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The Bonsai Intensive is a three-day program with Boon Manakitivipart for enthusiasts who are serious about improving their bonsai skills. Open to beginners as well as advanced artists, the Intensive provides customized instruction and the opportunity to work on high quality bonsai. Local participants are welcome to bring some of their own material for discussion or work.
Since the program's inception in 2001, the Intensive has employed classroom instruction and hands-on practice to help students learn as quickly as possible. Work begins at 8:30 a.m. and ends at 8:00 p.m. each day with breaks for lunch and dinner (both included). Evening sessions include written work, discussion, and time to study bonsai books and videos. The Intensive is limited to 6 students per session.
For a detailed description of the intensive experience, see Michael Hagedorn's, A Student's Report below on this page.
Bonsai intensives are a series of 9 three-day courses offered throughout the year. These courses include:
• Winter I, II, III
• Spring I, II, III
• Fall I, II, III
Together, these courses comprise a 27 day training program that provides students with a comprehensive introduction to contemporary bonsai technique as it is commonly practiced in Japan.
Students may begin taking intensives in any season and may complete the courses in any order they choose. Students begin each season at level I and progress to the next level upon the successful completion of each intensive.
The one exception to this progression is the Winter III intensive, "Exhibit Preparation." This intensive is scheduled for the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday leading into Bay Island Bonsai's annual show, An Exhibit of Fine Bonsai. Students must complete Winter I and Winter II before attending the Winter III intensive, but the Winter III intensive may be repeated as often as desired.
Except for the Winter III intensive, students may complete any level course at any time. This way students of all abilities can sign up for any session. By limiting the intensive to 6 students, Boon can accommodate students at different levels and ensure that each student receives individual attention and works at an appropriate level.
Advanced student Mike Hagedorn before leaving for Japan.
What do students actually study in bonsai intensives? Primarily, bonsai technique.
Students begin study each season by learning how to care for different species. This includes learning techniques for developing and maintaining bonsai as well as the design considerations particular to each variety. Students have ample opportunities to improve their wiring throughout the intensive series.
Over time students learn how to evaluate what needs doing themselves and eventually demonstrate that they can assess what a tree needs and then do it without supervision.
In past intensives students have learned bonsai care for pine (black, red, lodgepole), juniper (shimpaku, Utah, California, Sierra), Japanese maple, trident maple, flowering apricot, stewartia, quince, spruce, and cryptomeria, among others.
With these trees, some freshly collected, others developed as bonsai for decades, students learn how to wire, style, and repot; how to cut back, pinch, and decandle; and sometimes how to display.
Frequently referred to as the most fun (and fast-paced) intensive, Winter III provides students the opportunity to help prepare for a bonsai exhibit. This includes everything from show wiring to cleaning deadwood, from selecting show pots to laying moss, and from refining a silhouette to creating accent plants. The hard work completed in this intensive culminates in a very rewarding bonsai exhibit.
Students receive handouts for each topic presented and take quizzes to reinforce the new material. Evening sessions usually include the study of bonsai videos and Japanese show books.
Students are expected to bring their own tools; they are not expected to bring wire or trees. A wide variety of material will be available for students to work on including some very high-quality trees. Local students may, at their option, bring trees for work or discussion if they would like. Ask Boon for details if you have any questions about working on your own trees.
A basic tool-kit will suffice for most intensives. Large tools, power tools, and specialized tools for carving, heavy bending, or repotting will be provided. Both copper and aluminum wire are also provided. If you are coming by plane, don't forget to check any luggage with tools in it!
• concave cutter
• scissors
• tweezers
• bent-nose tweezers
• wire-cutter
• pliers
• large scissors for trimming roots
The bonsai intensive is located in Northern California's San Francisco Bay Area. In short, this means that it could just as likely be warm in winter and cold in summer as the other way around. The average temperatures vary from 45-57 degrees in winter to 58-75 in summer.
The bonsai intensive is held in Alameda, CA, a small community in the San Francisco Bay Area. Alameda is located about 10 minutes away from the Oakland International Airport and about 30 minutes away from the San Francisco International Airport.
Transportation to and from class is provided for students staying at the Executive Inn in Oakland or commuting to class by BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). A shuttle will pick up students from the Fruitvale BART station at 7:50 a.m. and from the Executive Inn at 8:00 a.m. each morning. Students will be returned to BART or the Executive Inn at the end of each day's class. Street parking is available for students who drive to the class.
Information for the Executive Inn:
1755 Embarcadero
Oakland, CA 94606
Phone: (800) 346-6331
Mention Bonsai Boon to receive the corporate rate. Free Shuttle between Oakland International Airport and Hotel between 6:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m. See www.executiveinnoakland.com for details.
Bonsai intensives are held in winter, summer, and fall. For upcoming classes and dates, please check the Calendar.
The price for a three-day program is $525. Lunch and dinner are included all three days. To register, call or email Boon to ensure class availability and send a $200 deposit (payable to Bonsai Boon) to reserve a spot. The deposit is not refundable unless the vacated spot can be filled.
Please Note:- In 2009 the price for a three day program will be increased to $575.
by Michael Hagedorn, U.S.A.
I first met Boon Manakitivipart some years ago at a bonsai convention. He was energetic and animated, and sported a day-bag slung over one shoulder. I recall telling him I had read some articles he had written, and was watching his rising career with interest. Back then I had no idea this man would eventually change my orientation in bonsai, and become my sensei.
