One other thing....I was the president of an all Japanese Bonsai club for 7 years. Most of the older Japanese guys have died off and the club has floundered for the last two years to the point that I have decided to pull the plug. I have been in the club 15 years and have worked with many of the older Japanese guys that I needed a translator for. I have seen these people bring bonsai in for the club Sen Sai to work with. The original Sen Sai was Tosh Saburomaru. He was a giant on West Coast Bonsai, being one of the original three, John Naka, Tosh Saburomaru and Yuji Yoshimura. I worked with Tosh monthly for 7 years until he could no longer come to Fresno. At that time Katsumi Kinoshita became the clubs Sen Sai and I worked with him until he could no longer make the trip to Fresno.
My point for all this story was to say I saw lots and lots of Japanese bonsai over the years. Many of these people were gardeners, which they did for a living. They made good livings at that trade and saved their money for retirement by being very frugal. I mean that in the most sincere way possible. I know how they eat, I understand how they live. They do not go to the movies much, don't buy much fast food, and don't buy candy and cookies. If they have a hobby it is practiced at home and they do not spend much money to do it. I saw trees come in with everything imaginable on the top of trees. Rusty wire like in Bill's photos, nails pounded into the trunks of Sago plams when they were fashoinable as bonsai twenty years ago. Fishing weights tied on branches with trussing string because they can't afford wire. One guy used to come in with a rusty fishing tackle box with his rusty tools in it. It still smelled like fish. I told him he could buy a nice canvas bag at Harbor Freight for like 5 bucks with nice pockets to keep all your tools in. He chuckled and told me "why, this box is just getting broke in". Then I began to chuckle.
Many of these things are Generational, and have continued on thru the years because they have no reason to change. Need more iron in the soil just throw some old rusty wire or a handfull of nails on the top of the pot. Yes that gets the job done but have we not learned anything in the twentyfirst century? Could we mix up a batch of ironite fertlizer and keep the rusty coil of wire for the trash? Is this more Japanese hype we could do without?
I don't know, you be the judge.
l to r. John Tosh Yuji