82nd Meifu-ten Bonsai Show

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 in Japan behind Kokufu-ten and this year exhibited over 170 trees.  All the trees belong to hobbyist and collectors.  The average attendance of for the three day show is about 7 thousand (Not too shabby!).  There is also a large sales area which I was working at for most of the three days.  I walked through the show and took some pictures to share with all of you readers!  I have 65  pictures of trees and things going on during the show, so instead of posting all of them one by one, I decided to put them all in a gallery format.  Hopefully that will suite you all just fine and save me a whole bunch of time! (Thanks!)  If you ever find yourself in Nagoya during January, this is a show that I suggest you don’t miss!  Plus, you can come by Aichi-en and visit me as well (I get lonely…).  Hehehe.  Enjoy the show everybody!

Black Pine

Satsuki Azalea. I got a laugh out of this tree because it reminded me of a person shrugging their shoulders

Twisty Shimpaku Juniper

I really like this dwarf cumquat because it’s a root over rock. No many of these guys around.

Small Trident Maple. I like the pot for this tree as well.

Chinese Quince. Winter is the best time to show these trees because we can then see the multi-colored trunk

Nice Camellia with pinkish flowers

Korean Hornbeam. The rock the tree is growing around didn’t make the tree lighter…

Collected Shimpaku Juniper. This tree won top prize at the show

Root over rock Trident Maple. One of my favorite trees at the show

Interesting accent plant. Japanese Quince inside a moon shaped pot

Small literati Red Pine

Big Needle Juniper. Another one of my favorites

Kokonoe White Pine. Other then the short needles, these trees are actually stronger at the base then the top. Though I’m sure you figured that out by the picture.

Medium literati Needle Juniper. Nice!

Very interesting and strange collected Shimpaku juniper

Big literati Black Pine

Great collected Shimpaku juniper. Another favorite

Exposed root Princess Persimmon. One guest asked me if the tree was alive. I laughed and assured her that all the trees were alive.

Trident Maple

Clump Trident Maple

A wonderful root over rock Trident Maple. We have one similar at Aichien

Mr. Tanaka used these birds as an accent for a tree. I like it!

Another great accent. Fern, grass and Japanese Quince

Hinoki Cypress. The tag on the bottom right signifies that this tree is titled, “Important Bonsai Masterpiece.” This tree was not judged.

Japanese Maple (Seigen, red leaf variety). This tree was made in Aichien by Mr. Tanaka’s father.

Large and old dwarf cumquat. I’d like to see more of these in the US as bonsai.

Japanese Quince that is native to the Nagoya area. They blossom for a longer period and they don’t have thorns. I’ll take it!

Big Black Pine

Clump Japanese Holly

Dense Black Pine. The pot seems a bit small for such a large canopy. That’s my feeling at least.

Needle Juniper by Mr. Ken Fujiwara. Another one of my favorites

Old Japanese Quince.

Classic White Pine. This tree took second place at the show. We believe it can be a Kokufu-ten prize contender in the future. Mr. Tanaka worked on this tree. I was fortunate enough to wire the back branch. 😀

Nice meaty Japanese Maple

It wouldn’t be a bonsai show with a shohin display.

Twisty Shimpaku Juniper. This one was grown and not collected.

White Pine in a crescent rock pot.

Dense Black Pine. The pot it is in has impressions of old Japanese money. I need to get myself one of these! This tree was created in Aichien by Mr. Tanaka and sold last year

Hollow trunk White Pine

Large Camellia. I’m starting to like Camellias more and more.

Flowering Cherry. It’s a bit early for it to bloom so it was probably put in a Greenhouse to get it to bloom. Good timing!

Shimpaku Juniper

Flowering Plum

Satsuki Azalea. This tree is telling us to go that way.

Hollow trunk flowering Cherry. No flowers on this one yet.

Needle Juniper with a tall jin. I have a Juniper that’s similar looking.

Black Pine. Jonas (BonsaiTonight.com) worked on this tree while he was here for the apprenticeship program

Nagoya Japanese Quince

Chunky White Pine!

Elegant twin trunk Japanese Maple

Black Pine

Black Pine

Black Pine that Jonas worked as well.

Black Pine. Interesting trunk line

I thought this stand was interesting. What do you think? What tree should be on a table like this and are there limitations to having a maple leaf design?

A shot of the large sales area

I’ll take this whole row please.

Daiju-en sales table

Aichien sales table

On the first day of the show, about 50 percent of the people coming through the door walked directly to the sales area first.

Uch Sempai and Chris Baker (new Daijuen apprentice from the US) setting up a tree.

Each day of the show, there was a charity auction and a demonstration. Here is Mr. Ken Fujiwara talking about a Shimpaku Juniper

Another demonstration on how to repot a Black Pine forest.

Juan Andrade and Mr. Ken Fujiwara looking at some Bonsai pictures. Juan is from Costa Rica and currently taking advantage of the apprenticeship program at Aichien.

Now that Meifu-ten is over, our next big event is the 86nd Kokufu-ten.  That show is the number one show in Japan and will be held in Tokyo on Feb 4-10.  I hope some of you will be able to make it this year, but if not, I’ll be sure to get you some pictures and details of the show.

A Milestone for the Blog

I want to thank all of you for subscribing to the blog.  As of today I have 347 subscribers which is about 347 more readers then I ever thought would subscribe.  Hahaha!  But seriously, I thought I might get 50 people max if that.  This just motivates me to continue to write more articles and make them better and better every time.  Thanks for all your support!

Thanks for coming to the show!