Stone of the Month: 

March 2022 

"Kato's Gift"

This Red Kamo River stone has special meaning to us. Even though it was collected from one of Japan's historically most important rivers, this stone’s significance comes from the fact that it was owned by the late Saburo Kato, president of the Nippon Bonsai Association for over 20 years. I had the opportunity to work with Mr. Kato on several occasions when the NBA gifted bonsai to the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum at the U.S. National Arboretum. He accompanied Prime Minister Obuchi on an official state visit with President William Clinton in 1999, and I interviewed Mr. Kato several times after the White House visit in preparation for writing about him and his nursery. A two-part article, Mansei-en and The Kato Family, was published in numbers 3 and 4 of Bonsai Magazine in 2001. We visited Mr. Kato at his Mansei-en nursery. later that year, he presented this stone to me as a memento of our friendship and the article I wrote about him. The provenance of this stone makes it even more meaningful. The stone is 13 cm wide, 10.5 cm high, and 17 cm deep, and is seated in a beautifully carved hardwood base.