John Yoshio Naka (August 16, 1914, Fort Lupton, Colorado – May 19, 2004, Whittier, California) was an American horticulturist, teacher, author, and master bonsai cultivator. Life He was born a Nisei Japanese-American, but at age 8 moved back to his parents' home country, where he extensively studied the art of bonsai due to his grandfather's influence. He returned to the United States near Boulder, Colorado in 1935, and then in late 1946 settled in Los Angeles, California with his wife Alice and their three sons, Eugene, Robert, and Richard. Naka worked extensively with trees that were native to Southern California, rather than traditionally favored Japanese species, and helped popularize bonsai in the United States. In Orange County, Naka and four friends founded a bonsai club in November 1950, which is known today as the California Bonsai Society. He became a very important force in American bonsai art in the 1950s–60s. He was a driving force in the spread of bonsai appreciation and the practice of bonsai art in the West and elsewhere. Naka traveled and taught extensively around the world, at conventions and clubs, but refused to hold classes in Japan (where bonsai had been highly developed along certain lines over the centuries), saying "They want me to teach, and I tell them it's like trying to preach to Buddha." A very few of his many accomplishments are the following: He published two books, entitled Bonsai Techniques I and Bonsai Techniques II, texts that are revered as being the bibles of western bonsai to many artists. These books would be translated into French, German, Italian, and Spanish by 1990. He contributed articles, forewords, and photographs to a number of specialty magazines and books. Nina S. Ragle's compilation of 287 proverbs presented in both Japanese and English from Naka, Even Monkeys Fall Out of Trees, was published in 1987. (The title refers to the little recognized fact that, yes, even bonsai masters can make a mistake.) He was a founding director of the World Bonsai Friendship Federation (WBFF) and a co-signer of the Constitution of the Latin-American Bonsai Federation (LABF). He was an honorary advisor to the National Bonsai Foundation. Other quotes of his included "Bonsai is not the result: that comes after. Your enjoyment is what is important"; "It must have philosophy, botany, artistry, human quality behind it to be a bonsai"; "The bonsai is not you working on the