Antique Japanese Root Stand & Shohin JBP

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So I thought I would give a sneak preview of what will surely be a magical pairing.

I bought this stand as a birthday present for Eric because I could not resist it. We've owned the stand for a couple years now... but we have never had a tree for it until now. I always knew we would likely have to develop the tree which would go with the stand, but I was deeply delighted to get this lovely Japanese Black Pine which has been grown from seed by Gary Wood. We picked it up through Telperion Farms. Gary is going to make a custom pot for it, which only seems appropriate, since he has been working on this tree for well over a decade.

I brought the stand to the PNWBCA convention we had in September, to make sure the tree would be a good size for the stand... and it definitely caught a lot of attention for the rest of the convention. I went ahead and left it at the Telperion table so people could enjoy seeing the tree and stand together. :)

We'll work on developing it's refined structure over the next several years... but when it is finally displayed properly, it ought to be just wonderful.

Enjoy!

Victrinia

ShohinJBP.jpg
 

DaveV

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I like the stand as well. I personally feel a rugged looking tree would be ideal - though the JBP is a nice one, I know you will be refining the look. Is the stand real wood or a synthetic ?
 
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I like the stand as well. I personally feel a rugged looking tree would be ideal - though the JBP is a nice one, I know you will be refining the look. Is the stand real wood or a synthetic ?

It is about 120 years old.... so its real. The patina of the lacquer is beautiful.
 

rockm

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That is quite a stand. It's beautiful. What are it's origins?
 
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The antiques dealer only knew it's country of origin and that it came to the states in the late 1800s.
 

Smoke

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The photo is saved as: shohinjbp (your photo)

There are no visual references in the photo and no dimensions have been given. Is this a shohin JBP and what are the dimensions of the stand? The stand looks visually really heavy (visualy) with the current pine. That is a beautiful stand and a really nice pine material. Together that pine is diminuative when compared to the stand.

I have many Gafu (shohin) books with lots of root stands used to display trees. Even with some of the most killer pines in Japan the stand plays a more prominate role than I would care to exhibit.

When will work on the pine start?
 

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Ang3lfir3

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So we took some updated photos last night of the work we did on this tree.... As you can see we tightened up the image some and its starting to fill out nicely.

Garywoodspine.jpg
 

Bill S

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Just like being at the fireworks - Oooh Ahhhh Oooh ahhh:cool:, both are very nice, but the stand seems a bit tall at least, but this is while staring at a pix in front of my face.
 

greerhw

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I agree with Al, both are very nice, but the stand draws the eye away from the beauty of the pine.

Harry
 

Bonsai Nut

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Stand is amazing. Just make sure you have a bonsai that can stand up to the stand! You need something big and powerful to be in balance.

And sorry... but omg please replace that pot, LOL!
 

Ang3lfir3

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Al, Harry, BNut
thanks for the comments guys. The top of the stand is VERY VERY VERY small.... it would be extremely hard to get anything much larger on the top of the stand.

And sorry... but omg please replace that pot, LOL!
Gary is going to make a custom pot for it, which only seems appropriate, since he has been working on this tree for well over a decade.

@Bnut - pretty sure that's covered ;) ... the pot you see is the pot it has been being grown in....
 
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Errr... give the tree a chance... lol it's still growing. But let's face facts, nothing will be able to overpower that stand. The reality is that the square inches of space on the top of that stand, to hold a tree, is not sufficent for the mass you'd like to see. Lightening up the wood volume would be a crime... it's an antique... and sometimes like a crazy peice of yamadori you have to just take what it is and not fret about what it isn't. The visual mass of the tree will continue to develop, that much is certain... so it will improve over time to some degree. I still love it... even now. :)

The tree itself is wonderful... I've enjoyed having it as a project we work on together. It'll likely become one of the most traditional specimens in our collection, because we want the asthetic to compliment the stand.

Kindest regards,

Victrinia
 

Smoke

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Anytime we start to see antique anything being used for bonsai, the anything was never intended to be used for bonsai.

These natural root stands from over a hundred years ago were intended to be used to hold an incense burner or vases. Many times what was displayed on them was so overpowering that the reverse of what we see here was the condition.

In this case this stand will always overpower a tree while a beautiful and colorfull Cloisonne vase would seem more at home. Items such as this stand are probably natural and are a portion of a stump, while the more delicate stands we see many times in shohin displays are reproductions of these famous works of art.

Many of the choice antique Chinese pots we see today used for bonsai are not pots at all but incense burners. Most of the really ancient ones have had holes drilled in them. As the pots were used up for bonsai, so did the potters begin making pots copied from the old incense burner designs with drainage holes and more recently tie wire holes.
 
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When it's in the house it displays antique bronzes or even a really cool Shiva stone that grouper52 gifted to us. So your point is well taken... :)
 

Ang3lfir3

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good points Al and you are right this stand was indeed most likely never intended for bonsai. In our home it actually is the home for a wonder gift given to us by grouper52 ( a beautiful Shiva stone). It is interesting to learn as you said that things like this were used for display of other beautiful items.... I actually had never really thought of that before....

In either case as Vic said it is certainly a wonderful and fun project to work on and while it will probably never win any great display show like toko-kazari (sp?) it has certainly won our love and attention.

plus we can all agree that the stand is indeed amazing in its own right :)
 

Smoke

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And your display table seems to be getting an artistic workout. There is nothing so disheartening than putting a very beautiful piece of art in the closet only to pull it out once a year......I have a fire proof, water proof, smoke proof container full of $3000.00 worth of scrolls just sitting on the closet floor. What a waste.


One of which will be gently taken out for this years kazari next weekend.
 
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Ang3lfir3

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why yes.... we do try to enjoy the beautiful things we have.... they were intended to be enjoyed after all....

speaking of scrolls we have a wall that we display scrolls on in the house (house scrolls obviously) .... I think its about time to change the scroll.... :)
 
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