A man with big plans for the small world of bonsai

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fs20120221a3.html


Bonsai master: Kunio Kobayashi had Shunka-en built in 2002. The center now has more than 2,000 trees, such as those pictured below. STEPHEN MANSFIELD PHOTOS

Strolling through Shunka-en's dark wooden gate in the Nihori district of Tokyo's Edogawa Ward, hues change to green, and your eyes focus on trays of plants placed on single rows of trellis tables, or in massed tiers.



This is one of the foremost bonsai centers in Japan. Built in 2002, it now displays more than 2,000 specimens. The "en" of its name suggests "garden," and that's the initial impression the visitor gets stepping into the walled enclosure and onto black nachiguro stones embedded in mortar — a traditional Japanese-garden touch signaling the transition from one sphere to another.



Shunka-en is the life work of bonsai master Kunio Kobayashi. As the offspring of two interesting branches of devotion, since his grandfather was a priest, his father a florist, the horticulturalist has compared the art of bonsai to Japanese ink painting: the powerful trunks and branch forms akin to the monochrome lines created by brush strokes. What sets bonsai cultivation apart, is that it is a collaboration between man and nature, moderated by the slow passage of time.

That relationship with the temporal can extend through centuries. One of the most valued bonsai specimens at Shunka-en, and one that Kobayashi never fails to show visitors, is almost 1,500 years old. Rarity by association is also on show, one tree descending down the ages from its original ownership by the Shogun Iemitsu Tokugawa (1604-51). Kobayashi has said, "When you stand in front of a tree that has lived for 1,000 years, you feel that age and realize your own mortality. You bow to nature," adding, "Ultimately, this respect for nature is what bonsai is all about."