The Official Report
In January of 1995 I traveled to Briarcliff Manor, New York, for a three-day study session with Mr. Yuji Yoshimura. Shortly after my return, I wrote an account of the experience and submitted it to Arboretum administration to communicate the value of what I had learned. A copy was also shared with Dr. Creech and Mr. Yoshimura. What follows is an unedited transcript of that report.
STUDY SESSION AT THE YOSHIMURA SCHOOL OF BONSAI
Arthur Joura
January 26, 1995
Having recently completed a three-day period of intensive study at the Yoshimura School of Bonsai in Briarcliff Manor, New York, I offer this brief account of my activities for your review.
Mr. Yuji Yoshimura stands in the front rank of all bonsai artists in the world today. So it was with earnest gratitude, nervous anticipation and no small measure of awe for his professional stature that I approached these private lessons. With such high expectations and a near-idolatrous point of view, it would not have been surprising for the actual experience to have been disappointing or anti-climatic. Such was not the case. I feel that in the span of time beginning early evening January 14th until 10:00 pm January 17th I absorbed as much bonsai knowledge as I am physically and mentally capable of at this point in my development. As for my perception of Mr. Yoshimura, though the image of a legendary bonsai superhero has been replaced by a flesh-and-blood human being, my admiration and respect for him has been augmented, not diminished.
Having more than thirty years experience as a bonsai instructor in the United States, Mr. Yoshimura could have easily passed our time together teaching by rote. Instead, he personalized the course to suit my individual situation and present level of ability. Prior to my arrival Mr. Yoshimura requested that I supply him with a list of topics for discussion and study during my visit. This I did, and in composing the list I tried to address the specific needs of the Arboretum's collection, as well as areas of general or personal interest. This list was an ambitious one but it proved to be only the starting point for the range of information that was covered.
I brought with me photographic slides of twenty of the Arboretum's more significant bonsai trees, taken only one week before, and much time was immediately spent reviewing these. Mr. Yoshimura critiqued each tree, commenting on strong and weak points and suggesting a course for both long and short term future development in each case. He used these slides as a springboard for discourse on subjects ranging from creating harmony among the various elements of an individual tree's design to the aesthetics of container selection. The opinions and information imparted during this session will have a lasting impact on the refinement of our collection.
Anyone walking into Mr. Yoshimura's home would be immediately impressed by the sheer number of books, magazines and bound volumes of notes, newsletters and files that seem to spill off the shelves that line every wall. Virtually all of this material is in one way or another bonsai related. Repeatedly he would illustrate a point he wished to make by referring to books from his collection, which includes such things as original Chinese manuscripts from the 14th and 15th century. These contain illustrations that provided the basic motifs for what we now think of as bonsai design. Anytime that I was not actively involved in doing or observing some bonsai exercise or activity, or discussing the subject, I spent perusing this vast library trying to keep up with all the reading my teacher felt I should attend to. I brought home with me a large box containing even more printed matter in the form of books, notes and lesson sheets for homework, as well as half a dozen bonsai video tapes, an audio tape and a boxed set of slides documenting a now-legendary planting done in a public demonstration by Mr. Yoshimura in 1981.
Mr. Yoshimura is the main proponent in this country of what is known as "classical bonsai," the styles developed in Japan in the period between 1600 and 1950. Paradoxically, at the age of seventy-four he is also in the forefront of bonsai's avant-garde, constantly searching for something stylistically new and different. His philosophy, as I understand it, is that one must first have a firm grasp of the classical fundamentals, and then one may apply personal experience to them in a quest for something that is both individually and universally expressive. For me, one particularly intriguing lesson at Mr. Yoshimura's involved looking through a folder of material he had gathered from various sources, including magazine advertisements, greeting and postcards, and reproductions of well-known art works. These he had collected because they illustrated or suggested to him styling compositional elements that could be applied to bonsai design.
Not all of my instruction took such an unorthodox form. Mr. Yoshimura gave me a very straightforward lesson in the basics of wiring, a subject I thought I had fairly well in hand though I quickly came to think otherwise. We also reviewed the various tools, from the basic to the specialized, available to the bonsaist and their use and applications. We spent considerable time pouring over countless photographs of great aged bonsai from Japan which exemplified all the different classical styles. As a form of hands-on practice, Mr. Yoshimura has an artificial evergreen tree of about thirty-inches in height that he had me "style" into a formal upright by selecting branches to be removed or repositioned. In a similar exercise for forest or group plantings, he uses a number of smaller artificial trees of varying heights which can be easily arranged and re-configured on a board or in a pot.
With Mr. Yoshimura's consent, I had brought along a tree from the Arboretum's collection, a large slanting style baldcypress of great potential, to be the subject of a workshop-style session. In addition to the actual wiring and shaping of branches, we also discussed in-depth some future measures to take, including creating a driftwood element on the trunk and adding three small subsidiary trees to the planting. This will heighten the visual impact of an already impressive old specimen. We drew these ideas out on a piece of paper and Mr. Yoshimura stated that he believes the computer is now the best tool to use for such imaginings. He also proposed that such a tree as this baldcypress, and other quality pieces in our collection, might perhaps be given a name or title, something evocative, to enhance public appreciation. There is a precedent for this in both the Chinese and the Japanese bonsai traditions.
1993 - Baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) as received in the Staples’ donation. The tree was in similar condition when taken to the session with Mr. Yoshimura in New York.
