JeffS73
Chumono
I'm gradually picking up a few Kokufu books, my aim is to have one or two from each decade.
Are there any classic years that I should look out for? Thanks!
Are there any classic years that I should look out for? Thanks!
Kokufu book owners opinions plz
- Thread starter JeffS73
- Start date
pandacular
Masterpiece
I have editions 65-82, and it's really hard to tell a difference between the different years. There are a huge number and variety of great trees in various years. If you want to get one or so from a decade, look for the decenials--70 and 80 are "double shows" and the books are quite a bit larger.
River's Edge
Imperial Masterpiece
I find that having the Kokufu books from various decades helpful in that they show changes in approach and style over time.
Last edited:
pandacular
Masterpiece
i should clarify that I mean there aren’t specific standouts, but as Frank notes you can see trends. Not much of a difference between 65 and 66 but a sizeable difference between those and 82!
Your plan of getting a few across the years makes sense, though I find buying in large sets of 8+ is much more cost effective.
River's Edge
Imperial Masterpiece
Agreed I found it more cost effective to buy complete sets of International Bonsai and Bonsai Today. The trick was finding someone with full sets willing to part with them.
In this age of video, tube etc. it amazes me how much detailed information is available in print. The forgotten media, methinks!
Piedmont Bonsai
Shohin
I would focus on numbers 65-85
pandacular
Masterpiece
Fortunately, both my mentor and the Pacific Bonsai Museum have complete sets, so I can spare the expense. But I’d still love to have permanents of any of the ones featuring Oishi!
JeffS73
Chumono
84 was my first - just incredible. The picture quality is a lot better than in my bonsai today collection.
JeffS73
Chumono
Pretty soon it will be an almost forgotten resource, the willingness of vast numbers of people to use Grok and Gemini as their only sources of information is already both astounding and terrifying. I was bemused to find Gemini citing my website on japanese bonsai potters.
Glaucus
Omono
Tech companies datamined basically every digital manuscript they could get their hands on. And Meta and Google also had projects to digitize paper prints.
It is highly possible that things like Bonsai Today were inside the dataset used to train some of thees LLM models. And yes, probably they also stole the content on your site. If it is googleble, they will steal it.
That said, there must be a ton of things out there that were not digitized. And even if they were, LLMs have no real knowledge. They just regurgitate words in a very sophisticated way.
There are quite a few second hand bonsai books, often decades old, on Japanese second hand book webshops.
It is highly possible that things like Bonsai Today were inside the dataset used to train some of thees LLM models. And yes, probably they also stole the content on your site. If it is googleble, they will steal it.
That said, there must be a ton of things out there that were not digitized. And even if they were, LLMs have no real knowledge. They just regurgitate words in a very sophisticated way.
There are quite a few second hand bonsai books, often decades old, on Japanese second hand book webshops.
River's Edge
Imperial Masterpiece
Does anyone else remember the term Bibliography in relation to the written word? I prefer to read material from a known source that I consider reliable. Never heard of Grok or Gemeni .
Have heard of Ooishi and admire his work, through the recommendation of a known and trusted resource. Not first hand unfortunately. Maybe next trip in November if a visit is possible to his nursery. Would love to see his work in person.
Just for fun I pulled out my oldest Kokufu book 81 and did a quick comparison with my newest 98.
What stood out for me was the change in pot selection and display choices. Much more variety in pot selection in 98 by way of colour variation. Appeared to be an increased display of Shohin sized Bonsai moving forward, as well as more representation of Azalea. Pot depth was shallower overall with more variation in stand structure as well. When looking through earlier years that I have access to it seems almost the same pots are making the rounds for Kokufu display.
Just an observation.
Have heard of Ooishi and admire his work, through the recommendation of a known and trusted resource. Not first hand unfortunately. Maybe next trip in November if a visit is possible to his nursery. Would love to see his work in person.
Just for fun I pulled out my oldest Kokufu book 81 and did a quick comparison with my newest 98.
What stood out for me was the change in pot selection and display choices. Much more variety in pot selection in 98 by way of colour variation. Appeared to be an increased display of Shohin sized Bonsai moving forward, as well as more representation of Azalea. Pot depth was shallower overall with more variation in stand structure as well. When looking through earlier years that I have access to it seems almost the same pots are making the rounds for Kokufu display.
Just an observation.
Gabler
Masterpiece
Bibliographies are important precisely because they're contrary to human neurology/psychology. We tend to generalize concepts in our memory, rather than remembering particulars, since it is less energy intensive for the brain to remember a few broad concepts than an bunch of specific facts. One consequence is that we tend to remember facts but not sources. For example, I can't remember where I learned this. I just somehow know it from somewhere.
