Page 28 - BSAM 2017 Q3

Top; The WBFF convention promoted the theme - “towards the next 100 years” by highlighting
the past. Cultural artwork featured Bonsai from the distant past highlighting that everything old is new.
By Alan Jabs, Adelaide, South Australia RPhotographs: Alan Jabs
etired from work, I was now free to plan something special by combining travel around Japan in Cherry Blossom season with my attendance at the WBFF Convention in Saitama City.
Along with twelve hundred other delegates and forty-five thousand members of the public, I was witness to a bonsai experience so special that I promise not to use well-worn cliches like “ ere will never be another event like it” or “A once in a lifetime event” to describe this unforgettable trip, even though it’s true.
April in Kyoto
Leaving Australia in early April, Kyoto was my rst designated base from where I could do all those tour- ist activities as well as include bonsai-related stops along the way. is included visiting Koju-en Shohin Bonsai nursery owned by Tomohiro Masumi (one of the most respected and well-known Shohin masters in Japan) and his son. e nursery is easy to nd, cen- trally located, a short walk from Kyoto station near Toji temple. en, a day trip to Tokoname, where I was privileged to spend time watching master potter Ikko Watanabe hand making a pot and getting ready for the Convention in Saitama.
26 | BCI | July/August/September 2017
Once in a life time
8th World Bonsai Convention