What was your professional
education?
I studied plant biology at university. I
love nature, plants particularly, so these
are what most of my education revolved
around. Since I was a child I've spent
much time in horticulture, gardening and
bonsai. I always dreamed of having my
own nursery where I would grow plants
to sell, to work on, to study — and from
which I can earn a living.
How did it all start?
I saw my first bonsai in a shopping mall.
I was there with my aunt. I discovered
it when taking a look in the gardening
area. I tried to convince my aunt to buy
it for me. She refused at first, but I was
very insistent, so I eventually received it
as a present. Unfortunately it died very
soon after. But then I started thinking
about what I could use to fill the empty
pot. I took a tree out of the garden and it
worked very well at the beginning. So this
was all the encouragement I needed to
dive into bonsai.
The bonsai passion of Manuel Germade
Text and photography: Bonsai Focus Studio
The only regret Manuel Germade has is the fact that he did not go to Japan much earlier. A couple of years ago he
officially graduated as a bonsai Master and he now finds his way in the West exhibiting and sharing his knowledge
Forced to find solutions
PROFILE
Who was your bonsai
teacher?
During my apprenticeship I
had two teachers. Nobuichi
Urushibata taught me at
the start and his son, Taiga
Urushibata, at the end.
It was a difficult time for
me because they are very
different. I suffered a big
change halfway through my
apprenticeship. In the end
I felt very lucky as I learned
much from both. I received
two different visions as to
what I could read into bonsai and how to
create it and make it real. Quite the most
important thing I learned from them is
how to manage bonsai as a profession not
just as a hobby. It completely changed my
approach to bonsai.How did you manage to live
with the different cultures within
Spain and Japan?It was the hardest part. The difference
is so great that you are almost always in
trouble. It was very difficult for me to say
or to do the right thing most of the time.
Misunderstandings were frequent, so I
tried always to be polite and respectful.
Unfortunately, sometimes what I wanted
to do with every good intention was not
understood that way.How did you communicate, in
Japan?
At the beginning in English. Then I tried
to learn Japanese on my own. So I started
talking a mixture of both languages. I
used Japanese as much as I could. And
when I didn’t understand something I
had to use English. Taiga forced me to
speak Japanese. I worked from very early
in the morning until late at night, so
when I tried to study after dinner I fell
asleep.How did you come to choose
Urushibata’s garden?
I began reading about bonsai in books
and magazines to learn on my own. At
that time I looked at some articles about
Nobuichi Urushibata. I was surprised by
some of his work in maples. He used to
make crazy graftings on them. That was
a part of bonsai I loved, especially as, at
the start I only had deciduous trees. So I52 Bonsai Focus