This year’s CASSOVIA BONSAI exhibition was open to visitors from 8 to 11 May in the indoor premises of the UPJŠ Botanical Garden. The fourteenth edition of the exhibition was held under the auspices of the Japanese Ambassador, H.E. Yasuhiro Kawakami, who visited the university garden on Saturday, 10 May 2025. The guests were welcomed by Dr. h. c. prof. Mgr. Slávka Tomaščíková, PhD., the Vice-Rector for International Relations, Dr. h. c. prof. MUDr. Pavol Jarčuška, PhD., the Vice-Rector for Strategic Development and Investments, prof. RNDr. Pavel Mártonfi, PhD., Director of the UPJŠ Botanical Garden, Ildikó Csáji Palenčár, the President of the Košice Civic Club, and Juraj Szabó, the President of the Slovak Bonsai Association.
The Ambassador awarded the prize for the most beautiful bonsai and a small suiseki stone, watched a demonstration of Japanese traditional martial arts, tasted the tea selection of Dobrá čajovňa tea house, and planted a tree in the Alley of Prominent Personalities. He thus became the second personality to enrich the Alley with a rare tree from the mulberry genus – Morus boninensis Koidz. It is a unique but also critically endangered species native to the Bonin Islands (Ogasawara, Japan). “It is a very special tree, and very endangered. Even in Japan, we have just over a hundred specimens,” said the Ambassador immediately after the tree was planted. The UPJŠ Botanical Garden aims to contribute to the preservation of this unique tree and its conservation for future generations. With the establishment of the Alley, the Botanical Garden proudly proclaims the tradition of planting trees associated with the Central European Arbor Day (20 October), which annually emphasizes the irreplaceable importance of trees for the life and functioning of our planet, as well as the need for responsibility towards nature and the environment.
