It’s been 20 years since the first Crespi Cup, an event
created with the aim of supporting the spread of bonsai and arts related
thereto
The 11th
International Bonsai & Suiseki Meeting - Crespi Cup 2015 ended in Parabiago
(Milan) on September 20th. Over the years this event grew presenting
works on display each time more and more exceptional and of high level, so as
to become the Crespi Cup one of the events dedicated to the bonsai and suiseki
most famous and prestigious in the world.
If the purpose is to spread
in Europe the culture of bonsai and suiseki, also this year this result was
reached judging by the excellent number of visitors and the large participation
by over 200 exhibitors from all over Italy and several European countries
(Switzerland, Austria, Germany, France, Portugal, Spain, England, Belgium), who
have exhibited the best pieces of their collections, also covering thousands of
kilometres just to reach the exhibition spaces of Crespi Bonsai, set in
beautiful Japanese gardens.
An exhibition of high
quality that offered to visitors of the 2015 edition with exceptional
specimens, old or however mature trees, well cared and worked, by the great
expressive character, stones that have been able to immerse the public in
natural scenery and amaze an expert as Masayuki Nomura and pots by peculiar colours
and shapes but of absolute beauty, displayed together with trees or grasses.
The success of the five
exhibitions contest
Thanks to the wide exhibition area it was
possible to bring together in one suggestive pavilion the beautiful bonsai of
the Enthusiasts’ exhibition, in the first weekend, and Crespi Bonsai and Shohin
Cup, the evocative stones of the competition Crespi Suiseki Cup and pots made
by enthusiasts of the contest Crespi Pot Cup during the second weekend. The
technical and quality level of the exhibited trees was surprisingly high, as
even the originality of the pots, which also this year were avant-garde works,
displayed together with trees or grasses.
Contests that have provided a considerable jackpots,
but that this year in addition to vouchers of 5,000 euro for the winner of the
exhibition contest Crespi Bonsai Cup, 1,300 euro for the winner of the
exhibition contest Crespi Shohin Cup, 1,000 euro for the winner of the exhibition
contest Crespi Shohin Cup, 500.00 euro for the winner of the exhibition contest
Crespi Pot Cup, and their cups on which was engraved the name of the winner that
will remain in the history of this great event, the winner of the Crespi Bonsai
Cup and the winner of the Enthusiasts’ exhibition have won a flight ticket to
Japan offered by Cathay Pacific.
The winners of exhibition contests
Crespi
Bonsai Cup
1st prize: Paolo Riboli (Pinus mugo)
- Italy
2nd prize: Sergio Del Mese - Crescenzo Fiore (Quercus
suber) - Italy, with 85 points
3rd prize: Andrés Álvarez Iglesias
(Pinus pentaphylla) - Spain, with 81,6 points
Kaneko
Memory Cup: Sergio Del Mese and
Crescenzo Fiore (Quercus suber) - Italy
BCI-Bonsai
Club International Prize:Lorenzo Agnoletti (Pinus mugo) - Italy
Merit Notes:Gino Costa (Juniperus
chinensis Itoigawa) - Italy. Mauro
Stemberger (Pinus sylvestris) - Italy. Gino Costa (Juniperus
chinensis Itoigawa) - Italy. Carlo Riva (Pinus sylvestris) - Italy | Fabio Mantovani (Juniperus chinensis Itoigawa) -
Italy
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Crespi
Bonsai Cup
1st prize: Paolo Riboli (Pinus mugo)
- Italy
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| Paolo Riboli won the 1st prize of the Crespi Bonsai Cup |
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Sergio Del Mese won the 2nd prize
of the Crespi Bonsai Cup and the
Kaneko
Memory Cup
|
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Crespi
Bonsai Cup
2nd prize: Sergio Del Mese - Crescenzo Fiore (Quercus
suber)
- Italy |
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Crespi
Bonsai Cup
3rd prize: Andrés Álvarez Iglesias
(Pinus pentaphylla)
- Spain |
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Andrés Álvarez Iglesias won the
