Back in March, I was contacted by Oscar Jonkers from Bonsai Empire asking to visit my garden. I do not normally open my garden to people...

Hi Everyone, Just wanted to let you know that I've updated my sales page with new trees and updated photos of older trees. If you're...

Great news everyone! I finally got my sales page up and you are all invited to check out the latest Bonsai I have for sale. You can view...

Have you ever wondered how high quality bonsai have full and dense branch structures? I know, dumb questions right? I think we've all...

Thank you everyone and welcome to my new website and blog! ...again It's been many years since I wrote my last blog post so I apologize...

Utah Juniper (aka “Big Sexy”) Now that I have settled back in California, it’s time to rebuild my Bonsai collection!  For the past 6...

As I was preparing for my apprenticeship in Japan, there was some big decisions to be made.  I had about 15 or so Bonsai trees and...

Kishu Shimpaku grafted on Sierra Juniper It’s great to be home!  Though once I got home, there wasn’t much time for a vacation and I got...

The Return Of The King A few months ago I was fortunate enough to work on this large Japanese Black Pine.  The work wasn’t major and...

The Bonsai Ceramics of Syu-zan (舟山) For those of you that don’t know, I’ve been actively learning and collecting more and more Bonsai...

A Western Juniper Awaits The last time I was in California was September of 2012 and during that time I got a chance to reunite not with...

Private Collector Celebrates! Last week we went over to Daijuen and helped them setup a special show for one of their customers. I’ve...

22nd Annual Gomangoku Show 五万石展 (Daijuen and Friends) In December of 2012, I was fortunate enough to be a part of a large local show...

Shimapku, The Unexpected Surprise It was just another work day at Mr. Moriyama’s garden in early December and the weather was starting to...

32nd Annual Taikan-ten A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to attend the 32nd annual Taikan exhibit held in Kyoto.  The show was held...

One Pot To Rule Them All #2 In the past, I’ve written a short post about this Maruhei pot that was made in the Tokoname area.  Please...

The End? I Think Not! !!!SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!!! As you all know by know (hopefully) I am in my second year as an apprentice at Aichien....

#2 Trident Maple Project (cont) As promised, here is an update of my other Trident Maple project.  The last post I wrote about this tree...

Root Over Rock Trident Maple Project (con’t) Do you remember this tree?  It’s been awhile since I’ve talked about this Trident Maple....

Shimpaku Clean Up and Styling Now that I’m all settled back in Japan, I can get back to work and get some more posts on the blog.  If you...

Kit-tachi Oh-sumi-kiri Gaku-men Chou-hou (8 sided pot) One of my favorite shapes in Bonsai ceramics is this type of 8 side pot.  It is...

Inspiration from Nature, Japanese Maple Recently I took a visiting apprentice by the name of Lieuwe (from The Netherlands) to Nagoya...

“Good Taste,” Trident Maple This Trident Maple came to the yard about 3 months ago and is one of the trees I water on a regular basis....

It’s funny how things seem to be so much older looking back a year and a half.  Perhaps it’s not really the age but the improvements over...

Namako Ceramic Pottery Lets talk ceramics in this post!  Since there is so much to say about ceramics in Bonsai, it’s difficult to find a...

Pushing the Limit 2 with the Scenic Route I thought you’d all enjoy an update about this Black pine that was heavily bent last Winter....

De-candling and Stuff! Now that Summer is in full swing, we’re moving away from the deciduous into the Black/Red Pine work.  During the...

The Trident Maple Project and Summer Maple Work After a long day of De-candling and pulling needles, it was good to get back to the leafy...

Rebuilding a Japanese Maple Now that all the defoliating has been done to the refined trees here at Aichien, it was time to work on the...

Still Remember Me? Last April, I revisited this tree again, and you guessed it, pulled all the needles off.  Except, this time, we took...

Randomness of Daily Life Since the last couple of post I’ve wrote as been pretty heavy on Bonsai, I thought I’d lighten it up this time...

Repotting a Beast The first tree I noticed when I came to Aichien a year ago was this huge monster Black Pine!  As I wondered around the...

Lets Bend! Part 3 Repotting season is coming to an end here at Aichien an how fitting that this Black Pine turned out to be the last tree...

I love the Smell of Pesticides In the Morning! Well it’s that time of year again!  Spring is in full swing here in Nagoya and deciduous...

The Trident Maple Projects (yes, another two…) As if I wasn’t busy already, I decided to add a couple more project trees to my plate....

The Japanese Maple Experiment Since it’s repotting season and I was itching for a maple side project, I asked Mr. Tanaka if I could...

One Pot To Rule Them All Many of you might know that I have a strange fascination with pots that have exceptionally large lips.  I think...

Restarting a Trident Maple Now that I’m settled back in Japan I’ve been busy repotting, wiring and cutting back trees. It’s back to...

Just Plastic Rope In the last Blog post of Mr. Tanaka’s work, many of you commented on the rope that he used instead of raffia to make a...

Tanaka, Junichiro 田中 淳一郎 I was working in the workshop as usual one day and Mr. Tanaka brings in this Black Pine and sets it on his work...

Going Home! Oh Sweet Freedom! That’s right!  I’m going to be going home on vacation!  I’m writing this post as lay on my soft squishy bed...

Flowering Plum Basics The wait is over! Last year, I’ve gotten many request to write a post about Japanese Flowering Plum and here it is!...

Formal Black Pine and Kihachikai Show Last week I was tasked to work on this large formal upright (Chokkan) Black Pine. The timing worked...

Concrete Pot Mystery??? Mr. Tanaka and I were organizing one of the storage rooms today and we came across this strange pot.  When Mr....

Pushing the Limit! One day, Mr. Tanaka brought this Japanese Black Pine into the workshop and said, “clean this tree up for the auction...

The Other Things I do Around Here Though I am living the Bonsai life, I’m not necessarily always doing Bonsai.  Many of you may have...

Lets Bend! Part 2 Do you remember this Black Pine?  Back In July of 2011 I bent the trunk of this tree and wrote a post about it...

Rebar Basic on Black Pine The day Mr. Tanaka left the nursery to bring trees to Kokufu-ten, he tasked me to style this Japanese Black...

82nd Meifu-ten Bonsai Show January 14-16 was the 82nd Annual Meifu-ten Bonsai show in Nagoya Japan.  Meifu-ten is the second oldest show...

Black Pine Revisited Do any of you remember this tree?  If so, great memory!  This was one of the first Black Pines I worked on here at...