Bonsai Donors & Their Trees: Haruo “Papa” Kaneshiro

Kaneshiro works on a juniper group planting on a volcanic slab in Seattle, July 1984. Photo: ABS Bonsai Journal

When Jane Nakama reflects on the momentous legacy her father Haruo “Papa” Kaneshiro left behind, she most fondly remembers the people she met during his impressive life as a bonsai master.

Whether she traveled alongside her father to another part of the world or helped her parents entertain fellow bonsai lovers, including those who started as strangers, Nakama met wonderful artists from Europe, Australia and Asia and beyond.

“The bonsai community is filled with just above-and-beyond good people, and I totally appreciate that connection with people even today, 25, 30 years after dad’s passing,” she said. “It’s mind boggling to think all that connecting happened by word of mouth. It’s just amazing what bonsai brought to their lives.”

Christened “Papa” by the bonsai community for his father-like persona, Kaneshiro is touted for his unselfish and inclusive teaching and lifestyle. Kaneshiro was one of the founding members of the North American Bonsai Federation, a branch of the World Bonsai Friendship Federation.

But Nakama said her father didn’t truly develop his bonsai artistry until his mid-40s. In fact, Kaneshiro spent much of his early life working in restaurants and retired in his early 50s.

He met his wife, Masako, while working for her older brother who ran a fine dining and dancing restaurant. Nakama said her father had been waiting tables at elegant hotels in Hawaii, but he decided to open his own restaurant where his wife ran the front and waited tables as he baked pies and made soups from scratch with a wood-burning stove. 

“He’d purchase these logs, place them in the back of the restaurant and his friends would come over and chop them to fit the oven,” she said. 

Nakama said Kaneshiro’s interest in bonsai first sprouted when he was younger and traveled every so often to visit a friend who had bonsai in their backyard. But he really explored his passion for the art after he retired from being a restaurant owner and started subbing as a manager at an upscale restaurant when the current manager would go on vacation.

The six Kaneshiro siblings and their mother Masako at dinner to celebrate the dedication of the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum’s Haruo Kaneshiro Tropical Conservatory in 1993. Photo from Jane Nakama.

Kaneshiro’s Teaching Style

Nakama noted that there was an absence of organized classes or demonstrations when Kaneshiro was learning and first teaching the art of bonsai, so he had to order textbooks from Japan. 

“He was really self taught through experience,” she said. 

But her father’s influence as a master did not hinge on rigid teaching plans of bonsai rituals and traditions as an exact science with strict styling rules. Papa Kaneshiro believed that, just as every person is different, every plant is different; therefore bonsai should be each person’s own expression of how they think a tree should look in nature. 

“He shared a lot of this philosophy, too, so I think that’s why bonsai flourished in Hawaii,” Nakama said. “He tried to emulate nature in its most natural forms. He always said, ‘The plant will tell you how it wants to grow – you just guide it.’” 

After Kaneshiro passed, his widow Masako donated many plants to the National Bonsai Foundation, and an auction on the family’s property raised more than $10,000 to fund the creation of the Haruo Kaneshiro Tropical Conservancy at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum. 

“I’m very grateful that Mom and Dad were into bonsai as much as they were,” she said. “It was more than a shared hobby – the people we met were just incredible and changed their lives forever.”

One of Papa’s trees at our Museum: a Chinese Banyan. Read more about the bonsai in our Historical Tree Spotlight.

Working Under Papa Kaneshiro

David Fukumoto, the owner of Fuku-Bonsai Cultural Center in Hawaii, said he was lucky to have Papa Kaneshiro as both a friend and a mentor who defended his amateur bonsai efforts. 

Fukumoto said Kaneshiro understood the differences between the horticultural and ethnic cultural principles that dominate "traditional Japanese bonsai" as well as the greater Hawaiian multi-cultural values and tropical trees.

