This is the official catalogue of the 81st Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition, held in 2007 — a record of masterpiece trees meant to inspire your own.
The honest reason most growers keep Kokufu albums is motivation. When you open one, you’re looking at the summit of what bonsai can be: trees refined over decades, sometimes generations, to a standard that’s hard to believe. It resets your eye and raises your ambition for your own material, however modest.
The Kokufu-ten, held in Tokyo since 1934 under the Nippon Bonsai Association, is the show every serious grower measures against. With the exhibition reaching its 100th edition in 2026, the series has never felt more significant, and editions from the 2000s like this one sit squarely in the modern era of the art.
The 81st edition is a deluxe hardcover in full colour, recording the more than two hundred trees shown in 2007, with text in Japanese. The photography is exhibition-grade, made to be studied closely.
Whether as a reference, a source of inspiration, or a gift for a fellow enthusiast, a Kokufu album earns its keep. The 2007 edition is a strong, accessible entry into one of the most respected book series in bonsai.
- Exhibition: 81th Kokufu Bonsai-ten
- Year: 2007
- Format: hardcover, full colour
- Contents: 200+ exhibited bonsai, text in Japanese
