No stranger to the local area.
Bonsai Association Certified Instructor
Mr. Noriomi Inoue, a 75-year-old certified instructor of the Japan Bonsai Association, is also a member of the Japan Bonsai Association and secretary general of the Akaishi Goyomatsu Association. He is so well known in his hometown that there is no one who does not know him.
While maintaining about a thousand bonsai pots, he also shares interesting stories about Akaishi Mountain and the region with visitors to the area.
Mr. Inoue is not a bonsai shop owner but a bonsai enthusiast, but his skills are so good that even professional growers are impressed. It is amazing to see how the bonsai that Mr. Inoue picks up becomes more attractive as he works on it, and how it is "reborn" as a completely different bonsai from what it was before he started working on it.
The more images you create, the more your bonsai will be reborn.
When I asked Mr. Inoue how he can make a bonsai look so different, he answered that it is how far he can expand his image.
He said that the image of a bonsai can be completely changed by planting a tree that is currently planted straight from the front at an extreme angle or by pruning the upper trunk and branches. Even the wildest bonsai that others have tossed aside as unmanageable are transformed into beautiful forms that look like they belong in an exhibition in the hands of Mr. Inoue. This is the reason why Mr. Inoue is called the "master of restoration" in his hometown.
Making small pieces with techniques he has cultivated over the years
In his hands, even a large garden tree can be made small and transformed into a bonsai in no time.
"It takes a long time to turn a small tree into a large and magnificent bonsai, but it is faster to turn a large tree into a small bonsai" he explained with a laugh, but it is not as easy as it sounds.
Loving Akaishi Mountain and caring for natural scenery
In addition to bonsai, Mr. Inoue also enjoys creating Japanese landscapes. In his many water lily pots, killifish swim comfortably, and wildflowers and small bonsai trees placed at the edge of the pots cast shadows on the water.
He also collects a certain stone from Higashi Akaishi Mountain in Shikokuchuo City, which is called violet mudstone kindeiseki. It is a type of green mudstone that contains chromium, which gives it its distinctive color.
Because he loves Mt. Akaishi so much, he superimposes the beautiful scenery of nature on the bonsai in front of him, and he cherishes his life with the Japanese landscape where nature and bonsai are one.
I want the next generation to know the charm of bonsai.
Mr. Inoue, together with his contemporaries, has been working hard to nurture bonsai trees, and as the secretary general of the Akaishi Goyamatsu Association, he has been managing bonsai trees in the hope that as many people as possible will know about the beauty of Akaishi Goyomatsu and preserve it.
Every tree is different, and no two are alike. If you have the ability to find out the individuality of a tree and what kind of shape it needs to be in order to make it a better tree, you can lead it to become a tree full of life. In order to play this role, he would like to share his skills without reserve.
Bonsai Instructor Kuniomi Inoue
- Address
- 3647 Uenoseki no Hara, Doi-cho, Shikokuchuo City, Ehime Prefecture
- TEL
- 0896-74-3876