3rd prize of the Crespi
Bonsai Cup |
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| Merit Notes:
Fabio Mantovani (Juniperus chinensis Itoigawa)
-
Italy
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|
Merit Notes:
Carlo Riva (Pinus sylvestris) - Italy |
Crespi
Shohin Cup
1st prize: Roberto Semprini (Olea
europaea) - Italy, with 87,5 points
2nd prize: Paolo Dassetto (Juniperus
chinensis) - Italy, with 81,65 points
3rd prize
(ex-aequo): Federico Avellina (Juniperus chinensis Itoigawa) – Italy | Luis Vallejo (Zelkova serrata) – Spain, with 80 points
Merit Notes: Andrea
Scarenzi (Diospyros kaki) - Italy
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Crespi
Shohin Cup
1st prize: Roberto Semprini (Olea
europaea) - Italy |
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Crespi
Shohin Cup
2nd prize: Paolo Dassetto (Juniperus
chinensis) - Italy |
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Crespi
Shohin Cup
3rd prize
(ex-aequo): Federico Avellina
(Juniperus chinensis Itoigawa) – Italy |
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Crespi
Shohin Cup
3rd prize
(ex-aequo):Luis Vallejo (Zelkova serrata) – Spain |
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Crespi
Shohin Cup
Merit Notes: Andrea
Scarenzi (Diospyros kaki) - Italy |
1st prize: Ettore Gardini (Sansui
kei-seki) - Italy, with 96 points
2nd prize (ex-aequo): Paolo Dassetto
(Sajigawa-ishi) - Italy | Virna Marchi (Sansui kei-seki) - Italy,
with 94 points
3rd prize (ex-aequo): Andrea Cortella
(Kinzan-seki) - Italy | Enzo Ferrari (Mizutamari-ishi) - Switzerland,
with 90 points
Crespi
Pot Cup
1st prize: Matias Abel Pera - Italy,
with 100 points
2nd prize (ex-aequo): Igor Carino | Piero
Cantù - Italia, with 96,6 points
3rd prize: Luciano Ambrosetti -
Italy, with 80 points
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Crespi
Pot Cup
1st prize: Matias Abel Pera - Italy,
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Enthusiasts’ Competition
1st prize: Rocco Zinghinì (Pinus
sylvestris) - Italy, with 88,3 points
2nd prize (ex-aequo): Alessandro
Geraci (Juniperus chinensis Itoigawa) and Giulio Corti (Pinus pentaphylla) – Italy, with 78,3 points
3rd prize: Roberto Licini (Buxus) -
Italy, with 76,7 points
Masakuni
Cup, for the best deciduous tree: Silvio Brocchetti (Acer palmatum Viridis) – Italy
Yokohama
Cup, for the best conifer: Matteo Martin (Juniperus Hokkaido) – Italy
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Rocco
Zinghinì won the 1st prize
of the Enthusiast' competition.
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Enthusiast'
competition
1st
prize: Rocco Zinghinì (Pinus sylvestris)
- Italy
|
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Enthusiasts’ Competition
2nd prize (ex-aequo):
Alessandro
Geraci (Juniperus chinensis Itoigawa) |
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Enthusiasts’ Competition
2nd prize (ex-aequo):
Alessandro
Geraci - Italy |
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Enthusiasts’ Competition
2nd prize (ex-aequo): Giulio Corti,
Italy |
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Enthusiasts’ Competition
2nd prize (ex-aequo): Giulio Corti (Pinus pentaphylla),
Italy |
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Enthusiasts’ Competition:
3rd prize: Roberto Licini (Buxus), Italy |
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Enthusiasts’ Competition
Masakuni
Cup, for the best deciduous tree:
Silvio Brocchetti, Acer palmatum Viridis, Italy |
The great guests protagonists at the Crespi Cup
Many super guests present
on this occasion: from Japan the master Shinsaku Yamahata who considers the
bonsai not a profession but a personal enrichment, with his assistant Jun
Imabayashi, and Masayuki Nomura, great expert of suiseki, who gave new ideas
for suiseki display; it is instead arrived from California Fred Olsen, ceramist
world famous who studied from Tomimoto Kenkichi (Japanese National Treasure),
who held a conference and a demonstration on ceramics.
