Bonsai
Bonsai, written in Japanese with two characters meaning "pot" and "to plant," refers to the art of growing miniature plants in containers. Generally bonsai range from five centimeters to one meter in height. Certain techniques, such as pruning, training, and modifying the growing environment, keep the plants small. Some bonsai live longer than fifty years and are cared for by multiple generations.
Bonsai originated in China over one thousand years ago. Japanese envoys returning from China during the Chinese Tang dynasty (618–907 CE) introduced bonsai into Japan. Descriptions of bonsai appear in records from the Japanese Heian period (794–1185), and the art of creating them matured along with the rise of Zen in the fifteenth century. During this time, bonsai appear to have been limited to the world of aristocrats, political figures, scholars, and Buddhist monks, but in the Edo period (1600/1603–1868) bonsai became widespread as a recreation among common people. This trend continued in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Bonsai were first introduced into the West in London in 1902, and subsequently professional bonsai artists have exhibited around the world. Bonsai is practiced as a hobby worldwide, and numerous international bonsai clubs and societies exist.
In Japan, evergreens are the most popular plant for bonsai, though other plants, such as bamboo and plums, are also used. In creating a bonsai, the artist or hobbyist usually tries to re-create miniature versions of the natural, untamed world. But the bonsai might also reflect personal interests, for instance, re-creating the settings of famous plays.
Over thirty recognizable styles of bonsai exist, with the following are the most common. The formal upright style (chokkan) allows a straight plant to grow vertically. The informal upright style (moyogi), in which a plant is encouraged to follow its natural kinks or twists, is popular. In the cascading style (kengai), a plant hangs over the edge of its container, often trailing to the ground like a waterfall. In the windswept style (fukinagashi), the tree trunk and branches are swept to one sideto imitate the shape of a tree buffeted by the wind. In the rock-planting style (ishitsuki), the tree grows from a crack in a rock. The twisting-trunk style (bankan) makes use of a gnarled trunk. In the literati style (bunjin), which imitates the landscape paintings created by literati artists, the trunk grows in an unconventional shape. Bonsai is still widely practiced, not only in Japan but also in many different countries today.
A man prunes a pine tree bonsai to shape at the Saburo Kato nursery in Omiya, Japan. (MICHAEL S. YAMASHITA/CORBIS)Further Reading
"Bonsai Daijiten." (1983) Encyclopedia of Bonsai. Kyoto, Japan: Dohosha Shuppan.
Chan, Peter. (1985) Bonsai: The Art of Growing and Keeping Miniature Trees. London: Tiger Books International.
——. (1987) Bonsai: Masterclass. New York: Sterling Publishing.
Stein, Rolf Alfred. (1990) The World in Miniature: Container Gardens and Dwellings in Far Eastern Religious Thought. Trans. by Phyllis Brooks. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
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