NEW SHOHIN BONSAI BOOK!

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Just received a new book!

The Ultimate Bonsai Handbook– The Complete Guide for Beginners
By Yukio Hirose
Softcover 7.5” x 10”
256 pages, HEAVY!
Over 1,000 photos and 70 types of bonsai
$25, US Shipping $7, ask about foreign shipping

This is the newest bonsai book published to date. Mr. Hirose is one of the top leaders in the Japanese shohin bonsai community and has a garden where he teaches, grows, sells and also organizes exhibitions.
This book is great! Loads of high quality photos with step by step illustrated instructions the basics of bonsai and how to, create, care, train and display bonsai. Over 70 different species are described with information on training and maintenance.
This entire book is devoted to shohin bonsai and should have been promoted as such. For those who love and train shohin bonsai it can be quite valuable for authoritative information. However, the main disappointment with this book is that all the plants are listed with their Japanese names which makes it difficult for hobbyists to determine what species is discussed. Yes, there is an “Alphabetical List of Plants” at the end, but it too, is in Japanese. The “Terms Used in Bonsai” is in English.
Although a bit frustrating to determine what species of tree is illustrated, most can figured out with the “Other Names” sentence in the beginning of each section. Generally the translation is good, but there are a few awkward sections. Taking everything into consideration this book is recommended if you enjoy the beauty, training and care of shohin bonsai.

You can easily order it here:

COVER.JPG2.JPG
5.JPG
 

leatherback

The Treedeemer
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Thank you for the recommendation.

As I am not growing shohin: Would you still recommend the book if people do not (intent to) grow shohin?
 

LeoMame

Yamadori
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I too have a copy of Hirose's book, it shows mostly basic techniques but the photos and explanations are very clear. I purchased it mostly because I own a tree which was grown and styled by Hirose himself, so I wanted to kinda pay homage by having his book too.

Not many information about him on the internet tho, I could find more about his apprentice and shohin master Hiroki Miura.
 

Graft

Shohin
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I've had a look on the kindle store. There seems to be a lot of Japanese vernacular used. In the index all of the tree species are listed in Japanese, could you tell me if that is the case in the rest of the book or does it have the latin names?

Forget it, just had another look at the photos you posted. I'm an idiot!!!.
 

LeoMame

Yamadori
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I've had a look on the kindle store. There seems to be a lot of Japanese vernacular used. In the index all of the tree species are listed in Japanese, could you tell me if that is the case in the rest of the book or does it have the latin names?

Forget it, just had another look at the photos you posted. I'm an idiot!!!.
It's interesting because, for instance, in the section about the different styles you won't find any "upright formal", "cascade" and so on, but the japanese terms as Moyogi, Kengai and such. The names of the species are as well in Japanese, even tho the english common name is also included.
 
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I got mine recently too, I think it's a good book even if the names are Japanese, you can tell what most of them are.
Quite obvious that in typical fashion, they thought it was a good idea to hire a Japanese translator or no translator at all. Hence why they didn't know the parallel terms to a lot of the originals. Looks like a good resource otherwise.
 

Graft

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Quite obvious that in typical fashion, they thought it was a good idea to hire a Japanese translator or no translator at all. Hence why they didn't know the parallel terms to a lot of the originals. Looks like a good resource otherwise.
Looking at your location, you obviously know what you're talking about!
 
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Looking at your location, you obviously know what you're talking about!
The Japanese are famous for not following the golden rule of translation, often thinking that "Takeshi-san in marketing is apparently good at English, he can do it." For anyone that has even visited I'm sure they have noticed that ample "Engrish" that is used. This happens with everything from menus to high level government.

Recently, the new prime minister was criticized for his "low level English" because of a tweet expressing concern for Trump's health after he caught Covid. As it turns out, he had his secretary translate it for him...
 

Mayank

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Just received a new book!

The Ultimate Bonsai Handbook– The Complete Guide for Beginners
By Yukio Hirose
Softcover 7.5” x 10”
256 pages, HEAVY!
Over 1,000 photos and 70 types of bonsai
$25, US Shipping $7, ask about foreign shipping

This is the newest bonsai book published to date. Mr. Hirose is one of the top leaders in the Japanese shohin bonsai community and has a garden where he teaches, grows, sells and also organizes exhibitions.
This book is great! Loads of high quality photos with step by step illustrated instructions the basics of bonsai and how to, create, care, train and display bonsai. Over 70 different species are described with information on training and maintenance.
This entire book is devoted to shohin bonsai and should have been promoted as such. For those who love and train shohin bonsai it can be quite valuable for authoritative information. However, the main disappointment with this book is that all the plants are listed with their Japanese names which makes it difficult for hobbyists to determine what species is discussed. Yes, there is an “Alphabetical List of Plants” at the end, but it too, is in Japanese. The “Terms Used in Bonsai” is in English.
Although a bit frustrating to determine what species of tree is illustrated, most can figured out with the “Other Names” sentence in the beginning of each section. Generally the translation is good, but there are a few awkward sections. Taking everything into consideration this book is recommended if you enjoy the beauty, training and care of shohin bonsai.

You can easily order it here:

View attachment 334078View attachment 334082
View attachment 334083
Thank you. Will order a copy.
 

meushi

Mame
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The Japanese are famous for not following the golden rule of translation, often thinking that "Takeshi-san in marketing is apparently good at English, he can do it." For anyone that has even visited I'm sure they have noticed that ample "Engrish" that is used. This happens with everything from menus to high level government.

Recently, the new prime minister was criticized for his "low level English" because of a tweet expressing concern for Trump's health after he caught Covid. As it turns out, he had his secretary translate it for him...
Yup, this is why early English translations of Japanese bonsai books contained wrong information: akadama was translated as "red loam", kanuma as "sand and loam mix" and so on. Many books in America and in Europe then copied that information verbatim instead of referring to the original. Those translation issues still happen on a regular basis in some magazines, I regularly catch incorrect information in the French translations of Harrington's articles (in Esprit Bonsai). For example they systematically print "moldy leaves" instead of "leaf mold".

For menus, the funniest to date was a Chinese-operated teppanyaki in Luxembourg... where "fried duck" was graced with the best possible typo when translated from Chinese to English, and then translated from English to Japanese. Many laughs were had that day, as we were eating with Japanese friends.
 
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