Toronto Bonsai Society 40th Anniversary Series Mr. Mamoru Nishi: Founder of the Toronto Bonsai Society by David Johnson A journey always begins with that important first step. The Toronto Bonsai Society (TBS), celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2004, took its first step with Mr. Mamoru Nishi. On January 21, 1964, Mr. Nishi, chairman of the Toronto Japanese Garden Club (TJGC), organized a meeting at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre where Lois Wilson gave a talk about bonsai. This meeting was the first general meeting of the Toronto Bonsai Society. Mr. Nishi became its president. During those early years, Wilma Swain observed that it was "...hard to separate the activities of the two clubs." (An article about the early years of the Toronto Bonsai Society by Wilma Swain appeared in the TBS Journal, Jan. 2004.) Mr. Nishi from TJGC 40th Anniversary booklet, 1992 Mr. Mamoru Nishi was born July 11,1910 in Steveston, British Columbia. After the Japanese Canadian community's internment during World War II, Mr. Nishi moved to Toronto around 1943. According to his life-long partner and wife, Mrs. Hanae Nishi, Mr. Nishi started growing bonsai in the late 1940s or early 1950s. Like many bonsai lovers, Mr. Nishi would care for his bonsai after he got home from work and again after supper. Mr. Nishi worked at a chrome furniture manufacturer located near Davenport and Dufferin Avenues. Mr. Nishi grew his bonsai on the back porch and exhibited them at the Toronto Japanese Garden Club and Toronto Bonsai Society shows. Club members Wilma Swain and Jim Campbell went to the Nishi home to learn about and work on their bonsai. Mr. Nishi's interest in bonsai was not just limited to personal satisfaction. Keen to share his passion with others, Mr. Nishi often gave bonsai demonstrations throughout the Toronto area. In the 1950s and 60s, these presentations sometimes took both Mr. and Mrs. Nishi on trips to towns in southern Ontario like Barrie and Hamilton. Mrs. Nishi remembers that they occasionally returned home from these presentations in the early hours of the morning. According to the February 25, 1971 TBS newsletter "Mr. M. Nishi, our Honorary President, has been instrumental in starting a Bonsai Society in Hamilton, Ontario. He started by giving a series of lectures and the Society is starting with a membership of about fifteen people." In May 1971 at the Bonsai Clubs International (BCI) convention in Cleveland, Ohio, Mr. Nishi gave a joint-presentation with Wilma Swain. Mr. Nishi's travels took him, along with TJGC and TBS members, to New York to learn from bonsai professionals like Frank Okamura, bonsai curator at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, and Yuji Yoshimura in Tarrytown, New York. "Mr. Nishi's Japanese maple at TJGC/TBS/OISE show May 21/72" Mr. Nishi wanted to introduce Canadians to the contributions of Japanese culture which included bonsai, ikebana, dolls, music and painting. To this end, Mr. Nishi was key to getting the TJGC, the TBS and the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education (OISE) to jointly sponsor the "Touch of Japan" show, held for the first time at OISE in May 1970. "Touch of Japan," held for twenty-seven years (1970-1997), helped publicize and build the bonsai community. George Duncan, who organized OISE's participation, remembers Mr. Nishi as a shy and quiet man. Mr. Duncan's observation is ironic because the shy and modest Mr. Nishi is the same man who undertook the bold and ambitious cause of leading the TJGC, the TBS and promoting Japanese culture under the cloud of post-WW II Canada. Despite what Mr. Nishi felt was a weakness in his ability to speak English in public, he continued to make a lot of public appearances. Mr. Nishi was the TBS's first president, executive member, and then in 1967, Honorary President for many years. Mr. Nishi served as TJGC president for 42 years, from its founding in 1952 to 1993. Mr. Nishi died February 27, 1993. Mrs. Nishi explained that Mr. Nishi put his "heart and soul in bonsai." His love of bonsai, his goal to introduce bonsai to the broader public and to give this goal organizational form, makes Mr. Mamoru Nishi the father of organized bonsai practice in Ontario. ***************************** A Final Word: In researching this article, I read through the newsletters and executive minutes of the Toronto Bonsai Society. More often than not, when some reference was made to Mr. Nishi, he was referred to as "Mr. Nishi". In this article, I opted to convey the spirit of respect that was shown to Mr. Nishi. ***************************** This article did not begin as an article about Mr. Nishi. It started as a quest to discover the fate of the first bonsai created in Canada by Japanese Canadians after the shameful act of the Canadian government to intern all Japanese Canadians during World War II. Dan Maeda of the Toronto Japanese Garden Club and Misseto (Mississauga and Etobicoke bonsai club) and I placed an ad in Nikkei Voice asking "Where have all the bonsai gone?" to elicit an answer from Japanese Canadians. The TBS paid for the placement of the ad. Unfortunately, we received no replies. The lack of response forced Dan and me to seek out individuals in the Japanese Canadian community who did or may possibly know of those who did bonsai. Toshi Oikawa, president of the TJGC helped immensely in this area. George Takata whose father Mr. Kensuke Takata did bonsai both in British Columbia and the Toronto area, said that when his father was interned, the bonsai were just left on the benches because they could only take one suitcase with them. They also believed they would be only gone for a short period of time. That short period of time lasted years. The bonsai probably lasted a week. After about six months, people's homes were vandalized and what was left was sold for a fraction of their value. Seeking out this information about early bonsai in the Toronto area, which led to some interesting finds, meshed with the reprinting of minutes from the TBS executive in the June 2003 Journal by editor Dierk Neugebauer and the 40th anniversary of the TBS in 2004. All of these independent events reinforced each other. While a full accounting of the British Columbia bonsai remains incomplete (and we can guess their sad fate), perhaps a greater appreciation of the history of bonsai in the Toronto area will be achieved. This article about Mr. Mamoru Nishi, the founder of the Toronto Bonsai Society, is the second of a series - beginning with a reprint of the above mentioned article by Wilma Swain - that can serve to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the TBS as a part of bonsai history in Canada.