| Ben Oki - USA * |
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Ben Oki USA
Ben Oki was born in Sacramento, California in 1927 and moved to Hiroshima, Japan when he was six years old where he learned the arts of Japanese landscaping and stone setting. After graduating from Matsu Moto Business School he returned to the United States in 1950 and has managed his own landscape gardening business for many years. Ben is in high demand worldwide as a Japanese garden designer and bonsai teacher. His work includes the garden of American movie star Cybil Shepard and gardens in the Pacific Islands and South America. He served as curator of the bonsai collection at the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California which is the site of the Golden State Bonsai Federation Collection South.Ben studied bonsai under John Naka as early as 1958 and was John's right hand man for many demonstrations and meetings. He continues to have a heavy travel schedule and visits certain bonsai clubs and organizations regularly. In fact every January since 1975 Ben travels throughout Florida visiting bonsai clubs from the Panhandle to Homestead, and Raiford Prison, a maximum security facility near Stuart, Florida. Between 1990 and 2004, to honor Ben's talent and generosity, the late Charles Owens and his wife Cheryl instituted the International Ben Oki Design Award administered by BCI and a similar Ben Oki Award administered by ABS.
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