Bonsai reaches out to mainstream America
Cultural News, September 2006
Bonsai enthusiasts of Kofukai in Orange County are (from left) Paul Vasina, Joe James, Harry Hirao, Larry Regle and Bruce Pickford. (Cultural News Photo)
David Nguy of Kofukai, left, explains how to trim a juniper prostrata to become a bonsai in a Kofukai regular meeting at theUnited Methodist Church in Anaheim. (Cultural News Photo)
By Takeshi Nakayama
HUNTINGTON BEACH. -- Bonsai, the ancient Japanese art form in which shrubs or trees are developed into miniature plants, has been steadily gaining in popularity in America as well as the rest of the world. Recently in Orange County, a few individuals from the 400-member Kofukai, a local organization of bonsai enthusiasts, met in Huntington Beach at the home of the their teacher, Harry Hirao, to discuss their hobby.
Hirao, 89, a Colorado-born Japanese American, spent his childhood in Fukuoka, Japan, and moved to California in 1959. He studied bonsai for 15-20 years from fellow Colorado native John Naka who published a book on bonsai in English and several other languages that gained worldwide interest. Hirao has been teaching bonsai for about 40 years.
A retired gardener, Hirao started Kofukai in 1976. He also teaches suiseki, the art of displaying stones. To gather material, the teacher and students go to the mountains, rivers and desert areas to hunt for trees and stones.
“Bonsai keeps me going. Every day I get up and water, then do trimming. It’s good exercise,” says Hirao, who has “a couple of hundred plants” in his backyard, mostly California junipers (Kashu Shimpaku), including one that is 1,000 years old.
Larry Ragle, 74, of Laguna Beach, a retired forensic scientist who worked in the crime lab for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, says, “Bonsai was good for me. You spend all day at an autopsy or murder scene, then you come home and work with a bonsai ... It’s just you and the tree.”
Ragle first saw bonsai in the Japanese Pavilion at the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962. “It captured my imagination,” he says. “I came back and immediately went to a nursery in L.A. and bought three trees. I still have them.”
Bonsai is “a lot of work, but it’s rewarding,” states Ragle, who took lessons from Naka for six years until Hirao became his sensei (teacher). “You see the trees developing, and you have the satisfaction of keeping them alive ... They’re totally dependent on you.”
Paul Vasina, 59, of Huntington Beach, started bonsai on his own in the early 1970s because, he says, “I was very curious as to how they did that. I could not figure it out.”
In 1982, he joined Kofukai and started taking lessons from Hirao. “Now I’ve learned that through trimming, wiring, bending of the branches, fertilizing, and through excellent care, you can eventually turn it into a very nice tree,” he says.
Hobbyists have to devote some time to bonsai and need to take lessons from someone to see that they’re doing it right, the retired Postal Service employee explains. “The trees will die if you transplant at the wrong time, or through disease, but mainly through overwatering ... The trees need to be outdoors with full sun.”
Vasina declares, “I enjoy bonsai very much. It’s something you can do yourself at home without interruptions. I enjoy just looking at the trees and working with them.”
Not all the people in bonsai are 65 and older, he notes. “We have a lot of younger people that are into it ... You have to feel fairly young in order to dig the trees out of the mountains, look for stones in the rivers or go into the desert to find stuff.”
Joe James, 70, of Los Alamitos, a former U.S. Marines helicopter pilot who later worked for Hughes Aircraft in El Segundo until his retirement, got interested in bonsai in 1960 while he was stationed in Okinawa, but didn’t get serious until he left the military in the early ‘70s and moved back to California.
“I got in with Harry’s classes and things became more interesting,” he says.
Doing bonsai is “very therapeutic,” explains the past president of Kofukai and Golden State Bonsai Federation (a federation of 79 bonsai clubs). “It’s nice to get in the backyard and turn the radio on, get your scissors out, and do what has to be done ... I enjoy doing bonsai every day ... I figure on doing this another 70 years.”
A former teacher, football coach at Fountain Valley High School and collegiate basketball official, Huntington Beach resident Bruce Pickford, 77, got started on bonsai in 1966 after moving to California and taking a few lessons from Naka.
It was “a nice change of pace,” Pickford points out. “On Sunday mornings I could go work on my plants, take life easy. It’s entirely different than the madhouse I was involved in with football. It’s probably the most relaxing thing I do.”
He credits Hirao with teaching him the different ways of preparing plants, digging plants and transplanting. “He can tell you anything you want to know.”
Members of Kofukai regularly meet at United Methodist Church, 1000 South State College Blvd., Anaheim on the third Saturday from 4:00 p.m. For information about Kofukai, visit www.kofukai.com.
Takeshi Nakayama is a free-lance journalist who lives in Walnut, Calif. He has written articles for the Nikkei West, Nichi Bei Times, Gardena Valley News and many other publications.