Page 18 - BSAM 2018 Q1

Top; the BCI Excellence Award for Viewing Stones was given to Jin-Zhu Chen for his Nantian stone, Taitung, Taiwan. Theme of stone: Rhythm of Line. Not only is it a beautiful stone,
but it was also beautifully displayed.
Middle; the BCI Excellence Award for Bonsai was given to Zhong-Xiong Xu for his Juniperus chinensis, 86 cm tall, which is also featured on the cover of this issue.
Bonsai and Stone
Exhibits at Xizhou
Park
By Gudrun Benz, Germany
T
Xizhou Park, Changhua County. It was an exhibition at the same high level as the world famous Kokufu Ten in Tokyo, Japan. ere were over 135 rst class bonsai on display, chosen by a jury from the 10 best nominated bonsai of the 26 branches of the National Bonsai Association of Taiwan. Whereas the space at the Metropolitan Art Museum in Tokyo is limited and therefore the display restricted, the large exhi- bition hall of Xizhou Park o ered excellent facilities for the bonsai display. e natural lighting combined with spot lighting underlined the beauty of the trees. e di use light on the backdrop of some displays minimized the shadow of the trees backing on the wall. ere was enough space, sometimes a few me- tres, for each bonsai. e di erent backdrops, such as o -white, black, blue and white, cloud-paintings in subdued blue-gray colors, and even landscape paint- ings, provided interesting backgrounds for the trees. To my feeling the blue and white colored background was a little bit too bright and too much in contrast to the trees, the focus of the display. Nearly all bonsai were large in size (as usual in Taiwan and China) with exception of a few smaller ones and a few shohin com- positions on shelves.
Unfortunately, the place was overcrowded at the opening day, although we had another possibility to see the show on Nov. 6, the last day. But there wasn’t enough time to stroll through the huge park of about
The BCI Excellence Award
By Budi Sulistyo, Indonesia
There were so many beautiful bonsai exhibited in Xizhou Park. In fact almost every bonsai I saw was very beautiful and could be chosen as the awarded tree. Each bonsai had its own beauty. I hesitated for a long time to choose any of them. ere was some interesting choice in term of species and styles, between natural and creative. At last, the choice was this Juniperus chinensis, a native tree from Taiwan that has a natural beauty with interesting shari and movement. In training for a long time, it has beautiful look with excellent balance and most of all a natural look.
ere were so many stones beautifully displayed in one large hall in Xizhou Park. We decided to choose an original stone and not a polished or modi ed stone as were some of the exhibited stones. A er looking around and discussing the merits of the selected stones, we decided to choose the stone above. e stone is a black, pattern stone with simple white pat- tern of shes or grass with the same ow of move- ment. It has simplicity in shape and pattern, and yet, showing beauty and dignity.
he main activity and attraction of the conven- tion to me was the bonsai exhibition of the 22nd
Hwa-Fong National Bonsai exhibition at the
16 | BCI | January/February/March 2018