My Day With Kenji Miyata

Adam_MA

Hi all,
Well Saturday was a GREAT day. My club had a 7 hour workshop at New England Bonsai with Kenji Miyata. Now still being new to bonsai I didn't have many trees to bring with me. One of the trees I brought with me was a Japanese Maple that I got last year near the end of the season. The tree is very much a pontensi tree with not a whole lot of options. Kenji helped me chop the trunk where needed, and showed me the new buds about to sprout from the trunk that would be my future branches. He also helped me re-pot the tree from it's nursery container into a training pot, and worked over the root ball like I have never seen. He was very prompt to point out things in the root ball that needed to be cut off to allow for a nice flat root pad in the future.

Needless to say without bringing many trees I was done with what I brought in a short time, and went looking around the greenhouses for something else to work on. When I made my way back to the greenhouse we where working in, I noticed some Junipers off to the side. I asked Hitoshi if they were for sale and we went over to the table and told me the very fair price for these huge procumbens in 5 gallon pots. I chose the one that appealed to me the most and brought it back over to the bench.

Kenji made his way back over to me and looked at the tree with me and explained what options he saw in the tree, and asked what I saw. We took the tree out of the pot, and started to cut off some unneeded branches to get a better look at the trunk. We decided what style would look best with the tree I chose. I was in awe of how many different options he saw, and amazed at his simple instructions for achieving the result. Not speaking much English didn't stand in our way. The expressions on his face, and brief words like "wire here" "Jin here" and "straight no good" were perfect. I think being able to hear slight observations alone without much in-depth descriptions and reasons allowed me to make my own observations and enabled me to see what I have read in so many books.

Ok, enough babbling on, here are some pics.

Enjoy

Adam

First picture is of the juniper out of the nursery pot. I forgot to take any shots before 3 large cascading branches were removed, but you get the idea.

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before.jpg (51.5 KB, 584 views)

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Adam_MA

Here is an after shot, all potted up. I will have some time to practice my carving on the jins (can't wait)

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Adam_MA

And last here is a shot of Kenji, myself, and my new tree.

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kenjiandi.jpg (54.5 KB, 585 views)

Adam_MA

I sure enjoyed my time with Kenji and am now thinking about taking another class with him.

Any comments or suggestions are also appreciated.

Adam

TreeBay

Congrats, Adam!

Feel free to post that picture of Kenji and yourself inTeachers and Masters Gallery. Or post it in your own Gallery adn I'll move it to the Masters section after you do. We're starting to get a few in there.

That invitation is open to anyone with a picture of a bonsai teacher, instructor or master. There is no such photo gallery on the web to my knowledge.

Regards,

Matt

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ChrisM

adam, awesome tree!!! i too am thinking of taking advantage of kenji's time again at ne bonsai. was your expierience like mine? were you amazed by the way he works? fill us in on the details.

chris

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Treebeard

Hi Adam,

Looks like you had a great time.

Good job on the juniper, it has had the best of starts. Best of luck with the jinning, remember, 'do not be hasty'

Regards,

TB

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DavidN

What a great result. There is nothing better than learning from a master.

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Adam_MA

Matt: I have uploaded the picture to the gallery.

Chris: Yes, the way he works is truly amazing, one of the things that I learned and tried was the way he bends a branch once it's wired, he uses 2 pairs of pliers on the loops of wires and gets the most precise results. One of the larger branches required a piece of 6MM wire and that technique made it bend exactly the way he wanted it.

Chris (TB): Thanks, I plan on practicing quite a bit on some dead tree branches out in my yard before I even attempt it on this tree. Any advice on what tools work the best for simple jin carving?

David: Thanks! You are absolutely correct, nothing like it.

I just noticed last night on my way home from work that one of the larger nursery's near home has started to get their shipments of junipers in.... I think I am gonna take a ride by there today!!


Thanks
Adam