Four Generations of Field-Grown Pine Bonsai
Takamatsu, Kagawa, is one of Japan’s best-known regions for pine bonsai. With relatively little rainfall, abundant sunshine, and the mild climate of the Seto Inland Sea, black pine and Japanese white pine have been cultivated here for generations.
In Kinashi, one of Takamatsu’s historic bonsai-growing districts, Kitadani Yoseien has continued this tradition for four generations.
We visited Kitadani Yoseien to take part in the process of lifting a Japanese white pine that had spent decades growing in the field.
There are many opportunities to see finished bonsai, but far fewer to witness how a tree that has spent decades in the ground is carefully lifted and prepared for the next stage of its life. This time, we were able to experience that process firsthand.
According to fourth-generation owner Ryuichi Kitadani, lifting field-grown pines is a practice that has long been part of bonsai cultivation in Takamatsu.
Growing Bonsai in the Field
One of the defining features of Takamatsu bonsai is the practice of field growing.
Rather than keeping trees in pots throughout their development, they are grown in the ground for many years, allowing their trunks and root spread to develop gradually over time.
At Kitadani Yoseien, many of the trees still growing in the fields date back to the first and second generations. They have since been passed down through the third and fourth generations, with each generation continuing to care for and develop them.
The fields of black pine and Japanese white pine stretching across the nursery are an impressive sight.
From young trees to mature specimens shaped by decades of cultivation, the landscape is filled with pines that have been developed over an extraordinary span of time. For anyone who loves bonsai, it is difficult not to see it as a dreamlike scene.
A tree is cultivated over many years, passed on to the next generation, and then cared for and developed further. At Kitadani Yoseien, the fields themselves make those decades of continuous care visible.
Lifting a Japanese White Pine After More Than 70 Years in the Field
The tree we were there to lift was a Japanese white pine that had been growing in the field for more than 70 years, dating back to the time of the first or second generation of the nursery.
It began as a small black pine seedling with just one or two Japanese white pine grafts. Over the decades, it gradually developed into the large tree standing before us today. An old photograph preserved by the family shows just how small it once was.
Preparing a tree of this size to leave the field begins well before the day it is actually lifted.
The previous autumn, the tree had undergone root pruning. By cutting the roots in advance, new fine roots are encouraged to grow closer to the trunk, helping the tree establish more successfully after it is removed from the ground.
As we began digging around the tree, we could see numerous fresh white roots that had developed since the root pruning. Field-grown trees tend to have fewer roots than bonsai grown in pots, so encouraging more fine roots in advance helps support the tree after it is lifted.
Then came the work of actually separating the tree from the field.
The soil around the tree was gradually removed, and the remaining roots connecting it to the ground were cut one by one. Once the roots underneath had also been freed, a belt was secured around the trunk and the tree was carefully lifted out of the ground using a small hydraulic excavator.
With the surrounding soil still attached, it weighed approximately 200 kilograms.
Even after the tree had been lifted, the work continued. Excess soil and large roots were carefully removed while checking the condition of the root system, gradually reducing the root ball until it would fit into the container prepared for the next stage.
Seeing the entire process up close—from lifting a tree that had spent decades in the field to preparing its roots and checking its condition at each stage—was a rare opportunity for us.
Passing a Tree from One Generation to the Next
After the roots had been prepared, the Japanese white pine was planted not in a bonsai pot, but in a large container called a toro-bako.
Drainage was prepared, soil was added, and the tree was secured in place. From there, its trunk line, branching, and the roots they wanted to emphasize were viewed from different angles to determine the position in which it would continue to be developed.
We were invited to take part in this process, including choosing the planting angle for the tree.
After so many years in the field, the tree had finally left the ground and was beginning a new stage of its life as a bonsai.
Being able to take part in that moment was a rare and meaningful experience for us.
But the work does not end here.
Transplanting places considerable stress on a tree, so Kitadani explained that it will remain in this container for at least three years before being moved into a display pot. During that time, the branches—including those that could not be refined in detail while the tree was still in the field—will be worked on little by little as the tree continues to develop.
One of Kitadani’s comments during the work stayed with us.
A tree first developed by the first or second generation may not be completed as a bonsai until it reaches the hands of their grandchildren or great-grandchildren. A truly exceptional bonsai, he explained, cannot be created within a single generation.
A tree is cultivated and refined over many years, then passed on to the next generation to continue the work.
The 70-year-old Japanese white pine we worked on that day is part of that same continuum. The work begun decades ago continues from here, as another stage of its development begins.
Kitadani Yoseien is a place where the years behind each tree, along with the care and commitment of the people who have shaped it, become tangible.
Witnessing that continuity firsthand showed us how the bonsai culture of Kinashi has been sustained—not through a single moment or a single person, but through work passed on over time.
For us, Kitadani Yoseien remains a special place—one that revealed the depth of bonsai culture and what it truly means to pass a living tree on to the next generation.
Nursery Information
Kitadani Yoseien
36-1 Fujii, Kinashi-cho, Takamatsu, Kagawa 761-8024, Japan
TEL: +81 87-881-2924
YouTube
You can also watch the lifting and transplanting process at Kitadani Yoseien on YouTube.