20 year anniversary
2003 - 2023
TestImonials
Shohin Bonsai Europe was established in 2003 by Morten Albek.
The bonsai garden Kisetsu-en (Garden of the changing seasons) is located in Denmark, with a high focus on Shohin and middle-sized bonsai.
Tomohiro Masumi
Congratulations on the 20th anniversary of your website and teaching platform Shohin Bonsai Europe！
I’m very happy and feeling proud that you are teaching and spreading shohin bonsai to all over the world.
When I visited some countries in Europe around 20 years ago, shohin was still really minor and not so popular.
Shohin is definitely getting popular not only in European countries but many others.
I hope you will keep going and shohin lovers are increasing more and more all over the world.
Thank you very much for your efforts and contribution.
Best Regards, Tomohiro Masumi
Shohin master at Kojuen in Kyoto, Japan
President of All Japan Shohin Bonsai Association
Heike van Gunst
Dear Morten, it is a great joy and honour to congratulate you on 30 years with bonsai and 20 successful years of Shohin-Europe!
You have surely made a very satisfying personal journey, exploring the world of bonsai and shohin, and you have achieved so much. Travelling to many countries of the world, you have shown your expertise and gained valuable experience.
If there is one person in Europe standing out for making shohin bonsai popular, it is you. Your enthusiasm and friendly way of teaching has inspired so many people!
What impresses me particularly is that you don’t only teach techniques, methods and tricks, but show people how to really enjoy the shaping and care of the small trees and appreciate the beauty of shohin consciously. In our fast, hectic times, this is so important and exemplary.
In my first bonsai years, I had some problems keeping the very small plants alive and so I restricted myself to medium-sized trees for several years, although I felt a strong fascination for shohin.
Your first book “Majesty in Miniature – Shohin Bonsai” motivated me in 2007 to give the small trees more attention. Although I still love and have many medium-sized bonsai, shohin and shohin displays have become my special passion. It was a pleasure to translate your second book, “Shohin Through The Seasons” from English into German in 2020. For me, this seems to have closed a circle.
Thank you, Morten, for all the inspiration and information. I wish you all the best for the coming years and decades and hope that you will always continue your great work for shohin bonsai in Europe!
Heike van Gunst
Tony Tickle
Dear Morten
What a fantastic achievement my friend.
We have known each other all these 20 years and more.
Shohin Bonsai has developed across Europe mostly down to your dedication and enthusiasm for the art.
You have studiously and creatively crafted a fabulous collection and shared that knowledge on your learning platform.
Many of your students I know have gone on to create beautiful shohin trees of their own under your guidance.
I know I speak for many in the bonsai community when I say THANK YOU for your efforts and contribution, here is to the next 20 years!
Tony Tickle
Bjorn Bjorholm
Congratulations on your wonderful achievement of 20 years of Shohin Bonsai Europe!
I remember as a kid in high school viewing your work, reading your articles and being inspired to try making shohin bonsai myself.
I know many folks around the world, young and old, have been inspired by your journey to do the same. Shohin bonsai is one of the most difficult aspects of bonsai art, but you have managed to create many fantastic little trees, often with humble material.
I think this is what gets people excited about your work – it’s accessible, wonderfully presented and inspirational to those with access to simple material.
It’s always a pleasure running into you at various events around the world, and I look forward to the next time we can catch up over bonsai!
Bjorn Bjorholm
Oscar Jonker
Dear Morten
Congratulations on your 20th anniversary!
Thanks for all you have done to build the Bonsai, and Shohin bonsai, community in Europe!
It is a pleasure to work with you and we wish you all the best for the next 20 years – spreading the art of Bonsai as much as possible!
Oscar, Bonsai Empire
Emil Wolff
Tony Bebb
Congratulations Morten. 20 years of Shohin Bonsai Europe and going stronger than ever.
You are one of the dedicated who consistently puts up material for others to learn from and enjoy.
