatory's storage facility on the South Side of Columbus, Ohio. Twenty-three tropical bonsai trees -- more than half the conservatory's 40-tree collection -- were damaged in the three Quonset-hut-style greenhouses there which contained plants and trees. The fire not only scorched the trees, but also melted the plastic panels of the greenhouse, coating tiny limbs and trunks. After the fire was extinguished, the bonsai trees faced another challenge as the outside temperature that day was in the low 50s. If the conservatory members did not move the tropical trees within eight hours, no amount of rehabilitation would offset the damage the cold would bring. With the clock ticking, officials called Ohio State University, which said the conservatory could use one of its greenhouses to store the plants and trees. All of the bonsai trees were moved there by 2 p.m. that day. (A 365-year old buttonwood and several other trees were purchased for the AmeriFlora exhibit in 1992. Other bonsai trees were part of the personal collection of Max Puderbaugh, who founded the Columbus Bonsai Society. The trees were donated in 1997 and have received hundreds of hours care by members of the club. About 80 percent of the damaged bonsai trees were Puderbaugh's.) [Conservatory horticulturalists would scrub the trees with a mild soap and prune dead material. Dan Binder, the conservatory's bonsai specialist, would apply a root hormone to help rejuvenate the trees' lifelines. Without repotting the bonsai trees or stripping their wood, horticulturalists would not be able to determine how much living tissue remained under their scorched exteriors. Sara Creamer, the conservatory's production facility manager and the first employee to arrive at the scene, would then spend her days with the bonsai trees, trimming singed limbs, watering roots and hoping for recovery. Any new growth or green bud would be cause for celebration. Time will tell if the fire was too much for the trees. Many enthusiasts around the country when they heard about the fire would offer to replace bonsai trees.] (Balmert, Jessie "Bonsai Blues," The Columbus Dispatch, January 6, 2009, http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/science/stories/2009/01/06/sci_bonsai.ART_ART_01-06-09_B4_PLCCRPU.html?sid=101 ) |
| 16 |
1970 -- Cadwallader Coles Burns died in Winston-Salem, NC undergoing
preliminary examination for possible open heart surgery. (During WWII,
Cad was awarded four Bronze Stars, the Purple Heart, and the Air Medal,
with three clusters. In 1950 he contracted polio and would spend
the last 20 years of his life in a wheelchair. He liked to call it
his wheelbarrow. It was during the 1960s that Cad discovered bonsai.
He soon became a nationally known expert and pioneer in American bonsai.
He had a way of infusing this venerable Oriental art with his own distinctive
brand of American inventiveness. He added live waterfalls to rock
plantings; found a handy way of making saikei containers from picture frames,
peg board and acrylic paint; and forced rocks to stand how and where he wanted them
by anchoring them in a container with a commercial product called "Bonsal." He
described these techniques in at least three articles in the ABS
Bonsai Journal and the end results were exhibited at
two annual ABS symposiums. He was a director of the American Bonsai
Society, and a past president of both the Bonsai Society of the Carolinas
and the North Carolina Paraplegic Society. He loved bonsai and its
challenge, and he loved to share his enormous reservoir of knowledge and
enthusiasm. He believed that a bonsai collection had great therapeutic
value, and bonsai in the area was called "Brunsai -- an irascible spirit
in a rolling container." He was equally generous with his bonsai,
often giving fine specimens to a friend or an unknown novice. He
was said to have developed and given away more bonsai in his last several
years than most people will ever own. At the time of his passing
he had probably brought home more ribbons from bonsai shows than anyone
in the Southeast. He was vice-chairman of the ABS '71 Norfolk Symposium.)
("ABS News: Meet The Directors,"
Bonsai Journal, ABS, Vol.
4, No. 2, Summer 1970, pg. 14; "A Memorial" by Dorothy S. Young,
Bonsai Journal,
ABS, Vol. 5, No. 1, Spring 1971, pg. 17) SEE ALSO: Nov 15
2005 -- Australian teacher Max Candy died in Campsie, a suburb in south-western Sydney, at age 73 of prostate cancer. (Born in 1932, Max had been introduced to bonsai by a neighbour, Nona Woods -- a long time bonsai personality in Sydney who had started the Western Suburbs Bonsai Group -- and Max's interest just stuck. His parents hated Nona from then on as she had infected him with bonsai. Max had started work at a newspaper and he could photograph and write articles, although he was not prolific. He joined the family business, which was the manufacturing of men's and women's belts from leather and vinyl, and he stayed connected till the business ran down many years later due to competition from overseas. He raced Motor bikes as a young man. Max and his friends would ride to the competition, put on their helmets and leathers, run the race, and then take off all the protective gear and ride home. The gear wasn't compulsory back then and he didn't want to look like a sissy.) (Max was a very creative and inquisitive man and he loved Figs most of all. He even converted the factory where his family business ran from for many years and it was known in the 1980s as the "Fig Factory." He experimented on Figs along many lines: fertilizing, defoliation, repotting, directional cutting of roots to encourage fatter trunks, trunk fattening by other means, shaping aerial roots, bending branches, Lime Sulphur application, complete cutting off of root base and striking the whole trunk again as a big cutting, etc. He carried on from where Leonard "Lenny" Webber stopped. Max's favourites were the Port Jackson Fig (Ficus rubiginosa) and Ficus eugenioides. He also experimented with Elms, Maples, and Pines in various ways and loved busting the myths around what you could and couldn't do with these plants as bonsai.) (He was a long time member of the Illawarra Bonsai Club (est. 1970) and was an influential member of the Western Suburbs club. He did the photography for the 1989 Vita and Dot Koreshoff book Bonsai in the Tropics. One quirk of his was that after an illness in his 40s or 50s he hardly ever slept and instead would work on things -- bonsai of course, at all hours.) (Max had a few tough years in a row near the end of his life. His father -- a very fit man who almost looked younger than Max -- had died a few years before, but in one short period Max's mother died, his brother died, one of his daughters died in a house fire and his granddaughter was burnt badly in the same fire. The fire accident was one week before the famous Sophie Delezio case, and his granddaughter was moved out of intensive care to make way for the more injured Sophie. His grandaughter eventually became interested in photography and his grandson became interested in Bonsai -- so look out for Jack. This perked Max up for a while near the end.) 
