The Art of Bonsai Project

This thread is for discussing the feature gallery "A Tribute to John Yoshio Naka"
http://artofbonsai.org/galleries/naka.php

I'm very happy to see this tribute to John Naka. John was more than a bonsai master, author,artist and teacher. John was a great man who commanded love and respect for his accomplishments and his personna.

I first met John through his book which I acquired early in my bonsai life.
I met John in person in 1979 when he was the headliner at an ABS seminar on the campus of UC Davis. I stood in awe then, and still do.

Over the years, I was lucky to have a few workshops with John, and attended many of his lecture-demonstrations at conventions. It was always very gratifying to meet John at a bonsai function, and he always knew my name. John was good with people, and he remembered them, even if he hadn't seen them for a year or more.

I remember the day I logged onto the bonsai internet and read that John had passed away. It was like a shot in the gut. In truth however, John lives on through his work.

The first picture in the gallery is one I took at a GSBF convention more than 10 years ago. To the best of my knowledge, it was the only time that John, Tosh and Yuji were at the same convention, and I was very lucky to be in the right place at the right time with my camera.
I have this picture in my shop with the caption, "Three Wise Men"
Mike

John is not only the father of American bonsai. He is the one that teaches bonsai all over the world through his books. Indonesia achieved a lot of progress in using local natural materials due to John's teaching in his magnificent books. He is the best bonsai man outside Japan. Bonsai in the world will not be as of to day without John's participation.
Budi Sulistyo

Patrick Giacobbe has added some amazing photographs of Goshin to the dynamic collection of John's work. The unique thing about these photographs is that they were taken from angles not commonly seen due to the timing of Patrick's visit, where they had Goshin turned around so the back could receive light.
What Patrick thought at first to be a stroke of bad luck turned into a fortunate encounter and gives us all a chance to see another side of Goshin.
Thank you Patrick!

These new images added were an unexpected treat on my visit to the forums today! Thank you for not only having them all this time, but sharing them with us :)

Heather,
Thanks for letting us know you appreciate the additional photos, stay tuned, we have some pretty amazing additions to the tribute in the works.

Will

I'll be waiting with baited breath.... seriously, everything you guys do here is amazing, and I cannot wait :)

Thanks Heather, the encouraging words are very much appreciated.

Will

A new section has been added to this tribute of John Naka called "Other Perspectives" in which we can add the miscellaneous items that come our way.
To launch this new section, Ed Trout sent us some amazing work that was the result of an article on John featured in a 1969 issue of Applied Photography Magazine.
We hope that you enjoy this newest addition and that you find it as fascinating as we did.
Please remember that this tribute was purposely designed to be dynamic, it is meant to grow as more and more people send us their photographs of John Naka, his trees, his sketches, or other items to honor his contributions to bonsai. If you have something you would like to share, please email will@artofbonsai.org

I am surprised that so little has been said about the new photos we have added, as the combination of photographic art ond John's bonsai is quite amazing, at least to me.



Will