The 2000 Golden State Convention in Oakland, CA was the catalytic event that led to extended study in Boon's bonsai yard. It was a wonderful convention in many respects, with one of the best exhibits I'd ever seen. In particular, I was struck by the refinement of several trees. I returned again and again to those trees, studying them closely. Back in the vendor area I struck up a conversation with Boon, and later he gave me an informal tour of the exhibit trees. While wandering through the exhibit discussing trees I realized that it was Boon's, his students' or his clients' trees that I had been admiring earlier. Many of these, in fact, were in the top 100 of the Japan Airlines (JAL) World Bonsai Contest, 2000. Well, I was impressed, and I had the long drive back to Arizona to develop that impression into a full-fledged desire to study with him. But would there be an opportunity to do so?
The answer came quickly. Only several days later I was looking at Boon's website and discovered that he was offering an extended, in-depth program called the 'Bonsai Intensive'. A month later I was back in California, engaged in the pilot session of the Bonsai Intensive. It proved to be a singular awakening.
The Bonsai Intensive is an alternative to the workshop. There are several things that make it unique---students work on old, established trees; the work is in depth, intricate in detail and extended over several days; and often the same trees are returned to in later sessions for follow up. The value of this framework is simply that it traces the developmental progression of many species from initial styling through to refinement work.
Bonsai Intensive sessions are three days long, have a maximum of five people per session, and are offered four times a year. Certificates are awarded for each of the twelve sessions, and there is one final 'completion' certificate at the end of three years' study.
The days are long and focused. At 8:30 am the work on trees begins, with one hour off for lunch, then back to work until 6:00 pm. After dinner one returns for two hours of study to go over applicable written material. Sometimes the day is a bit longer. One day last January I worked well past dark, for almost 10 hours, to finish styling a California juniper. Then a few hours were added in the evening to review juniper refinement techniques---a long day indeed!
On being accepted into the program, I was asked what species of trees made up my collection, and what my short term goals were. Where it could, the teaching would be tailored to fit my needs.
While some parts of the course are tailored, other parts, such as repotting, are not. Each Intensive student learns that careful, correct repotting sets the stage for all future work. Because many of the bonsai methods used in Japan are counterintuitive, Boon asks that his students initially follow his advice without changing procedure or substituting. This is critical. All steps are very closely linked, from beginning root-work to later foliage refinement. While following advice to the letter is difficult for many of us, it is essential to suppress old bonsai habits in order to learn what Boon has to offer.
I was surprised to find that many of the methods I'd always taken for granted were simply ineffective, or counterproductive. Boon is a conduit for information that simply explodes some western myths we have about cultivating bonsai.
In the evenings we often studied directly from Kokufu exhibition books. Boon commented in detail about these Japanese trees. He pointed out various masters' subtle yet detectable style, the structure of a 'good' tree, and even how to properly clean an antique pot.
Students in the Intensive work on trees of a quality not often seen in the United States. As said earlier, students don't bring their own trees, they work on Boon's. They repot his trees, do first time styling, foliage cleanup, detail wiring, routine maintenance, advanced bending, ramification work, and prepping trees for exhibition. One tree I helped repot was a JAL award winner in 2000. Another tree which I styled was headed for that same competition in a year or two.
It's hard to describe how this exposure to superb trees changes one's attitude and approach. Studying on already highly refined trees gives one the tools to address trees at home with greater latitude and ability, and to 'see' where one is headed. Some may return home with the conviction to upgrade stock with better material, or they may simply apply new information to bring the trees 'online' to another level. I did some of both. I also discovered that working on my own trees after returning home crystallized the lessons from Boon's yard.
There is an element of barter in the Intensive: The teaching balances the student's work on bonsai. Sometimes the student 'work' is simply being an extra hand. One day we put a 60 degree bend in a large Sierra juniper trunk. The trunk was as big around as my forearm. In this instance, I was both student and assistant in a complicated job that was difficult for just one.
A personal note:
A personal note: Because of Boon's deep and continued study in Japan, his Intensive program in essence offers the tools of the contemporary Japanese tradition. Working with Boon gave me ample time to ponder the benefits of the old-world way of learning, from master to apprentice. The Bonsai Intensive is not a master/apprentice program, yet some key elements are retained. Recognizing something different was expected of me made the experience more fruitful, and indeed offered a revelation that I wish to share.
Since taking part in the Bonsai Intensive I have come to view bonsai as a highly technical activity. It is grounded in technical knowledge, like architecture or medicine. The better we know these fundamentals, the better we can use them to do something creative. I started in bonsai with the notion that it is primarily a creative endeavor. It is not. It is primarily technical. The longer we retain the notion it is firstly creative, the greater the chances we will neglect to study its details. When that happens, we are using crooked arrows to shoot at moving targets.
By this I mean that the work of the serious student, in any field that is complex and demanding and full of details, is to gather a full quiver of skills. To skip this means that one is 'creating' while one is trying to invent how to do it. But many people have already invented that part---it's the quiver that contains the entire 'craft' of the tradition. One needs to learn it from those who know, and those people are part of a collective.
The art of bonsai could only have developed its depth and richness through the work of a collective. This combined work results in a tradition, a body of knowledge that no one person could invent, but that one person can learn and pass on. That is its strength---one master of ikebana or tea ceremony or bonsai has the insights and wisdom of many people. 'Tradition' is really an issue of learning. You can't invent a tradition on your own. But you can use tradition to make work that is your own.
The technical information offered by Boon's Bonsai Intensive program is not in a library somewhere, it cannot be received by e-mail, and it cannot be independently invented. There are a few people in the west with this knowledge. Seek one of them out, take ownership of the tradition, and pass it on.
Michael Hagedorn has completed his apprenticeship with Shinji Suzuki in Obuse, Japan. Mike is now working as a bonsai professional in the USA. You may visit his website at www.crataegus.com.
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