January 1995 - The baldcypress as it appeared immediately after the work session. Note the indication in white chalk of a deadwood element on the tree’s trunk suggested by Mr. Yoshimura.
1999 - The baldcypress developing along the lines of Mr. Yoshimura’s stylistic design.
This brought up one notable and somewhat surprising part of my studies with Mr. Yoshimura. I had expected to be immersed in the artistic and, to a lesser degree, the horticultural aspects of bonsai, and in this I was not disappointed. But Mr. Yoshimura also spent considerable time expounding my responsibility as the curator of a public collection to engage the public and be constantly striving to create new ways to cultivate interest among people who have little or no previous exposure to the art form. He spoke of the need for me to develop a public speaking persona and pointed out the need for a touch of showmanship or drama when presenting lectures or demonstrations. He offered advice on ways of teaching bonsai, based on his many years of experience. He suggested some very thought-provoking ideas concerning formal display, a topic the Arboretum will need to address in the near future. He challenged me to formulate some new concept for a public bonsai collection that would distinguish The North Carolina Arboretum and put us on the bonsai world map. He expressed his vision and hope for an informational network system between all public gardens and arboreta housing bonsai collections, to facilitate the free exchange of ideas concerning issues of public interface. He was brimming with ideas, many of which I hope to follow up on in the months and years ahead.
The final day of my visit was given over to the creation of a new bonsai for our collection — a large forest planting of American hornbeam from trees grown in the Arboretum's nursery. I had brought along three traditional ceramic tray containers for this purpose, but Mr. Yoshimura was moved by inspiration and proposed instead to do the planting on a large, unusually-shaped wooden slab of his own design. Acting as his assistant, and under his watchful eye and direction, I root-pruned the trees and prepared the slab for the planting. Then I stepped back to observe and learn as the master worked. I feel that it should be mentioned that on this particular day Mr. Yoshimura was not feeling physically well. I suspect that the previous two days of intense, early in the morning until late at night concentration and effort had taken their toll and aggravated a pre-existing health condition. I repeatedly pleaded with Mr. Yoshimura to to take some rest and even suggested that we abandon altogether the idea of doing the ambitions group planting project. He would not hear of it.
With the stoical determination of a true artist, and in an impressive display of the ability to focus all energy in the pursuit of a single purpose, Mr. Yoshimura spent hours painstakingly arranging the seventeen trees that comprise the group. The result is a startlingly original composition. Time did not allow for the completion of the ground cover planting, which stabilizes the medium surface and lends authenticity to the landscape, but Mr. Yoshimura provided me with a flat full of small plants for this purpose, to be added later. This has now been accomplished. The group must be allowed now to grow and establish itself for a year; then it can be shaped, refined and put on display. On my way back to North Carolina I stopped at the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum in Washington, DC to renew professional relationships and solicit opinions concerning this new creation. Assistant curator Dan Chiplis spoke of it in highly complimentary terms of admiration and envy, noting that the national collection has nothing similar to it.
January 1995 - Seventeen-tree group planting of American Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana) on a plywood slab, constructed by Mr. Yoshimura on the final day of the study session. This tray landscape is now known as ‘Yoshimura Island”.
If the Arboretum received nothing more from Mr. Yoshimura than this — the wonderful new forest planting, the expert consultation on the development of the trees which make up the core of our collection, and the enhanced level of my ability to maintain and care for our collection — we would be right in thinking that we had profited handsomely from our association with him and the very modest fee paid to him for his services. Above and beyond all this, however, Mr. Yoshimura also honored us with a very generous donation of a splendid three-trunk style eastern hemlock bonsai from his own collection. This tree, a native American species (Tsuga canadensis), is approximately forty years old, has been trained in a pot for more than thirty years by Mr. Yoshimura himself, and takes its place at the top of the roll in the bonsai collection of The North Carolina Arboretum. The importance of this donation in terms of the credibility of our institution within the bonsai community can hardly be overstated.
January 1995 - Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) donated by Mr. Yoshimura to The North Carolina Arboretum bonsai collection. The full story of this tree was previously presented in the Curator’s Journal in a three-part series titled: “Eastern Hemlock”.
As much as the Arboretum has benefitted, I must claim for myself the greatest reward from this whole experience. From Mr. Yoshimura I gained much more than just bonsai knowledge. In our many hours of conversation, much of it of a personal nature, I learned about life and sacrifice, art and dignity. We shared moments of seriousness and introspection as well as moments of great humor. I gained a unique experience and a memory that I will carry with me always. For this I am of course grateful to Mr. Yoshimura, but also I am once again reminded of my great good fortune in being a part of this Arboretum. I thank those responsible at The North Carolina Arboretum for having confidence in me and investing in my continued education. I hope to one day be living proof that sometimes a dark horse can be the best bet.
Nearly three decades after the fact, the official written account of my study session with Mr. Yoshimura holds up sufficiently well to be presented here as documentation of what transpired. However, it is not a full accounting. It was written primarily for the people who had facilitated a professional development opportunity for me very early on in my career. I had reason to present events in a certain light, with emphasis on certain aspects of what happened, while other aspects went unmentioned. To some extent, in the immediate aftermath I was too close to what happened to have any perspective on it. Next week’s entry will provide the distant view — looking back, filling in the pieces missing from the official report and attempting to explain why those three days with Mr. Yoshimura changed the course of my life.