88 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM {home & design} speaking bonsai clubs in Northern California, Kusamura has been rooted on the Peninsula since nursery owner Toshio “Tosh” Saburomaru founded the Palo Alto group with his friends back in the 1950s. Tosh went on to teach nationally, and when Michael joined Kusamura in the ‘80s, the club flourished under the guidance of John and Sandy Planting. The couple lived on half an acre in Menlo Park, Michael recalls. “They had over 3,000 bonsai at one point,” he adds. “Sandy spent three hours a day watering.” Michael gestures to a 200-yearold juniper of John’s he adopted after the man passed. Among its services, the club offers assistance to families of deceased bonsai enthusiasts—selecting easy-to-care-for trees to retain as keepsakes, while helping them sell and rehome the others. They also “nurse” sickly plants. “Health first, design second,” Michael stresses. “If you have a dead tree, it’s just emotionally expensive firewood.” As he proceeds to the pergola where his shadeloving deciduous trees live, Michael digs deeper into the nuances of the ancient craft. “The Japanese artform of bonsai is in some ways very creative, but in other ways very rigid.” Upright, slanting, cascading— each tree style has its own set of guidelines. “There are rules about what shape and color and size the pot should be, and rules on where the first and second and third branches are, and where the apex (the top of the tree) is relative to the base and how deep the pot is relative to the diameter of the trunk,” says Michael. That said, there’s wiggle room for creative license. “I tell people, ‘First you have to learn the rules, and then, when you really understand them, then you’re empowered to break them when appropriate.’” Kusamura members certainly find beauty in the details. “Talking about pots is like arguing about religion in the bonsai community,” Michael laughs. “Everybody has a different notion about how big the pot should be, what shape, what color… The beauty of it is that there is no absolute, ‘correct’ answer.” PHOTOGRAPHY: JOHANNA HARLOW
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