The Pacific Bonsai Museum

Saturday was the beginning of the Rhododendron species garden autumn festival and plant sale. More on that in another post.  Adjacent to the RSG is the Pacific Bonsai Museum.  

"Nestled amidst towering conifers, Pacific Bonsai Museum connects people to nature through the living art of bonsai.  A grand outdoor setting with the elegance of a fine art museum, the Museum boasts over 150 bonsai and the most diverse public collection in North America with trees from Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and the United States.  With a rotating display of 60 trees and the changing of the seasons, there is always something new to see at the Museum."

While I lack the skill, patience, time, or space to dabble with bonsai, I certainly appreciate their beauty.

Here's some of what's currently on display. 

Marriage of tree and pot is an essential element of the art and I particularly liked this pairing. 

Each tree became my favorite as it came into view. 

Some of these are young at only 30 or 40 years old while others originated in the 1800's.

As at many museums, there were plaques telling the age, type, and story of each specimen. 

These are all outdoor bonsai but there was also a building devoted to indoor trees.  I didn't  visit that area on this trip.

This tree has a very special story. 

"On February 20, 1915, the world celebrated the opening of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, a year-long fair showcasing new technology, fine art and wonders from around the world. The Pacific Bonsai Museum is fortunate enough to have one of these wonders here at the museum.


This trident maple originally came to the United States from Japan as part of a pairof bonsai.  One tree went to San Diego for the Panama-California Exposition while this tree went to the fair in San Francisco.  Already a large bonsai, it sat proudly on the verandah of the Formosa Tea House in the Japanese Garden and unsurprisingly caught the eye of many at the expostion as it earned both a gold medal and a first palce certificate for specimen trees.  At the conclusion of the fair Kanetaro Domoto, owner of the local Domoto Brothers Nursery and lover of bonsai, bought it.

Kanetaro and his brothers had immigrated to the United States from Japan in the mid 1880's  and established one of the first commercial nurseries in northern California.  they imported plants, including bonsai, directly from Japan and trained so many Japanese immigrants in the nursery business that they became knows as the 'Domoto College.' As interest in exotic plants grew so did the Domoto Brothers Nursery.  By 1902 the Domotos were running a 35 acre nursery in Oakland, California, the first large scale nursery in the United States.

Kanetaro continued to care for his trident maple for many years until, in the late 1920's the nursery encountered financial troubles and the property was foreclosed.  However, the receiver for the bank recognized how important the tree was to Kanetaro and allowed him to keep it.  It was then movet to Hayward, California where his son, Toichi, had started his own nursery.  Toichi showed the tree at flower shows around the area throughout the 1930's until he and his family were forced into internment camps during World War II.  While interned, he relied on friends to water the maple.  Upon returning home after the war he found that the tree had sent roots through the bottom of it's planter and had grown immensely.  Over the next four decades Toichi refined and cared for the tree until he could no longer climb a ladder to prune it.  Finally in 1990 after watching the leaves change color one last time, he decided the tree should be loaned to the newly established Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection. 

It has been over 100 years since the Panama-Pacific International Exposition and still, the Domoto Trident Maple sits proudly for all to admire.  The tree, like the Domoto family, has persevered and despite the hardships of the Great Depression and World War II, both have recovered.  Thanks to the family's generous donation of the tree to the museum, the Domoto legacy is ensured for future Generations."

That story of relationship between gardener and plant through generations gave me an even deeper appreciation for these amazing trees.

The PBM and the RSG are all on land given by the Weyerhausers, a part of their legacy, and are across from the wonderful former Weyerhauser Corporate Building and campus which has been sold to a large developer from California.  One wonders what will become of that iconic space.

In a time of rapid change, these proud elders offer a sense of permanence although they, being living things, will someday perish.