“He was a gentle non-conformist who politely praised everyone's bonsai efforts and did not try to impose his values on anyone,” Fukumoto said. “Because of him, Hawaii bonsai is family oriented and the friendships are probably more significant.”

Many bonsai teachers who came to Hawaii taught training techniques like cutting off aerial roots, creating  single trunk and training flat branch tiers to adhere to bonsai “rules” codified in the 1950s. Papa Kaneshiro trained his black pines in this manner, but he trained his other bonsai with “natural style,” Fukumoto said.  

When Japanese bonsai artists were given opportunities to teach bonsai in Hawaii, they tended to train ficus banyan bonsai by cutting off aerial roots, creating only a single trunk, and training flatten tiers of branches.  

“He encouraged each of us to follow natural tree structure, to be creative and create beautiful potted plants,” Fukumoto said. “Although bonsai was a large part of their lives, the Kaneshiro’s generous and thoughtful hospitality was legendary.”

The Kaneshiro family and bonsai community after the auction of Papa’s trees, the proceeds of which went to the U.S. National Arboretum. Photo from Jane Nakama.

Historical Tree Spotlight: The Chinese Banyan

While many bonsai are often plucked from the ground after natural growth, some trees are specially created. For example, the Chinese banyan – or Ficus microcarpa ‘Kaneshiro’ – is the incredible cross-pollination work of the tree’s donor, Haruo “Papa” Kaneshiro. 

Museum Curator Michael James said Kaneshiro, who lived in Hawaii, is known as the father of tropical bonsai for his work with tropical trees long before they were considered for bonsai material by the mainstream. Kaneshiro was honored among other notable bonsai figures, like John Naka and Ted Tsukiyama at the International Bonsai Convention in Hawaii and was one of the first members to start the World Bonsai Friendship Federation. 

“One of the reasons Kaneshiro is credited with being the father, king or papa of tropical bonsai is because he was so willing to share the secrets of bonsai with the rest of the world,” James said.

No Ordinary Tree

The Chinese banyan is Kaneshiro’s unique cross between Ficus microcarpa ‘retusa’ and Ficus microcarpa ‘crassifolia.’ While figs on a ficus generally grow to the size you might see in a grocery store, the fruit on a Ficus microcarpa usually range from ⅛ inch to ¼ inch, James said. 

The flowers of Ficus microcarpa reside inside of the fruit and never open, so small wasps have to crawl inside of the fruit to pollinate the flowers. Kaneshiro’s process created the Ficus microcarpa ‘Kaneshiro’ bonsai that remains at the Museum today. 

Root Over (Lava) Rock

James said this Chinese banyan has been in training since 1975, but Kaneshiro planted the tree in the ground over a slab of lava rock in 1982. This unconventional planting method restricted the tree from growing directly into the ground – the roots had to hit the lava slab first and then grow around the rock.

“These ficus trees grow so quickly that if you put one straight in the ground in Hawaii it becomes a 100-foot tree in no time,” he said. 

By the time Kaneshiro pulled the banyan from the ground and potted it in 1987, the tree’s roots had wrapped around the lava rock so tight that the rock became part of the composition, James said.

“Now it’s a root over rock, or root over slab, as if it were growing on a volcanic hillside in Hawaii,” James said. “You can see the volcanic rock jutting out like a volcanic ledge.”

A Resting Place

The Chinese banyan came to The National Bonsai & Penjing Museum in 1990, finding a home in a pavilion named for its donor: The Haruo Kaneshiro Tropical Conservatory. Kaneshiro has also donated a black pine held in the North American Collection.

James said the banyan grows fast, all year round, meaning volunteers have to prune back the banyan’s shoots and leaves about once a week. 

“On a Japanese white pine, pruning might be done once a year, but banyans grow out of bonsai shape and their leaves become too large very quickly,” he said. 

As a tropical tree, the banyan thrives in warm climates like Florida, Southern China or Vietnam and boasts a soft wood, so it cannot freeze.