The Curator, the Bonsai Professional, the Englishwoman and Her Husband

The curator was in Japan. He was studying bonsai with a famous Japanese bonsai professional and now he was at the professional's house — in the professional's bonsai studio which was attached to his house. A big bonsai show was taking place at the time. The show was at the Tokyo Art Museum and the bonsai professional was very involved with organizing and running the event. The professional brought the curator with him every day when he went to the museum to work at the show.  Visitors came to the show from all over the world. On this particular day the show, near the end of its two-week run, was not open because the museum was closed. The famous Japanese bonsai professional on this day off was entertaining some foreign guests who visited him at his house. The guests, an old woman and her husband, were from England. The Englishwoman was a long-time international student of the famous bonsai professional.

The curator had been by himself in the professional's studio, looking at some bonsai books. The bonsai professional had been taking the Englishwoman and her husband on a tour of the professional's bonsai garden. Then the three of them came in the door to the studio where the curator was looking at books. The professional introduced the curator to his English guests, explaining to the guests that the curator was in charge of a public bonsai collection in the United States and had come to Japan to study. The professional then informed the curator that the woman was a very important person in European bonsai — a grande dame — and had been among the first prominent bonsai figures to emerge in England in the 1960s. The woman's husband was important, too, but not directly involved in bonsai. Everyone said hello to each other. The Englishwoman told the curator he was lucky to be studying with such a famous bonsai professional, and the curator smiled and agreed. The woman's husband said little more than "hello" after being introduced. Instead, he went over to the corner of the studio and sat in a chair. He seemed disinterested in further conversation and shut his eyes. For a few minutes the Englishwoman continued a discussion with the Japanese bonsai professional that had been interrupted when they returned to the studio. The bonsai professional listened politely, occasionally chuckling or making small comments, then said he had to go do something and suggested the curator and the Englishwoman talk to each other until he returned. The professional then left the room.

The curator and the old Englishwoman sat on opposite sides of a long metal table, upon which the bonsai books the curator had been looking at were spread out. The Englishwoman wore conservative dress clothes and quietly tasteful jewelry. Her hair was silvery white. She wore glasses and held a handbag in her lap. She spoke with a pronounced English accent and carried herself with an air of fluttering self-importance, coming across somehow as both extravagant and stuffy at the same time. The Englishwoman did most of the talking and the curator sat listening to her and smiling, doing everything he could to be agreeable. The curator had been doing a lot of that since coming to Japan just two weeks earlier. He had never been to Japan before and knew no one except the famous bonsai professional, but the professional knew many people. The bonsai professional was a conscientious host and introduced the curator to many important bonsai people who were at the bonsai show in the museum, including many who came to the show from other countries. The curator wanted to make a good impression. He smiled and did his best to signal an agreeable nature when introduced to these important people, many of whom spoke a different language than his. Now the curator was doing the same thing as he sat across the long metal table from the chattering Englishwoman. The curator glanced over to the corner of the room where the woman's husband sat. The husband had his chin sunk down, resting on his chest, his arms folded and his eyes closed. He appeared to be sleeping.

The Englishwoman was talking about bonsai things. She talked about the Japanese bonsai professional and her many years of study with him, always referring to the professional as sensei. The woman used many Japanese terms as she spoke. She talked about the big bonsai show, which she had traveled to Japan to see many times. She talked about famous bonsai people, and famous bonsai nurseries, and famous bonsai trees. The woman repeatedly asked the curator if he had encountered any of these famous attractions, which in most cases he had not. As the conversation went on, the Englishwoman asked more questions and began to eye the curator with a growing sense of wary curiosity. The curator confessed that he had not been doing bonsai for very long and that the public collection he managed was new and most of the trees in it were still being developed. He confessed his collection did not include any famous bonsai. The English woman now seemed a little bit suspicious. She squinted at the curator and slowly asked him, "Do you have goyo matsu?"

The curator knew that goyo matsu is the Japanese name for what Westerners call Japanese white pine, or five-needle pine. He knew hardly any Japanese plant names, but he knew that one. The curator felt he was being tested and somehow this made him feel impish. He decided to make a joke by giving a clever answer. "No," he said with a smile. "We do not have goyo matsu in our collection, but we do have a Japanese white pine!" 

The Englishwoman sat looking blankly at the smiling curator for a moment. Then her face fell into an expression full of disbelieving sadness. "Oh," she said, her voice small as if coming from a distance. "You're not in the bonsai world." The old woman averted her troubled eyes as she said again, her voice trailing off to almost a whisper, "You're not in the bonsai world."

The curator did not understand what was happening. He had made a little joke and now the venerable old Englishwoman looked hurt. "What?" he asked. The Englishwoman quickly turned her eyes toward him again. "You're not in the bonsai world," she said simply and directly. "You don't know goyo matsu — you're not in the bonsai world." The curator laughed nervously and said he was only making a joke, but the woman looked at him as if she was looking right through him. "You're not in the bonsai world," she said again, still with some sadness but now more firmly. Then the Englishwoman repeated it once more, this time with a frown as if she was making a pronouncement she did not want to make but had to make, "You're not in the bonsai world." 

Just then, the Englishwoman's husband, who had been sitting all the while in a chair nearby with his eyes closed, his chin down and his arms folded as if he were asleep, suddenly opened his eyes and raised his head. "Darling, why do you keep saying that?" he said. "Of course he's in the bonsai world — he's curator of a public collection in the States!" The Englishwoman looked at her husband and emphatically said, "Yes I know that, but he doesn't know goyo matsu! He's not in the bonsai world!"

The bonsai professional returned. The Englishwoman looked up at him as he entered the door, gave a nod with her head in the direction of the curator and said once more "He's not in the bonsai world." The professional raised his eyebrows. "Oh?" he said. "Yes," the Englishwoman said. "He doesn't know goyo matsu! He's not in the bonsai world." The Japanese bonsai professional glanced at the curator. "Oh," the professional said, "I am surprised!"