Ben Oki visits Orlando, Florida

Last night, Jan 13, bonsai legend Ben Oki was in Orlando giving a demo and conducting work on member trees with the Central Florida Bonsai Club. For many or our members, Ben is an old friend they have know for years, but this was my first time meeting him.

Ben is a quite, soft spoken man, with a great sense of humor. Having recently been in Arizona, he informed us all with a laugh of his recent discovery that he was not Japanese, but Navajo according to one of the Arizona club members.

Seeing Ben choose from the trees made available to him and go to work without a seconds hesitation punctuated for me how much I have to learn. While myself, and most of my club-mates, would have agonized over the trees design before making the first cut, Ben started whacking things off that he knew instinctively would not work.

After his demo tree, he was gracious enough to not only work on our personal trees, but also make a sketch of his vision for the trees which he generously gave us. It's something I will treasure forever.

Ben will be turning 86 soon. It's good to see he's not slowing down.

Thanks for posting the photos fo Ben, Ed. This is the third year in a row I missed him at our club due to work travel.