ASPAC Takamatsu Japan 2011 and BCI Tour

We are having a good time in Japan the ASPAC 2011 in Takamatsu.
There was a mini reunion of IBC'ers - including Min Lo, Budi Sulistylo, Will Feldman, Bill Valvanis,Le Thanh Qui (Protomira), Billy Rhodes, CJ Leo, and myself.

Here are a few photos -
There were many bonsai and non-bonsai exhibits set up.
This is a sample of a large Calligraphy painting in the lobby of the convention center (about 3 meters across). The characters say Kibo or hope in English. In an exhibit room they had these large calligraphy paintings with very impressive bonsai in front of them. No photos were allowed but they reminded me of the photos of Walter Pall tree's in front of modern art. This was a very modern and impressive way to display bonsai. I will see if I can get a photo as it was great.



Here are some photos of the exhibit. Photos were not allowed but the security guard let me snap a couple.
An azalea owned by Doug Paul, an American, on display in Japan.


A White Pine


Oblique photos of the exhibit were allowed to be taken. Here are a few shots.


A large Shimpaku Juniper


A forest of Chamaecyparis


The vendor area was very delectable. Mr. Morimae had an awesome display. His material is out of this world.


I heard from vendors that sales were slow with most of the big sales going to China.


There were also demos by several big name Japanese artists.
This was the result of Mr. Masahiko Kimura's demo. A rather "small" shimpaku juniper.



The results of Mr. Takeyama's demo of a trident maple forest.


Lots more going on - hope you enjoy.

fantastic - what tempting pictures, thanks (very envious haha)

Very nice pictures.
Thanks for sharing Rob, please post some more photo
Regards

Xuan

Thank you Robfor the post!

Hi Rob

Interesting to see the photos from the exhibit...the two demos are awesome....please post many more pictures.

Have a great time.
Kind regards Yvonne

Great convention here. There are 400 Chinese here purchasing antique containers and bonsai.

Morimae had a spectacular 300 year old Miyajima Japanese five-needle pine which has not been exhibited since the 1940's. Price US$1,300,000.

It has been here since Thursday and it sold this afternoon!

Sorry you missed purchasing it, but the container in front is still for sale and it's only US$493,000.

Bill

This afternoon Marco Invernizzi and I presented Isao Omachi with the generous donations checks collected from around the world for US $55,000. Isao Omachi was very grateful and thanked his friends around the world.

Bill

William N. Valavanis wrote:Great convention here. There are 400 Chinese here purchasing antique containers and bonsai.

Morimae had a spectacular 300 year old Miyajima Japanese five-needle pine which has not been exhibited since the 1940's. Price US$1,300,000.

It has been here since Thursday and it sold this afternoon!

Sorry you missed purchasing it, but the container in front is still for sale and it's only US$493,000.

Bill

Do you know who bought it Bill?

Thanks for sharing - fantastic photos

And the SIZE of some of the trees! You'd need a crane to move them.

JimLewis wrote:And the SIZE of some of the trees! You'd need a crane to move them.

Or a couple of apprentices!

Wonderful..thanks for posting Rob.

Bill, do you know how old the antique pot is, from which dynasti ?

xuan le wrote: Do you know who bought it Bill?

It stayed in Japan.

...this is the second time I saw a million dollar tree here in IBC , but this one looks more believable to fetched that amount. still, I can't believe some guys would spend so much fortune for a tree.

Very nice trees by the way, thanks for sharing your trip guys!
Why the oblique pictures only Rob?

regards,
jun

jun wrote:...this is the second time I saw a million dollar tree here in IBC , but this one looks more believable to fetched that amount. still, I can't believe some guys would spend so much fortune for a tree.

Very nice trees by the way, thanks for sharing your trip guys!
Why the oblique pictures only Rob?

regards,
jun

Pretty much SOP at a Japanese show that photographs are not allowed. They usually publish a book and so I suppose they feel photos would hurt book sales. Also if they let people take photos if would mess up the traffic flow - there were thousands of people stopping by the exhibit. (Heck they had 50,000 people get together the week before the show to spruce up the area around town).

Today I had a chance to go to one of the other ASPAC displays at Tamamo Castle ruins (Across the street from the main exhibition). UNBELIEVABLE!!!!! Magestic bonsai trees displayed in traditional Japanese architecture rooms with tokonmas. Unfortunately they had secruity everywhere and no photographs were allowed. There were even 2 trees from the Japanese Imperial Garden on display.