As we head towards the eagerly anticipated 6th BSA Annual Exhibition to be held on the 10th & 11th March at Willowbog Bonsai, there are some great images and video information about the recent Gafu-Ten show, which took place earlier in January in Kyoto, Japan, to help set the scene and get into the exhibition mood.

The annual Gafu-Ten Show (this year was the 37th), is the most important Shohin Exhibition in Japan, held at the Miyako-messe building in Kyoto, Japan. The exhibition showcases some of the very best shohin bonsai in Japan and the sales area attached to the exhibition has equally impressive shohin related trees, pots and goods.

The following links are just a selection we found interesting about this year’s Gafu-Ten – a word of warning though, you may need a cloth to keep your keyboard dry as you drool over the simply stunning trees in the exhibtion and material on sale at the market-place!

All Japan Shohin-bonsai Association Blog – Gafu-Ten 2012
http://shohin-bonsai.or.jp/blog/category/information_11/page/4

All Japan Shohin-bonsai Association Blog – including images from Taiga Urushibata’s demo
http://shohin-bonsai.or.jp/blog/page/3#

All Japan Shohin-bonsai Association Blog Report 1
http://shohin-bonsai.or.jp/blog/information_11/event12_01-17.html

All Japan Shohin-bonsai Association Blog Report 2
http://shohin-bonsai.or.jp/blog/information_11/event12_01-20.html

Bonsai in Japan blog – Gafu-Ten 2012 visit
http://bonsai-japan.com/gafu-ten-2012/

Nichigo Bonsai – Gafu-Ten 2012 visit
http://nichigobonsai.com/2012/01/16/gafu-ten-2012/

Videos on YouTube…

Gafuten market 2012 Part 1
http://youtu.be/AmIgoug6nJI

Gafuten market 2012 Part 2
http://youtu.be/Il_N9KO5DcI