This is the official catalogue of the 78th Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition, held in 2004 — and for collectors, every back issue is a small race against time.
Kokufu catalogues are printed once, for the year of each show, and not reissued. The Kokufu-ten has run in Tokyo since 1934 under the Nippon Bonsai Association, which means there’s a long series of these books, and completing a run is a genuine pursuit. Older editions become scarce and command higher prices; even a relatively recent volume like 2004 grows harder to find as the years pass.
That’s part of the appeal. A shelf of Kokufu albums is a library that documents the evolution of the art year by year, and each volume you add fills a gap that won’t be easy to fill later. Serious enthusiasts often build their collections one edition at a time, hunting the missing years.
The 78th edition is a deluxe hardcover in full colour, documenting the more than two hundred trees shown that year, with text in Japanese. The photography is of the usual exhibition standard, made for study.
Whether you’re starting a collection or closing a gap in one, a clean copy of a specific year is worth securing while you can. As a reference it’s invaluable; as a collectible it only appreciates as the edition disappears from the market.
- Exhibition: 78th Kokufu Bonsai-ten
- Year: 2004
- Format: hardcover, full colour
- Contents: 200+ exhibited bonsai, text in Japanese
