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Chapter 6. The Matsudaira Collection of Miniature Bonsai

Akiko Matsudaira*

Some choice dwarfed plants and notes on their culture

After the great earthquake occurred in Tokyo and caused much disaster, in 1923, the city was barren and monotonous. It was then that my husband began to collect miniature, or Mame, bonsai. In the mountains and in other places he visited on his trips, he collected and purchased them as souvenirs. During the years when he was at the height of his zest for these plants, he grew seven or eight hundred of them.

Some of the miniature bonsai grown by the writer in her garden.

*Mrs. Matsudaira is deeply devoted to miniature bonsai. For many years she shared her husband's enthusiasm for these tiny beautiful things. Her illustrious husband was the late Count Y. Matsudaira, a pioneer fancier of miniature bonsai, who had built up a magnificent collection second to none.
There are many anecdotes about his enthusiastic behavior regarding these plants. Whenever he was on a trip, he used to carry some of his favorite bonsai with him in a basket specially designed and made for the purpose.—Guest Ed.

Rosewood stand especially designed for holding miniature bonsai. The species displayed here are 6 to 20 years of age and include Japanese holly (Ilex crenata), Sargent juniper (Juni-perus chinensis sar-genti), crabapple (Mains sp.). gray-barked elm (Zelkova serrata), and Japanese white pine (Pinus par-viflora). Mitsukoshi Exhibit. 1966
 
I was faced with his death ten years ago, and during the war many of the miniature bonsai were destroyed by the bombing. Some of them were carried away from Tokyo to the country, to escape the dangers of war; but these suffered because I was short of hands, and some of them died. About two hundred survived and were brought here to Atami. Some of these are shown in the photographs.

The years mentioned for the plants are not their actual ages but the number of years I have been growing them.

Culture

Just after the equinox  (the middle of March) every year, all the Mame bonsai are repotted in new soil. Diluted liquid fertilizer made from well fermented rape cake is applied to them often in the spring and in the autumn.  (Also see chapter 14)

Although they are tiny plants growing in very small containers, they are kept outdoors and exposed all day long to the hot sun and wind and rain, just like ordinary bonsai. In hot dry summer weather, they are watered three or four times a day.

To prevent ants from reaching the plants, all the legs of the growing shelf stand in water to which a few drops of insecticide have been added.

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