4th European Bonsai-San Show

The Four Disciples of Kimura live in action at the great Bonsai-San show.

In October last Frederic Chenal and Stephanie Chenal-Wheeler organised a special edition of the 4th European Bonsai-San show which was held in the French town of Saulieu. We arrived Friday evening, the day before the official opening of the show. Most of the trees had already arrived and were put on display after a check-up by the so-called Four Disciples: Masayuki Fujikawa, Marco Invernizzi, Taiga Urushibata and Hiroaki Suzuki who were, or are still, apprentices of Master Masahiko Kimura. They kept a close eye on the bonsai as they arrived to make sure they were ready for show and that the display tables and accent plants should fit well before the tree was put in place. I took a quick stroll along the display and it seemed that this edition’s trees had raised the standard of quality once more.