NABF Newsletter NO. 3

THE DESTINY OF THE YAMAKI PINE

By Chris Cochrane

The destiny of a bonsai to strengthen world friendship is sometimes not obvious. At other times, it so obvious that we can only marvel at its piquancy.

An event occurred on a recent spring weekend at the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum. The curator of arts and archives Jackson Tanner was passing the receptionist desk of the U.S. National Arboretum after the Museum had closed. The receptionist was trying to decipher a question being asked by five visitors who had apparently arrived late to the Museum, but who anxiously wished to visit a particular tree. Jackson stopped to listen.

Though language was a barrier, Jackson learned that the visitors from Japan had come to the Museum to visit a family's gift to the Museum collection. Jackson called the museum's curator Jack Sustic who quickly arranged a special showing. No one recognized the family connection to a particular tree until Jack recognized the name "Yamaki"... and he led the visitors through the entire collection, beginning at its exit, until stopping at the bonsai which now graces the entry to the Collection. At an estimated age of over 375 years, today this bonsai is the oldest tree in the collection.

The bonsai that the family had come to see was the Japanese five-needle pine donated by Masaru Yamaki. This tree had survived the bomb blast at Hiroshima (see the article) though it sat only 3 kilometers (less than 2 miles) from the the explosion! It had been tended by the Yamaki family for generations. During the United States Bicentennial celebration n 1976, Mr. Yamaki gave this tree to the American people as part of the original Japanese Bonsai Collection.

PHOTO BELOW: Jin, Takako, Amaki and Takehashi Tatsuzaki with Mararu Yamaki’s Japanese five-needle pine bonsai. May 9, 2003.

PHOTO BELOW: Jin & Takako Tatsuzaki with Bonsai Museum
curators Jim Hughes and Jack Sustic

The unannounced visitor was Mrs. Takako Tatsuzaki-- Masaru Yamaki's daughter. She had brought her husband Takashi Tatsuzaki as well as her son Jin and daughter Amaki to see her father's gift as well as introducing the tree to two family friends, Mr. and Mrs. Takehisa Iizuka (not pictured). Mrs. Tatzusaki was jubilant regarding the tree's health. The Museum curators were exuberant that they had the opportunity to meet the family of the donor. Each participant in this meeting shared a deep feeling of Mr. Yamaki’s unbounded generosity expressed through an extraordinary bonsai donation to the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum.

By coincidence, the visitors arrived on the day the National Bonsai Foundation held its annual meeting. They were invited to dinner that evening with board members and guests where American bonsai enthusiasts learned more of this extraordinary family and its precious bonsai gift.

BELOW: Jin, Amaki, Takako and Takehashi Tatsuzaki

One of Masaru Yamaki’s great gifts was the beauty he shared through bonsai appreciation. He could maintain trees far beyond the ordinary, yet this is the guidance he shared with others on appreciating bonsai:

Each bonsai has its special quality. Some express changes in the four seasons, while others express the elegance of nature in a pot.

Bonsai is not limited to expensive trees in a classic shape. Indeed, by using excessive wire or growing unnecessary branches in order to create a classic shape, the artist may fail to express the tree's essential beauty.

Trees best expressing bonsai no kokoro (the spirit of bonsai) are often marked by unaffected simplicity. Even if the tree has a slender trunk, it can still touch one's heart deeply, conveying with overflowing vitality the beauty of nature in fields and mountains. (translation from “The Hiroshima Survivor” on NBF’s website)

Visitors to the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum marvel at the Yamaki pine’s health and vigor today. Visitors marvel at its distant as well as its more recent history. When envisioning the thoughtful reflection of the Masaru Yamaki’s family before this gift, a visitor must marvel at its donor’s deep spirit expressed through this bonsai.