John (aka
Jofun Hiruru) was born in 1954, made in Japan and born in
the USA. My mother met my father during the Korean War, they
married and he brought her back to the states.
John
dabbled in bonsai around 1970 but never really took the art
seriously. After a 25 year break while he brought up his family,
John went to the nearby conservatory where they had a bonsai
display and he re-caught the bug. The very next day he was
out looking for trees to train. Using the internet, John read
all that he could on bonsai and took this knowledge and started
the art again. This time it was more then just a hobby it
was an obsession. John says "I killed a few trees now
and then but I kept buying more and more. But every tree that
I killed I learned something with each. I slowly learned that
you can take your time and listen to each tree and let it
tell you where to take it. I worked on the art and each year
I killed less and less".
By
1997 I read all the bonsai books that I had three times. I
was starving for more knowledge so I returned to the conservatory
and started asking questions and was told that they had a
bonsai club at the conservatory. I joined and met some of
the nicest people willing to help all they could. I started
going to shows and demos as much as possible and learned a
lot from all the artists. I am still, more or less self taught
and still learning.
