Kunio Kobayashi is one of Japan's leading bonsai artists and a director of the Shunkaen Bonsai Museum in Tokyo, Japan. He has been practicing bonsai for more than thirty years, and has held bonsai demonstrations all over the world, including in the US, Europe, and Asia. He is a four-time winner of the Prime Minister's Award given annually at Sakufuten, Japan's premier professional bonsai exhibition.