6 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY May 30-june 5, 2024 www.montereycountynow.com 831 Inside the Monterey Peninsula Buddhist Temple, a group of bonsai gardeners gather around their sensei, Katsumi Kinoshita, 86, while he shows his attentive crowd how to prep their trees for the upcoming bonsai exhibition. Kinoshita isn’t fluent in English and many of his students don’t speak Japanese, but they communicate in a different language: horticulture. Ardelle Gilbert joined the club over 30 years ago after seeing these miniature trees at the Monterey County Fair. Gilbert didn’t know much about bonsai trees when she started with this hobby. “I learned a lot through a lot of dead trees,” she admits. Trimming and shaping a small tree can be a relaxing and fulfilling experience. “It feels like music to me,” says Charlie Thompson, 70. Bonsai horticulture has been part of his life for 45 years, the last 10 through the Monterey Bonsai Club. “You sit down with an instrument and then start off, and an hour later, you look up and think, ‘Well, where’s the time gone?’ It’s the same with the trees.” But it might not be that way when you’re first starting out. “At first it’s scary, because you can’t put a branch back if you cut the wrong one,” Larry Fobian says. Bonsai is an ancient horticulture art form that developed in China around the year 700 called “pun-sai.” During the Kamakura period, 1192 to 1333, Japanese culture was introduced to the art of gardening and shaping miniature trees. The first bonsai trees were wild trees with interesting shapes transplanted into pots; it later became more of an art with pruning, wiring, rock planting and deadwood (preserving dead wood on a living bonsai tree). The goal is to recreate, at a miniature scale, a realistic representation of nature. “Every tree is like a puzzle,” Alyssa Synsteby says. Synsteby joined the club about five years ago when she was looking to share some hobbies with her then-boyfriend, now-husband, Max Fobian. Synsteby says she loves the spirit of the club. “Everyone is very kind and genuine and so generous with their knowledge,” she says. While these potted trees are small, ranging from a few inches to 4 feet, they aren’t dwarf versions of fullsized trees; they are cut to control their shape and growth. Any tree can become a bonsai. Bonsai art has been part of Monterey’s landscape since the 1960s when George Kadani started a group with five of his friends called the Monterey Bonsai Study Group. The bonsai enthusiasts met and shared their practice at each other’s homes. Later on, as the club grew, they moved to the Japanese American Citizens League Hall and became the Monterey Bonsai Club. The club now meets every third Saturday of the month at the Buddhist Temple in Seaside. The club is holding its 61st annual Bonsai Show on Sunday, June 2. Club members showcase part of their tree collections and those they’ve been working on all year long. Expect a range of colors, shapes, sizes and species including junipers, Monterey pines, maples and more. Club members have trees as young as 5 years old, while others tend to trees older than they are. Thompson’s oldest bonsai is a California juniper that’s at least 400 years old. He organizes his trees based on the amount of water and sun they need. “Water is the hardest thing because some trees, you give them the same amount of water as the rest and they’re completely drowned. Other trees, the more water you give them, the happier they are,” Thompson notes. During the event, Kinoshita uses his horticultural expertise and artistic eye to transform a bonsai within an hour. “This is the chance to see the master,” Thompson says. “With just a few hand motions, moving a branch or two, he can make the tree really emulate a giant, full-sized tree.” The Monterey Bonsai Club’s Bonsai Show takes place from noon-4pm Sunday, June 2 at Monterey Peninsula Buddhist Temple, 1155 Noche Buena St., Seaside. Free (donations are welcome). Tea and cookies provided. montereybonsai.org. Miniature Devotion For over 60 years, a local club has been learning about the ancient art of bonsai trees. By Celia Jiménez Sensei Katsumi Kinoshita (left) gives advice to Charlie Thompson about his red pine during a bonsai class. Kinoshita thinks the tree meets the requirements for a style called “Bunjin,” trees with contorted branches, slender trunks and minimum foliage. “Every tree is like a puzzle.” TaLeS FROM THe aRea CODe CELIA JIMÉNEZ LET' S CELEBRATE! 2024 BUSINESS EXCELLENCE AWARDS Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce GET TICKETS! BUSINESS EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2024 Celebrating Excellence in the Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce Business Community! Thursday, July 18, 2024 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM Monterey Conference Center VOTING BEGINS JUNE 3!
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