The next morning had us up bright and early to visit Fujikawa Kouka-en. If you’re reading this blog, chances are good that you’re a hobbyist advanced enough to be very familiar with Fujikawa San, the nursery, and the wonderful videos created there by Bjorn Bjornholm. You are also probably familiar with American professional Owen Reich, Maeoka San, David Martinez, and probably even many of the trees at the nursery.
If you are Not, head over to the YouTube as soon as you are done reading here and spend a couple of days watching them! And while you’re at it, stop by Owen’s and Bjorn blogs as well.
The Bonsai Art of Japan
Bjorvala Bonsai Studio
Owen’s Bonsai Unearthed
Fujikawa San was a gracious host, and had Bjorn guide us throughout the the nursery, despite his workload of a very large and impressive hinoki undergoing an air layer.
So, let’s check out some trees! I’m going to split these up by category, because there are a lot of photos: overviews and feature shots, Junipers, pines and other Conifers, deciduous and broadleaf evergreens, and deadwood and close ups.
Feature Shots and Overviews
Bjorn’s work of the day, a client’s hinoki cypress undergoing an air layer. I’m sure he would’ve been much farther along than those lowest branches if hasn’t had to stop work every thirty seconds to translate and show us around!
Bjorn answers questions and explains the reasoning behind the large box this shishigashira maple was planted in.
As Bjorn explains, In the background, you’ll see the bars of what is affectionately referred to as “the jail” where specimen trees are housed; a remnant of the bonsai boom years where tree prices were so high that theft was an issue.
The Shishigashira maple subject.
Bjorn goes on to explain the necessity of Ume grafting.
Junipers
Pines and Other Conifers
Deciduous and Broadleaf Evergreens/strong>
Ficus
Kaede
Kaede
Momiji
Hornbeam
Crepe Myrtle with some showy flowers
Momiji
Momiji
Momiji
Dwarf Asiatic Jasmine
Camelia
Ume
Ume
Ume
Ume
Momiji
Apple
Close Ups
Crepe Myrtle trunk
Momiji nebari with my hand for scale
Ume and deadwood
Shimpaku Jin and deadwood
Kusamono with one of my favorites: the terrestrial orchid egret flower.
Kusamono
Pine shari and Deadwood
Shimpaku fin-style deadwood
Pine Shari with Uro(branch hollow)
Shimpaku deadwood
Shimpaku deadwood
Shimpaku Ten-jin
Ume Ten-Jin
Ume Shari and deadwood with Uro
Ume deadwood
Ume shari and deadwood
Momiji Base
And I’ll finish up with a final shot of that Shishigashira maple from earlier.
I can’t stress enough how great it was to visit Fujikawa Kouka-en. If your trip to Japan takes you within half a days travel of Osaka, it’s not to be missed!
Yoshoen
I’ve known and dealt with Rie Aketo San at Yoshoen for a couple of years now, and it was nice to finally see the garden. Yoshoen is more like a big-box store than many of the other nurseries we visited, with an incredibly impressive array of bonsai, of many many species, and every size. While Yoshoen doesn’t boast the most historical of pottery selections, they definitely boast the largest!
More literal seas of Bonsai!
Specimen shohin black pines.
Shohin starter and larger black and red pines.
Larger and more developed pine stock.
A group of various species, I think I see Tosho, Beauty Berry, Momiji, and Satsuki, plus a field of starter stock.
Impressively fruiting Toringo Crabapple.
One of the most impressive Arakawa Shohin I’ve seen. While most everything at Yoshoen was very reasonably priced, this bad boy was not cheap!
Shohin Eleagnus
Very nice shohin Ume, definitely something on my wish list!
Asiatic Jasmine(Chirimen)
Shohin Black pines.
Tosho(Needle Juniper)
Cascade Black Or Red Pine
There were several of these around the nursery. Not an unusual sight in our Southern neck of the woods! Mimosa, or silk tree.
Kaede
Nice Hokaidachi Zelcova
Miura Baijuen
I’ve long enjoyed browsing Miura San’s website for pics of shohin bonsai, and it was nice to see the nursery in person. It’s interesting, some nurseries show the least online, yet have the largest stocks around! Miura Baijuen boasted an impressive array of shohin bonsai, pots, stands, and suiseki.
Big pines and matching shitakusa
More big pines
Shohin Akebia
A long row of larger pines
Various Species
Nice Shohin ROR Kaede
Super nice shohin Ume. Got to get me one of those!
Shohin Akebia. Like many vines, it’s got that weird nodule near the base.
Kaede, Miyajima white pine, and Stewartia
Cascade Akebia
World class shohin stretch far into the distance. The fenced rear area was client trees.
No idea what this is, but I thought the base was rather interesting and the trunkline elegant.
Hornbeam
Two sides of a Shohin Ume in development. Did I mention I gotta get me one of these?
Big boy Satsuki with the lush mountainous background of Miura Baijuen
And we’ll finish up today with this weird citrus. It’s some type of contorted dwarf kumquat, in a Koyo pot. Never seen IT before! Branches were much more coarse than the popular Kinzu, but the wild herringbone growth is very unique and interesting. Yet another variety to add to the list!
Thanks for reading! Up next, we visit some fellow Americans(and Shinji Suzuki’s nursery….) as well Iura San and Shoujuen(watch out MABA!) one of the highlights of my trip!
Stay tuned, I’ll have that next post up by Friday!
Japanese Bonsai Pots Blog 
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Thanks Ryan – am really enjoying the tour!
The species that you said had a interesting base and elegant trunkline from Baijuen is a Pieris Japonica. Btw, very nice photos, please keep them going…
Incredible photos. Thanks for sharing this peek inside these fantastic nurseries.