The next morning saw us bright and early at Shinji Suzuki’s wonderful garden. Everything about Mr. Suzuki’s garden spoke of taste and refinement, from the trees, to the garden environs, the pots…even the tea, and obligatory snacks, were tasteful and high class.

While most all of the nurseries we visited had at least one, if not several, Kichou(registered large bonsai masterpiece) or Miyabi(registered shohin and chuhin cultural treasure) Bonsai, At the Suzuki garden, there were nearly more Kichou bonsai than we saw the entire rest of the trip!

American apprentices Matt Reel and Tyler Sherrod hard at work. In addition to these two talented gentlemen, Michael Hagedorn was also a Deshi here, once upon a time.

The first trees one sees upon entrance: those are NOT shohin. Around 5 feet tall, with the massive pots.

And, turning a corner…
A Few Bench Shots

Some Individual Trees

Mr. Suzuki’s famous Tosho

Elegant Kaede Group

Massive Ezomatsu(Ezo spruce)

Refined Shimpaku with interesting Jin

Massive Goyomatsu(white pine) with significant deadwood

Ezomatsu

A very famous White Pine, one of my all time favorites.

Ezomatsu

Massive Ezomatsu

Ume

Momiji

Large Taxus

And from the side, the large Taxus above

Another Taxus

Camellia

Eleagnus and grass

Chojubai

Kaede

Crepe Myrtle? Stewartia?

Black Pine

Shimpaku

White Pine

Shimpaku

Red Pine

Black Pine

Red Pine?

Elegant cascade pine

Unique and interesting Red pine

Awesomely refined Tosho

A famous Shimpaku

Semi Cascade black pine

Shimpaku

Shimpaku

Shimpaku

Camellia

White Pine

White Pine ishitzuke

White Pine with great ten-jin

White Pine

Cascade white pine

Cascade Shimpaku

Black pine

Shimpaku

Black Pine

Red Pine

Interesting twisted White Pine

Shimpaku

Stewartia, from the side

Old Shohin Trident in a famous Tofukuji Pot

Close up of the pot

And the Echizen Hosui in my collection that is an homage to the above Tofukuji

Ezomatsu

Fantastic Red Pine

Shimpaku

Tosho

One of my favorite trees of the day 😉
There, at random on one of the benches, a tiny Mame bonsai of no great importance

Shimpaku

White Pine

Semi cascade white pine

Shimpaku

Shimpaku

Tosho

Stinky Maple

Momiji

Interesting tray planting of spruce and a stone

Kaede Clump

And we’ll finish up our look at some of the trees at Suzuki San’s garden with this shohin Dwarf Rose, popping a couple of blooms for out visit.
Some Close Ups

A massive pine undergoes an air layer

Famous Sabamiki on a White Pine

Bark!!

Impressive Deadwood

Bark an base detail on Iwashide(hornbeam)

Ibo-jin on Ezomatsu

Twisty Shimpaku and Jin detail

Jin Detail on Shimpaku

Ezomatsu sabamiki/Shari

Shimpaku deadwood

Momiji base

Kaede base

Shoujuen
After leaving Suzuki San’s garden, we were taken to Shoukuen, the garden of Takashii Iura, and his father before him. Iura San was very kind and welcoming, and the garden…well….it was beyond cool. Iura San’s father specialized in the collecting and grafting of Yamadori, and like many who specialized in this, his son went on to specialize in training and styling these trees, with Takeo Kawabe.
There were many many trees at Shoujuen, in varying states of completion, from raw stock Tohaku, Tosho, and Yews getting their first grafts, to some of my favorite refined bonsai of all time.
Iura was very kind in allowing us to hang out for half the day, despite the oppressive heat, and took us out for a very nice lunch of Sushi and Sashimi. He’ll be at the Mid Atlantic Bonsai Society spring convention this year, so keep an eye out for him.

The above two are two of my favorite Junipers of all time: Raijin and Fujin, the gods of thunder and lightning, and Wind, respectively.

Massively impressive Shimpaku. Like most, these started as either Tohaku or Tosho, and have had their “clothing changed” to finer Itoigawa or Kishu foliage.

Small Shimpaku

A massive collected Juniper undergoing
“clothing change”. That’s Peter Warren there to the right. He was a real trooper dealing with us in this trip, and looks a lot better than we all felt by this time on the trip.

Some impressive Junipers, all grafted with finer foliage

Massive Shimpaku with grafted foliage

Some large and impressively twisty yamadori Junipers

Semi-cascade Shimpaku with fan-style deadwood

Impressive and elegant Shimpaku

Super twisty yamadori Shimpaku

Impressive Shinpaku on poles throughout the garden

In the back, benches upon benches of yamadori undergoing grafting

Tosho becoming Shimpaku

Further back, in the greenhouse, many massive Yews in development

More yews undergoing grafting and rough styling

Shimpaku in the process of grafting

Nice Chuhin Yew

Some lonely Deciduous bonsai 😉

A Prostrata juniper being transformed into a Shinpaku. The pots for the scions are visible, as is the original foliage.

A massive juniper with terrible foliage is being transformed with grafts.

A very famous juniper. I was wondering where it was when first arrived at Shunka-en. Here, being grafted for improvement. Even the most famous and refined trees are continually being improved upon in Japan.

From the middle of thorough stock area

Nice Taxus

Shinpaku with grafts set.

Tosho becomes Shimpaku

Tohaku becomes Shimpaku

From the front gate…
Close Ups

The incredible Ten-Jin and deadwood of Fujin. For some better shots, check out Peter Tea’s visit:
Peter Teas Visit to Shoujuen

Thanks for reading! Next up, we visit Shunkaen and Akiyama San, then Morimae San and Yoruzuen, and, finally, Pottery Journal 1 and 2.