While Boon, Peter Tea and I were poking around Ishii’s nursery outside of Nagoya last year, we came across a number of great Japanese maples. They looked familiar to us, but we didn’t immediately figure out why.

Japanese maple

Great root base

Another substantial root base

A pair of maples

It was the first time I’d seen these trees in leaf, but all the signs were there – great trunks, interesting branches, and a familiar technique for removing large branches one section at a time that encouraged resulting wounds to heal quickly. These had been Ebihara’s trees.

Removing a large branch

The patient approach to branch removal

It appears that Ishii acquired many of Ebihara’s bonsai when Ebihara was unable to care for his trees due to health reasons. Boon and I had seen these trees in 2009 sitting on directly on asphalt with duct tape or drainage screen doubling as pots.

Maples at Ebihara’s garden, 2009

The containers remained the same at Ishii’s garden.

Developing maple in wood tray

No pot needed for now

We also spotted a zuisho project from Ebihara. This was one of a number of large trees undergoing many grafts in a long-term effort to produce big zuisho bonsai. What a fun project!

Zuisho