Stories of Great Bonsai
SABURO KATO'S COMMENTS
ON CREATING "THE REMOTEST HILL"
The Remotest Hill ("Saihate no Oka") was my first important work on forest-planting bonsai ("yose-ue"). After having created about 10 bonsai for Mr. Sakagami, a company president in Shimizu City, he requested that I create a once-in-a-lifetime bonsai for him.
Of Ezo spruce, he praised my father and my family for being the pioneer in bringing about its popularity for bonsai. To obtain the best Ezo spruce, we traveled as far as Kunashiri Island in Chishima Peninsula off Hokkaido. Mr. Sakagami's wish was for me to realize in bonsai the virgin forest of Hokkaido by using Ezo spruce.
The reason behind this is that Mr. Sakagami is an admirer of Takuboku Ishikawa, a famous poet. He wanted me to express the heart of Mr. Ishikawa's poem:
"Saihate no eki ni oritachi
Yuki akari sabishiki machi ni
Ayumi iriniki"
(I've gotten off at the remotest train stop, and walked into a lonely town lighted only by snow.)
"Shira shira to kouri kagayaki
Chidori naki
Kushiro no umi no
Fuyu no tsuki kana"
(Ice glittered, a plover cried, the winter moon light on the sea of Kushiro.)
The atmosphere that I sought to express in this forest planting can be described
as follows: "When he walks up the hill, he sees the severe view of
the harsh nature of Hokkaido."
The container I used to plant the "Saihate no Oka" bonsai is over two meters (6.5') in length. It took some time to make. I asked Mr. Kataoka in Tokoname, Nagoya, to make it for me. He and I communicate well. First, he fired off two pots, but both failed. All were broken and destroyed in the oven because the heat in it was very high. The second time, one out of two was successful. In the meantime, he made a smaller pot for me. I used it for a couple of years to test the final one.
The final work was completed in 1957 when I was 42 years old. It took four years, however, for me to collect the plants and decide on the arrangement. When that job was done, the rest was relatively easy. Putting them together did not take long.
I had started visiting Kunashiri at the age of 20. I would go there via Kushiro, and I had numerous chances to view Ezo spruce forests during those trips. In order to create such a forest as a bonsai, it would have to be a creation of nature, not merely a copy of it by taking out a part of it. The bonsai art is an arrangement of ideas in natural beauty. I visited Hokkaido many, many times for that.
To create the arrangement of "saihate" (remoteness) most expressively in bonsai, I searched Kushiro, Abashiri, and Mihoro. Crossing over Mihoro Pass, I walked toward a hot spring and nearby, there are Ezo spruce virgin forests. To impress my mind to this harsh view of the nature, I felt that it was necessary to visit those rather dangerous spots.
Before finalizing "Saihate no Oka," I had created multiple test models which were 1/10 of the final size, for the period of over three years. This was to observe the composition and how the trees grew together. I had selected the best trees from some 300 Ezo spruce. It was some work.
I kept a lot of Ezo spruce in my backyard. When I wanted some more, I used to get them in Hokkaido, or go around to other bonsai nurseries that I knew would have the trees from Chishima. Of the trees gathered up, I selected the ones I knew would grow well in the future. I did not compromise but insisted on the best quality. I did not want to regret it later so I really had to reject quite a few trees.
An Ezo spruce tree of a small-finger size can be a 100 years old. A tree of 12 cm to13 cm (4.7" to 5.1") in diameter can be of a similar age. I can tell by looking at the characteristics of the tree trunks and the branches. They came from Kunashiri Island. The grounds around the Chacha-dake mountains are frozen until July. The ground will thaw out for the month of August, and starts to freeze in September again. So trees grow very little in a year.
The thought I really wish to convey is that we, the bonsai growers, must respect the individual lives of the trees. We must not forcefully apply the trees to the structures of the bonsai. In the case of a forest planting ("yose-ue"), every tree must grow in balance many years later. We must know each tree's physiological characteristics.
Mr. Sakagami, who asked me to create this forest planting ("yose-ue"), is an excellent oil painter. He evaluated this bonsai for its composition and naturalness, and liked it very much. He suggested that we show it in an international exhibition before he took it home. So we did. Many people came to the exhibition especially to look at this bonsai.
-- Saburo Kato