Special guest for bonsai
was then the master Shinsaku Yamahata, the great artist of the contemporary
bonsai, who surprised the public who awaited the first performance in Italy,
offering an unique approach to his creative style, always looking for the
potentiality of the tree, to bring out the character and turn it into a
masterpiece bonsai. Yamahata held several demonstrations and workshops facing
processes of dry wood to give naturalness and charm to bonsai in processing and
proposing a study on the tree in order to recognize its future and potential.
Two were the special
demonstrations of master Yamahata, one dedicated to the processing of the
Juniperus sabina phoenicea, to which was able to extrapolate the exceptional
character hidden, the other to the reshaping of a Taxus baccata to turned to
exemplary already of high level to a bonsai worthy of being exposed!
To Shinsaku Yamahata, busy
with technical demonstrations and workshops, have been joined by the great
personalities of the European bonsai: Edoardo Rossi with a conference on the Kazari - the
art of bonsai and suiseki display - subject of his next book coming out with
Crespi Editori, Igor Carino and Gaetano Settembrini who held demonstrations and
courses dedicated to bonsai and grasses on wood and rock, all well attended.
It was
also present the master Nobuyuki Kajiwara with the students of the Crespi’s
school, the University of Bonsai, who gave advices and exchanged views with the
many enthusiasts welcomed in the space dedicated to them.
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One of the Shinsaku Yamahata's demonstrations
with his
assistant Jun Imabayashi
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| Yamahata's workshop. |
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Masayuki Nomura, great expert of suiseki,
gave new ideas for
suiseki display
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Fred Olsen
(California), ceramist world famous,
held a
demonstration on ceramics.
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Edoardo
Rossi held a conference on the Kazari,
the art of
bonsai and suiseki display.
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Igor Carino
held courses dedicated
to grasses
on wood and rock.
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Demonstrations, didactics
activities and shows
The program of this edition has been
particularly intense and especially involving both for enthusiasts and for those who
wanted to approach nature, observing the rhythms and changes through a small
tree grown in pots.
The International Bonsai & Suiseki Meeting is born from these assumptions
and aims to approaching people to this world, going through the paths and
oriental disciplines, which through the same road.
That's why
presenting the world of bonsai we embrace aspects of Japanese and Eastern
culture, giving visitors the opportunity to discover new forms of art, fully
enjoying the time spent in the magnificent spaces and gardens of Crespi Bonsai.
Planned activities related to bonsai and more generally to the Japanese and
Eastern culture have allowed all visitors to range from didactic sessions to
demonstrations, from conferences to the practice of oriental arts to shows
offered in the two weekends of the event: the taiko - Japanese drums - to the
Japanese folk and contemporary music; from the cooking with wagashi, sushi and
tea to sumi-e and shodō moving to the painting and calligraphy world, ranging
from courses and workshops, dedicated also to children both of bonsai and
origami, and performances of martial arts, among that particularly appreciated
were those of Korean sword and kyudo.
The meeting with Giampiero Raganelli - film
critic - was addressed to Japanese cinema especially dedicated to nature and
its elements, and to entertain the little ones was Pino Zema with kamishibai,
an ancient form of Japanese story.
During the event was also exposed an inedited exhibition of Japanese postmarks,
who identified the various departure city, applied to postcards or envelopes
between 1881 and 1888, conceived and staged by Lorenzo Sonzini.
A positive result, exceeding all the
expectations
Luigi Crespi at the awards ceremony which took place Saturday, September 19th,
during the gala dinner, at compendium of
this eleventh edition of the Crespi Cup, wanted to commemorate
the 20th anniversary of this long-lived event. “In these eleven editions we had the chance
to see on display exceptional works, to meet new friends and at the same time
become one of the events dedicated to bonsai and suiseki best known in the world”.
He talked about the evolution of the art of bonsai
and amazing achievements
in the West, results also gained thanks to this type
of exhibitions: “The evolution had in recent years in the bonsai world in the West is a
remarkable achievement. And if evolution is synonymous with the future, let me
say that I'm really proud to witness this incredible achievement”, he said. Speech ended with a special thank for
his family, his whole staff, the excellent guests who have held the attention
of many visitors from all over Italy and from many European countries and the
many participants to the contests who proposed their best trees, stones and
pots for the display.
