One of the oldest known bonsai trees is the Ficus Retusa Linn, which was brought from Taiwan and is currently housed in the Crespi Bonsai Collection in Italy. It is thought to be approximately more than 1000 years old.
Luigi Crespi, the creator of the Crespi Museum, spent ten years trying to obtain ownership of this “Bonsai Tree” before he was eventually successful in 1986. The tree was shaped in its early years in Italy after being tended to by the renowned bonsai artist Shotaro Kawahara. Since then, Alberto Lavazza and Crespi himself have been responsible for maintaining the Ficus Retusa Linn.
The 200 pieces that make up the Crespi Collection are rotated according to the seasons because each species has a favorable time to be displayed. The collection is becoming better every year because of the diligent attention of Luigi Crespi and the interventions of Master Nobuyuki Kajiwara, who oversees the museum and teaches a triennial course at Bonsai University.
A solid slate table holds a collection of authentic specimens, most of which are more than a century old and trained by renowned Japanese masters, including Kaneko, Kato, Kawamoto, Kawahara, and Ogasawara.
The bonsai was the focal point of the museum when it was opened in 1991 and was housed in a stately glass pagoda. The collection’s masterpiece is Millennial Ficus Retusa Linn, which is positioned at the center of a pagoda between two wooden Chinese temple dogs from the 19th century CE. The library, which stores rare books from around the world, valuable incunabula, and both antique and modern volumes, is situated above the collection of bonsai containers, which includes historic Chinese containers from the Ming (1368–1644 CE) and Qing (1636–1911 CE) dynasties.
A stunning recreation of the “Tokonoma” nook, a space set aside in every Japanese home for the display of spiritually significant antiques, balances an amazing assortment of real furnishings, including ancient Japanese lamps.
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