Yugi Yoshimura

now in retrospect, i can't believe the amazingly good fortune i had, to have worked at the New York Botanical Garden when i did. i was surrounded by people who were the top in there respective fields. Some, the leading authorities in the world!! i remember asking Arthur Cronquist questions about botany!! That was like being able to ask Babe Ruth about playing baseball. if i had questions about ferns i could ask John Mickel!! I had the NYBG library to peruse at lunchtime and after work. It was unbelievable the resources i had while at NYBG. At the time, and still today, i was madly interested in pruning miniature trees, Bonsai. I took Yugi Yoshimura's classes at NYBG and realized that he knew. He knew how to do that thing that would make miniature trees hold poses like still photographs of dancers in mid step. and i couldn't get enough of him. i attended presentations and lectures he gave at NYBG, took all his classes. joined the bonsai society where he would give demonstrations. i would stop to chat and ask questions whenever i ran into him on the grounds or at the conservatory. i often wondered if he thought i was stalking him. Apparently not, he seemed very pleased by my enthusiasim and was as excited to share his knowledge as i was to seek it. Yugi was one of the first bonsai masters to introduce bonsai to the united states back in the 1950's. He passed on in 1997. While going thru my older bonsai books about a year ago, i found this post it stuck onto the first page of John Nakas bonsai techniques volume one. It has a lot of meaning for me and so i framed it. Its a note Yugi gave me stuck onto an article in the New York Times he wanted me to read.