Tree-Yamaki Pine Bonsai Black TB

This trackable has the goal to circulate more than five years and to be moved by at least 25 cachers. That is a rate of five drops per year for five years, or a drop every 73 days.  As of 22-Sep-20 it had survived for 351 days and had been moved by 3 cachers, for an average release every 117 days.

No permission is needed to leave the U.S.  While in the U.S., please drop it in a Premium Member only OR a rural cache near a busy trail or road. Do not place it in an urban cache or abandon it at a caching event where there is no security.  Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items.  Otherwise, take the trackable anywhere you wish.

Trackable photos are appreciated, but do not show the tracking number. The images will be re-posted here.

A wooden ring to a tree ring to a tree—is that a logical sequence?   Whether it is or not, this is one of a series of wooden rings named for famous or unusual trees.

In 1976, as part of Japan’s Bicentennial gift to the American people, 53 bonsais were gifted by Nippon Bosnai Association. For 25 years, one of the trees sat near the entrance of the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum at the United States National Arboretum in Washington DC, its impressive life story largely unknown.  

In 2001, two of Yamaki’s grandsons made an unannounced visit to the Arboretum in search of the tree they had heard about their entire lives.  In 2003 Yamaki’s daughter also visited the museum hoping to see her father’s tree.  Through a translator, the story of the tree’s miraculous survival was told.

The Yamaki family operated a commercial bonsai nursery in Hiroshima for several generations (the nursery is now a private bonsai collection).  On the morning of August 6, 1945, all the Yamaki family members were inside their home.  The atomic bomb exploded less than two miles from the family compound.  The blast blew out all the glass windows in the home, and each member of the family was cut from the flying glass fragments. Miraculously, none of them suffered any permanent injury.

The 390-year-old Japanese white pine and a large number of other bonsai were sitting on benches in the garden. Amazingly, none of these bonsai were harmed by the blast either, as the nursery was protected by a tall wall. The bonsai originally came from Miyajima Island which is just south of Hiroshima.  Japanese white pine bonsai from Miyajima are considered very valuable because they are so rare.

Bonsai Master Yamaki noted that each bonsai has its special quality.  Some express changes in the four seasons, while others express the elegance of nature in a pot.  Bonsai is not limited to expensive trees in a classic shape. Indeed, by using excessive wire or growing unnecessary branches in order to create a classic shape, the artist may fail to express the tree’s essential beauty.