Page 66 - BSAM 2015 Q4

Mark and Ritta received a message saying the voyage had encountered unusually bad storms. Some sea containers were badly damaged
and a few had even been lost overboard!
Left; Taiga and Kokonoe. In 2000 Taiga Urushibata became apprentice to Mr Masahiko Kimura and in the six years he worked with the great master, Taiga went on to develop skills at a very high level. Indeed Mr Kimura always rated Taiga as one of the best apprentices he had ever had. Mark and Ritta were able to attend a private workshop with him at Maarten’s home.
Right; Mark and Taiga defoliat- ing an elm.
Bottom left; Ritta’s turn to remove some leaves.
Bottom right; Mark and Maarten loading the Kokonoe for the trip to the UK.
e show ran for four days, which for Mark and Ritta went very quickly. In the a ernoon of the last day, they had to leave the show to travel back to Tokyo to catch their ight home to the UK. ey said their farewells to everyone they knew, and of course their thanks and appreciation to Keiichi Fujikawa, Bjorn, Owen, Maeoka, Yuri and Dario.
The long and risky voyage from Japan to the Netherlands
Christmas 2013 and New Year’s Day soon came and passed, and during the early weeks of 2014 they kept in touch with Maarten regarding the progress of their tree’s proposed export from Japan via a refrig- erated sea container. is is not a risk free process. Most bonsai hobbyists aren’t aware of the risks that buying and exporting bonsai entails. For Mark and Ritta there were risks (albeit small) associated with leaving a living tree in Japan for a year, also the risks associated with transportation and care whilst at the show, and then the journey from the nursery to licensed exporters premises. A er that it would be transported to the docks, packed into a sea container with many other trees, and travel by sea to Rotterdam in the Netherlands, taking many weeks at a time of year renowned for storms. Finally it would be taken by truck to Bonsai Plaza.
e following weeks slowly passed, and Mark and Ritta realized that their tree having been at sea for
more than a month now, must be nearing its destina- tion. ey received a message from Maarten that he’d been advised by his shipping company that the voyage had encountered unusually bad storms, and that some sea containers were badly damaged and a few had even been lost overboard! e boat would also be making an unscheduled stop to assess the damage. ankfully, it transpired that all was well with the Bonsai Plaza’s container that Mark and Ritta’s tree was in. e tree eventually arrived safely in the Netherlands and it was placed with all the other evergreen species in Bonsai Plaza’s specialised quarantine facilities where it stayed for the months legally required.
In early summer 2014 Mark and Ritta visited Maarten in Del to collect their tree. Fortuitously, Taiga Urushibata was in Europe at this time and they arranged to attend a private workshop with him at Maarten’s home at the same time. Son of Nobuichi Urushibata, Taiga is the second generation of Urushibatas working at Taisho-en, the family nursery in Shizuoka, Japan.
e Kokonoe pine was in good health and many new shoots were evident. ey took the opportunity to do a little light trimming work on the tree with Taiga’s guidance, made plans for its future. e idea of entering the tree for the Noelanders Trophy in early 2015 was planted. is exhibit is viewed by many as the premier show in Europe.
64 | BCI | October/November/December 2015