Old man’s quince
This old quince tree has an impressive thickness at the root, measured to be 36cm. At a first glance, it looks like the tree was either taken from a mountain or raised by root grafting. However, this tree was raised from seed. Quince is relatively easy to take care of, but still, this tree clearly shows many years of dedicated care.
Specifically, it is said that 85 years old Mr. Sukijiro Tanaka planted a seed when he was an elementally school student and raised the tree. Thus, the tree is at least 70 years old. Mr. Tanaka was a gardener residing in Nagoya city, raising many needle junipers and black pines, but he was especially proud of this quince being very special. Later on, the tree was under the care of a Bonsai enthusiast Mr. Adachi in Chukyo (Aichi prefecture area) until one day Mr. Kyoji Kawakami of Daihoen in Tokyo discovered the tree by chance when Mr. Kawakami went to Chukyo area to purchase bonsai trees. He then fell in love with the quince and took it home back to Tokyo.
Today, I own the tree. Mr. Kawakami once said when the arrangement was made for him to inherit the tree from Mr. Tanaka in exchange for some money, Mr. Tanaka was in tears and could not receive the money. One can only imagine Mr. Tanaka’s grief for parting with the tree he had raised for many years.
From Small Episodes of Bonsai Suiseki by Teisuke Takahashi (published Dec., 1962)
Here are a couple more links. You can read more about the history of Aichi-en here and here is the link to the movie Juan made at the last Gomangoku (Daiju-en family annual show).