So many people don’t appreciate the world of Shohin until they get older and have to ‘downsize’ everything as a necessity for a changing life.
The world of miniatures is a fascinating one of detail and dedication to care as we grow our Shohin trees to be beautiful Bonsai on a small scale. As everything gets more expensive and living spaces get smaller, Shohin is perfect for anybody to enjoy the amazing world of Bonsai and to enjoy the lifelong care of pieces of nature.
Thank you for sharing your passion and knowledge, as well as your beautiful garden at Kisetsu-en, in your videos you produce for Shohin Bonsai Europe.
I hope you will continue to be at the forefront of Shohin education and promotion throughout Europe and the world for many years to come.
I look forward to working with you again sometime soon.
Best Regards
Tony Bebb
Brisbane International Bonsai School.
Mark Akins
On behalf of Beechfield Bonsai, I would like to congratulate Morten Albek on the 20th
anniversary of Kisetsu-en and for promoting the art of shohin bonsai.
Through the online learning and tuition platform you have inspired many enthusiasts with
your passion for shohin bonsai, and shone a light on the joys these smaller trees bring.
Kisetsu-en along with Morten’s two published books, represent the go to sources for help
and information on managing both the joys and challenges that the smaller size bonsai
bring.
When we were organising the inaugural Bonsai Show Live in the UK, we felt it was essential
to get shohin bonsai represented and who better than Morten to take up that task. We are grateful that Morten accepted our invite and treated us to a shohin bonsai masterclass.
So we look forward to the next 20 years, at least two further books and many more visits to
the UK.
Best wishes, Mark Akins
Beechfield Bonsai and The Bonsai Show Live (UK)
Roland Schatzer
“Dear Morten, hello to the bonsai friends all over the world,
Morten and I have a lot of bonsai life in common.
Long time ago, exactly in 1993, we started our bonsai life. As every beginner we started with all kinds of trees. In short time the passion for the little ones, for the shohin, grew more and more, for both of us. We dedicated most of our time to these small bonsai.
At that time there was nearly nothing helping us to develop our trees. With a lot of effort and the will to create something special, we made many experiences.
Some were better than others. After many years, we both had the urge to share our experience with the next generation or whoever likes shohin. So, each of us wrote a book about shohin. Both books got unique and a lot of people took many tips, and information from them and could learn to develop shohin.
I know that the way from the big bonsai to the smaller ones is not always simple because in these times usually more and bigger counts more. Nevertheless, we both went this special way of minimalism, of shohin.
30 years have passed until today in the year 2023. Congratulations to you for this long effort and congratulations on your 20-year anniversary at your shohin bonsai school.
I wish my friend Morten that his passion for shohin should never stop or, better, that the passion for shohin continues to grow.”
Best regards
Roland Schatzer.
Dan Giphart
I want to thank you and gratulate you for the 20 years of tireless energy for making the shohin big again!
As a shohin pioneer in the Netherlands and Belgium mainly (together with my friends Jos Corstjens and Ab Demmendal) we made shohin more known and the knowledge and appreciation more widely spread.
You did such and still do, for the rest of the non Asian world.
With your excellent website and your never lasting enthusiasm.
Thank you for the efforts, I am grateful for the knowledge you shared with so many people. More than we ever could reach.
Greetings Daan Giphart
Michéle Corbihan
Bonsai Esprit / LR Presse send this video for which I am grateful.
Michéle Corbihan also is the editor and publisher of the Shohin Bonsai Books I write.
Dan Giphart
I want to thank you and gratulate you for the 20 years of tireless energy for making the shohin big again!
As a shohin pioneer in the Netherlands and Belgium mainly (together with my friends Jos Corstjens and Ab Demmendal) we made shohin more known and the knowledge and appreciation more widely spread.
You did such and still do, for the rest of the non Asian world.
With your excellent website and your never lasting enthusiasm.
Thank you for the efforts, I am grateful for the knowledge you shared with so many people. More than we ever could reach.
Greetings Daan Giphart