Max Candy at a Workshop. (Photo courtesy of Grant Bowie)
(Postings in AusBonsai.com by Grant Bowie, 14 Mar 2010 and 23 Mar 2010;
image from Bowie posting 26 Feb 2010; personal e-mail to RJB from
Betty Candy 11 Sep 2011)
SEE ALSO: Jan 28, Aug 31
|
| 17 |
1925 -- Jean Carroll was born in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. [She would grow up in Independence, Missouri and would move to Ft.
Walton Beach, FL in 1955. She would be a founding member of the Ft. Walton Beach Bonsai Society in 1972 and
and Bonsai Societies of Florida the following year. As Jean C. Smith, she would become
known worldwide for her love of bonsai.]
(Fabian, Lynn "Jean Carroll Smith 1925 - 2009", Bonsai Societies of Florida, May 18, 2009,
http://web.archive.org/web/20100307015858/http://www.bonsai-bsf.com/news/Jean_Carroll_Smith;
photo of Jean's headstone by longtime student Russell Coker on Facebook, November 30, 2013)
SEE ALSO: May 15
2013 -- Michael Dean Blanton, age 57, concluded an almost three year fight against stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer at home in the arms of his loving wife, Amy. (Mike was born and raised in Murfreesboro, TN, 35 miles/56 km southeast of Nashville, TN. On the same street, Amy Harding was also growing up. Mike and Amy both attended the same neighborhood schools, but didn't start dating until college. They married after graduation and spent two weeks shy of thirty-six wonderful years together. Mike bought his first bonsai on a trip back from Florida from a guy hawking on the side of the road. The little tree survived the summer fine, but when winter came and Mike took it inside the home, well, you know the rest... That first masterpiece died, but not the desire to try again. Their collection eventually reached around 100 trees ranging from California Junipers to Rocky Mountain Junipers and Alaskan Cedars to Shohin Maples. Mike had the opportunity to study with some of the best artists and friends in the United States such as Roy Nagatoshi, Ryan Neil, Warren Hill, Bjorn Bjorholm, and many others. He used bonsai for twenty-five years as a form of stress relief from his duties as a firefighter with the City of Murfreesboro. After his retirement in 2005, he spent eight years full time in the yard with his trees. Amy was an educator and administrator for thirty-five years. They enjoyed traveling and spending time in their yard which was modeled after Japanese gardens and included two Koi ponds. They were members of Rutherford County Master Gardeners, local pond and Koi groups, and the Nashville Bonsai Society where Mike served as vice-president and Amy was secretary for many years. Mike served as Membership Chairman and Board Member for the American Bonsai Society, and a club member in various clubs throughout the region as well as a member of the Nippon Bonsai Society. He had two articles published in the ABS Journal (2010, Vol. 44/1, and 2013 Vol. 48/1). In November 2009, Mike and Amy entered a tree in the 29th Grandview Bonsai Exhibition (Nippon Bonsai Taikan-ten) in Kyoto, Japan. They were honored to receive the "Superior in Shohin Bonsai Section Award," becoming the first Americans to receive an award in a Japanese Bonsai exhibition. Mike believed it was time to take American Bonsai to the next level as the greatest trees in the world were right here in our back yard. Mike's favorite tree to work on was any kind of Juniper and he had many varieties in his collection. He especially liked Yamadori and was successful in sustaining these collected trees in the South.) [Since Mike's passing, Amy would be carrying on his legacy by maintaining his trees now known as The Blanton Collection. The Artisan Cup would take place in September 2015 at the Portland Oregon Art Museum featuring 71 bonsai from across America. Amy Blanton would be announcd as having tied for third place for a tree that was created by Mike. The estimated 450-year-old Rocky Mountain Juniper (Juniperus scopulorum) had been in training for four years.] ("Michael Dean Blanton," Pittsburg Post-Gazette, December 19-21, 2013; " Patron of American Bonsai: Amy Blanton, September 3, 2015," September 25-27, 2015; "Gender Disparity in American Bonsai" by Samantha Holm, Bonsai - The Journal of the American Bonsai Society, 2021, Volume 55, Number 3, Pages 34-42; "Artisans Cup," Bonsai Empire, January 2016; "BSOP Periodical Index by Artist) SEE ALSO: May 22, Sep 8, Sep 25 |
| 18 | 2008 -- Luis Vallejo was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays by the Emperor of Japan. The official presentation of the decoration and diploma was made today by the Ambassador of Japan in Spain, Mr. Motohide Yoshikawa. The award was given to Luis because of his important work and initiatives for the promotion and rise in quality of bonsai in Spain and abroad. (Bonsai Focus, 2/2009, #120, pg. 90; see also this 2016 Spanish Master's Thesis about Vallejo) SEE ALSO: Nov 15 |
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