Welcome to the BBB Bonsai Scoop for 25 August 2026, our look at what’s happening across the international bonsai community.
This week provides a reminder of just how global the art of bonsai has become. Malaysia is preparing to welcome enthusiasts for the 10th World Bonsai Convention, while Japan has confirmed dates for the 101st edition of one of the most prestigious exhibitions in bonsai.
Elsewhere, bonsai exhibitions and community events have been taking place from Colombia and Australia to Canada and the United States, while an unusual Japanese project is asking whether even a bonsai that has reached the end of its natural life can become something new.
Lead News: The Bonsai World Heads to Malaysia
One of the international bonsai community’s biggest gatherings begins in Malaysia this week as the 10th World Bonsai Convention brings artists and enthusiasts together from around the globe.
The convention opens on 29 August 2026 at the HGH Convention Centre Sentul in Kuala Lumpur, with exhibitions, demonstrations and opportunities for bonsai enthusiasts to meet practitioners from other countries.
The programme continues on 30 August with a second bonsai demonstration session alongside a tour to Genting Highlands.
Events of this scale play an important role beyond simply displaying exceptional trees.
Bonsai may have deep cultural roots in Asia, particularly Japan and China, but today’s community stretches around the world. International conventions provide opportunities for different traditions, techniques and species to meet in one place.
That can be particularly interesting for growers in warmer climates.
Many of the trees that dominate traditional Japanese bonsai literature aren’t necessarily the species enthusiasts encounter in South Africa, Malaysia or other warmer regions. International gatherings can therefore broaden the conversation around what bonsai can be.
For beginners following the hobby from home, there is another useful reminder here: bonsai isn’t one rigid style or collection of species. It is an international living art.
Visit the official 10th World Bonsai Convention website
Lead News: Japan Announces the 101st Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition
The Japanese Bonsai Association has confirmed the dates for the 101st Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition, following this year’s historic centenary event.
The next Kokufu-ten will take place at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in February 2027.
The first part will run from 8–11 February, followed by the second exhibition period from 13–17 February. The museum will be closed on 15 February.
For bonsai enthusiasts, Kokufu-ten occupies an extraordinary position within the art.
Rather than simply functioning as another large exhibition, Kokufu has become one of the benchmarks against which exceptional Japanese bonsai are measured. Trees selected for display represent years — and often generations — of cultivation, refinement and careful presentation.
Reaching the 100th exhibition in 2026 represented a major milestone. Confirmation of the 101st edition now begins the next century of the event’s history.
Even enthusiasts who will never personally exhibit at Kokufu can learn from the trees displayed there. Studying their proportions, branch structures, containers, negative space and presentation provides an opportunity to understand what highly refined bonsai can eventually become.
And importantly for beginners: those extraordinary trees didn’t start extraordinary.
They became extraordinary through time, horticultural knowledge and countless small decisions.
See the Japanese Bonsai Association’s announcement
In Other News: Bogotá Turns Its Botanical Garden into a Miniature Forest
Colombia recently celebrated bonsai with the Fifth Bonsai Exhibition at the Bogotá Botanical Garden, held from 14–17 August.
Around 30 species featured during the four-day exhibition, organised in partnership with the Colombian Bonsai Association.
The event presented bonsai not merely as decorative plants, but through the interconnected ideas of art, nature, culture and botanical knowledge.
That’s a particularly useful way of describing the hobby.
Successful bonsai requires horticultural understanding to keep a tree healthy, artistic judgement to shape it convincingly and patience to allow the design to develop over time.
Botanical gardens are therefore natural homes for bonsai exhibitions because they can introduce the art to people who might otherwise never encounter it.
Someone visiting to see plants may leave wondering whether there is room on their own patio for a miniature tree.
Read about Bogotá’s Fifth Bonsai Exhibition
In Other News: Can a Dead Bonsai Become Art Again?
A Japanese project is taking the idea of preserving old bonsai in an unusual direction.
TOUFU TOKYO recently returned to Isetan Shinjuku with its fifth RE BONSAI pop-up exhibition, presenting around 50 one-of-a-kind artworks created using bonsai that had reached the end of their lives.
Trees involved included Japanese junipers and five-needle pines ranging from approximately 10 to 250 years old.
Rather than simply discarding dead material, the project reconstructs the forms as contemporary artwork.
It raises an interesting question for bonsai enthusiasts.
A bonsai is normally valued as a living artwork whose appearance continuously changes. Once the tree dies, that relationship between artist and living material ends.
RE BONSAI instead asks whether the trunk, deadwood, movement and evidence of decades of cultivation can retain artistic value afterwards.
Traditional bonsai growers may have very different opinions about the result, but the concept demonstrates how far bonsai aesthetics can travel beyond the pot.
See the RE BONSAI project at Isetan Shinjuku
Around the Bonsai World
Omiya celebrates the feeling of summer shade — The Omiya Bonsai Art Museum’s August seasonal exhibition, Cool Breeze in the Tree Shade, uses pines, Japanese junipers and maples to evoke relief from Japan’s summer heat. Explore the exhibition
Bonsai Winnipeg holds its annual display — The Canadian club’s annual display took place on 22–23 August as clubs around the world continue bringing bonsai directly to local communities. See international bonsai community news at BCI
Australia’s Waverley Bonsai Group hosts its 2026 exhibition — The 22–23 August event featured bonsai displays, live styling demonstrations and opportunities for newcomers to speak directly with club members. Read about the exhibition
A bougainvillea takes Best in Show in Illinois — Jennifer P.’s flowering informal-upright bougainvillea scored 95 points at the 2026 Destination Asia show and also won the People’s Choice award. See the winning trees
Chicago hosts its 48th Mid-America Bonsai Exhibition — The long-running exhibition returned to the Chicago Botanic Garden from 14–16 August with displays, workshops, vendors and guest master Boon Manakitivipart. Visit the Midwest Bonsai Society
Swiss bonsai enthusiasts prepare for SBSA 2026 — Switzerland’s national Bonsai and Suiseki Exhibition is scheduled for 12–13 September, with the deadline for exhibition submissions now closed. See the Swiss Bonsai and Suiseki Association’s latest news
Cape Town bonsai enthusiasts practise pine grafting — A specialist scion-grafting workshop was held in Somerset West on 22 August, focusing on improving leggy branches and changing foliage varieties. See the Cape Town workshop details