I had the honor of "helping" John when he came to the National Arboretum for the first visit after he had donated the planting. My wife, 8 year old son and I were looking at the collection when I saw this Japanese guy with three staff members coming out a door. They walked over to the trees and started talking. It dawned on me that I was looking at John Naka in the flesh and wandered over to see what the discussion was.
John was going to trim the trees and just examine them and give his opinion as to care in the future. He turned to me, a complete stranger, and ask about my interest in bonsai. I told him that I had recently gotten his book and was very interested in what he was going to do. He said, "Why don't you help me?" Of course I said no way, Ha! He pulled a set of cutters and and scissors out of his pocket and stepped across the rope barrier. Turned to me and said, "Come on."
He looked things over and started trimming off pieces here and there. Then said, "What do you think needs working on." I was speechless but found my voice eventually. There was one limb that I really thought was kind of out of place. I pointed to it and said, "Forgive me but I think this needs to go." He looked, handed me the cutters and said, "Take it off." Whoa baby. I did as instructed. I actually got to cut a limb off the main tree under his instruction. He took that limb in his hand and looked it over and then said, "This will root, take it home and plant it in some potting soil." I did take it but it was about 4 days before I got home and it didn't take.
My wife managed to get a photo when I was standing behind John and pointing out the branch that I thought needed cutting off. I'm the guy on the right with the bucket hat on. Over on the left is a person from Japan who was visiting John. John introduced him to me but I have no memory of what his name was. I gathered he was a well known bonsai person in Japan at the time.
I was on bonsai cloud nine for several years after.
