Naka film project - need input

Graydon

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I'm planning on traveling to California in October - November for many bonsai related activities. Among them I am trying to arrange opportunities to interview people about John Naka.

If you were able to interview some of John Naka's students on video for a documentary film on the contributions and influence of John on bonsai in the USA what would you ask them? What would you want to hear about or learn?

Thanks for your ideas...
 
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John Naka was a great man, patient, humble, and kind. Certainly he is the father of American Bonsai, as he has been called and his influence in the art is still felt today.

His books Bonsai Techniques I and II are still highly thought of and recommended to this day, even though some of the information is a little dated, his soil mix suggestions for example.

We recently compiled a tribute to this man at AoB and in doing so, I learned a few things about him I never knew before and was amazed at his sketches and the soul within them.

I would ask his students for quotes from him, those pearls of wisdom that never made it into his books, those remarkable insights like "Do not make your tree look like a bonsai, make your bonsai look like a tree" that ring so true and guide so well.



Will
 
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I think I would probably like to ask what it was that drew people to him so strongly. There was a reason he was so revered, and it wasn't only because he was teaching non-Japanese. There must have been something there beyond that.
 

Attila Soos

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I would ask them about John's pet peeves. That would be something new about him.

Whether there was any particular aspect of bonsai that John enjoyed the most.

How would the students describe his approach to teaching?
 

Graydon

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Thanks for the input - this is what I was hoping to see. Three different people with three different ideas of what they would like to know.
 

grog

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I'd like to know more about his early life. I've always been a bit of a history nerd and find setting events which "made the man" so to speak the most interesting. Not sure how much of that you'd be able to get from his students but it would b worth asking.
 

Moley-O

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Graydon I think this is a SWEET! Idea!!!

I would like to know...
How he may feel about the John Naka Award that takes place among ABS members.
What got him started in such a beautiful art form
What were his favorite trees to work with and why
How did he come up with what we call Naka-isms.

WIll you be stopping through Sacramento at all during your trip? I think it would SUPER SWEET to meet another Bonsai-ist I talk to on the net. Last Sunday I met Concorde from Grass Valley at his areas County Fair. Nice guy very cool...though ya thats another story, You can read it at BT mate.
 

irene_b

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Graydon I think this is a SWEET! Idea!!!

I would like to know...
How he may feel about the John Naka Award that takes place among ABS members.
What got him started in such a beautiful art form
What were his favorite trees to work with and why
How did he come up with what we call Naka-isms.

WIll you be stopping through Sacramento at all during your trip? I think it would SUPER SWEET to meet another Bonsai-ist I talk to on the net. Last Sunday I met Concorde from Grass Valley at his areas County Fair. Nice guy very cool...though ya thats another story, You can read it at BT mate.



Shame on you Son!
Not all of John's students were male!



Sorry thought you were saying just Male Students!
My mistake in Reading English again..
Mom
 
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