Larz Anderson Bonsai Collection

Isabel and I stopped so long in this little fairy place that we had to drive like the dickens through the congested streets of endless villages to Yokohama ... in time for one o'clock luncheon.

In a section titled "Dwarf Trees Growing in Jardinieres" the catalogs show pictures of ancient specimens of Hinoki Cypress similar to those that are now part of the collection.

The most famous of these was Rainosuke Awano, a young man who maintained the collection while studying for his doctorate in philosophy at Columbia University.

The author described the bonsai with heavy metaphor: It seems unholy to move such venerable patriarchs from the land where they have lived so long in meditation and repose.

[2]After Larz died in 1937, Isabel donated thirty of these miniature trees to the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University along with the funds necessary to build a shade house for their display.

When she died in 1948, the remaining nine plants in her possession were donated to the Arboretum including an 80-year-old Hinoki Cypress that had been given to the Andersons by the Imperial Household shortly before they left Japan for the last time.

Arboretum staff did their best given their limited knowledge of the art of bonsai, but the Larz Anderson Collection suffered from the lack of expert skills needed to keep the fragile trees healthy.

The practice of annually forcing them into early growth for the spring flower show of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society contributed the collection's decline.

This facility includes a hexagonal, redwood lath house to display the collection during the growing season and a concrete-block cold storage for winter protection.

This practice compromised the health of the plants and the consequent freezing of the rootballs cracked many of the original Japanese containers.

Dr. Richard A. Howard, director, pleased with the initial effort, had me appointed Honorary Curator of the Bonsai Collection.