13-05-2025
An East Bay bonsai master is inspiring the next generation to find stories inside the trees
An East Bay bonsai master is inspiring the next generation to find stories inside the trees
An East Bay bonsai master is inspiring the next generation to find stories inside the trees
An East Bay bonsai master is inspiring the next generation to find stories inside the trees
For more than 50-years, a tiny movement has grown in the East Bay thanks to Dennis Makishima.
He is considered by many, a master of Aesthetic Pruning, and an influential figure in California's bonsai culture: the Japanese art of shaping and cultivating miniature trees.
"There is the essence in every tree, find it, bring it out," said Makashima. "I can make them talk to you. Part of the principle of aesthetic pruning and bonsai is, I feel you got to tell a story."
His story begins with his father, who after WW2 when thousands of Japanese Americans returned home from the Internment Camps.
"My father was a gardener. He had to be a gardener because after the war, he couldn't get another job," said Makashima. "So, when I was growing up, it's kind of shameful that I was embarrassed by what my father did."
Ironically, one day after helping a friend prune a tree, Makashima quickly realized he had a natural eye on how to shape and cut.
"I kind of sensed it," said Makashima, "I realized this was meant to be, I was destined to do this kind of stuff, and I could make a living."
Destiny would take him to Japan, where he would travel to more than dozen times learning the art of bonsai, and was later honored by the country.
He applied what he learned in Japan to his pruning business, establishing 3,000 clients, including Disneyland, where he was hired to prune a dwarf pine that was planted by Walt Disney himself.
But despite all of his accomplishments, he is most proud of branching out to the next generation, including Yuki Nara who is one of his 106 apprentices who carryon his legacy.
"He's as a human being I respect. I love him so much. I learn from him. Without him, I wouldn't be able to do this," said Nara.
Makashima would go to create an Aesthetic Tree Pruning program at Merritt College and also served as President of the Golden State bonsai Federation.
During his career, he had accumulated more than six hundred bonsai. His backyard looked like a tiny forest.
"Individually, they all had a story, and I worked on each one," said Makashima.
But three years ago, Dennis felt he had completed their stories and decided to stop and give them away.
"I had completed the goal that I set out, and I realized I'm just looking at these trees now," he said.
He donated them to the Golden State Bonsai Collection in Oakland who auctioned them off to raise money for their garden, raising more than 150-thousand dollars.
And after 50-years, Makishima decided his story was also complete and decided to retire.
Today, he still has a handful of clients and still holds a handful of seminars. But even in retirement his influence and legacy continue to grow, through the students he has taught and the trees he has touched.
