The National Bonsai & Penjing Museum Honorees

Since its opening in 1976, the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum has attracted interest and support from bonsai enthusiasts and practitioners as well as from the general public. Some of its most significant supporters are remembered by specific museum spaces. The North American Pavilion is dedicated to John Y. Naka, the Tropical Conservatory to Haruo “Papa” Kaneshiro, the Chinese Pavilion to Dr. Yee-Sun Wu and the Educational Center to Yuji Yoshimura. The Kato Family Stroll Garden recognizes Saburo Kato’s profound contributions, while the garden of North American native plants at the museum’s exit honors George Yamaguchi.

Other features recall important museum benefactors. Maria Rivera Vanzant, who with her husband Howard was an ardent bonsai enthusiast, is remembered in the Upper Courtyard. The H. William Merritt Gate honors a volunteer and National Bonsai Foundation member who built the tokonoma display area himself. The Exhibit Gallery is dedicated to Mary E. Mrose, a mineralogist, crystallographer and bonsai aficionado who believed that bonsai, penjing and viewing stones deserve serious study. The Melba Tucker Arbor honors the author of Suiseki & Viewing Stones, an American Perspective for her exemplary service to bonsai and its related art forms in California and beyond. The Rose Family Garden, encircling the Lower Courtyard, recognizes the significant contributions of Deborah Rose, especially in support of the Japanese Pavilion renovation. Barbara Hall Marshall has supported the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum and the National Bonsai Foundation in innumerable ways and is the major benefactor of the John Y. Naka Pavilion. Another devoted patron is Marybel Balendonck, friend and student of John Naka, who is the primary advocate for the museum on the west coast.

The National Bonsai & Penjing Museum and the National Bonsai Foundation thank all those whose commitment and contributions of every kind make the museum and its collections such a unique and special place in the nation’s capital and in the world.

Melba Tucker, 1988

Haruo “Papa” Kaneshiro, Tropical Conservatory dedication, 1993

Barbara Hall Marshall and Marybel Balendonck, 2009

Left to right: Robert Drechsler, Dr. Thomas Elias, Mary E. Mrose, Floyd Horn and Mary Ann Orlando, Exhibits Gallery dedication, 1996

Left to right: Mary Ann Orlando, H. William Merritt and John Y. Naka, North American Pavilion groundbreaking, 1988

Saburo Kato with The Remotest Hill, his first forest planting of Ezo spruce trees, in Omiya, Japan

Maria Rivera Vanzant and Vaughn Banting, Lake Charles Bonsai Society, 1991

Left to right: Yuji Yoshimura, John Y. Naka, Dr. Henry Marc Cathey and Frederic Ballard, North American Pavilion groundbreaking, 1988

Deborah Rose and Harry Hirao, 2011

George Yamaguchi, North American Garden dedication, 1993