Bonsai for pleasure - some generalisations

It does not seem to matter where or when bonsai was first practiced, one always has the impression that its practice resulted from the sheer pleasure and fascination of growing trees in miniature. And when trees are grown to predetermined shapes, they introduce the essential factor in the design and making of bonsai — the controlling hand of man. To do this well provides many challenges, both aesthetic as well as technical, and the whole process is immensely relaxing and provides us with much pleasure. Exactly the sort of activity that we need in this time of stress and rush when everything in our daily lives seems geared to pressured living. I find bonsai has a very therapeutic effect. It is calming. It is quiet. It is beautiful and it evokes all sorts of emotions, and for me at least, it is very much about love. The love of trees, the love of life, the love of time and the love of people. One meets many people through bonsai and one makes many friends. Bonsai has the wonderful capacity to transcend all of society’s social, cultural and professional stratas.

It stimulates ones awareness of so many things which may otherwise have not occurred to us had it not been for bonsai. Things such as a close-up look at an emerging pine shoot with all of its impendent changes from bud to full grown shoot. And this we can witness from a matter of inches away rather than some forty or fifty feet up in the branches of the mature tree. And this concert performed by nature has an infinite number of scenes with every different variety of tree and plant that we grow as bonsai. We become more aware of landscapes and the place of trees in the landscape. We appreciate the elemental and geographical influences that trees are subjected to; we discover soil types, Ph, micro environments, bugs (both good and bad). We discover ‘NPK’; we are more conscious of climatic conditions; of light; of humidity, of ventilation. We become more aware (in the aesthetic sense) of line, form, space, texture, mass, composition etc. And so it goes on; we become more finely tuned and all because of our interest in bonsai. Suddenly we become so much more aware of the world around us with its infinite variety and its infinite beauty and we begin to realise what a joy there is to be had in being a part of it.

Bonsai, because of its relatively small size, also fits well into our present society as populations grow and space becomes increasingly less available to most of us. Gardens are becoming smaller and the opportunity to grow full size trees in any great numbers is for most of us just a dream. But with bonsai we can grow a forest in a single pot. Need I say more? Bonsai is so much fun — at any level!

Bonsai in the West - the Third Generation

Bonsai in the traditional sense originated many centuries ago in China, although no one knows for sure, exactly when. It is thought that its origins may well extend as far back as eleven centuries or more but this is academic and hardly matters as this book is primarily concerned with contemporary bonsai and bonsai for the 21st Century. So let us refer to this original period as ‘First Generation’ bonsai.

From China bonsai migrated to Japan where it has been practiced, once again, for many centuries, until the present date. Let us refer to this period of bonsai in Japan as ‘Second Generation’ bonsai.

There are many significant differences in the cultivation and aesthetic approach to bonsai between these cultures and here it is that we need to take our first lesson. The various schools of bonsai have developed within the strict technological and social boundaries of their own respective cultures. It is this national culture and social influence that is responsible for setting the trends and stylised forms that illustrate the many ways in which bonsai can be practiced.

Much of bonsai in China relies on the ‘grow and prune’ technique for shaping the form of a tree. And much of the Chinese appreciation of bonsai is concerned with bizarre forms and unusual trunks that are suggestive of other forms such as creatures etc. The Chinese also used complex tying techniques with string-like cords to arrange the placement of branches and the line of the trunk. In more recent times with the evolution of wire the placement of branches has been achieved by wiring and bending them into position, although this is more of a Japanese technique rather than Chinese and I can only imagine that the early economies of the two countries may have some bearing on this. Wire is expensive and is hardly likely to be wasted on bonsai in a country where there is so much poverty as has been the case in China.

Because Japanese trees rely so much on wiring to control the form of the bonsai, their trees tend to be more curvaceous in trunk and branch character rather than angular as is the case with many of the Chinese trees. These structural differences are broadly fundamental to the two schools of bonsai. It is significant that the Japanese, in their pursuits of bonsai, did not feel it necessary to adhere slavishly to the philosophies and techniques of bonsai as practiced by the Chinese. And over the centuries they have developed it into the wonderful art-form that we see and appreciate today. Furthermore, bonsai, as currently seen and practiced today is undeniably a Japanese art-form but it does not follow that we, that is the Western World, need to adhere to the Japanese approach to bonsai indefinitely. Indeed, I hope to point out in the next few paragraphs that this would be impossible for us to mimic anyway. If for no other reasons, simply because our cultures are so different and the art of bonsai exists today in its present form because it has developed for centuries within the Japanese culture with all of its strict and tabulated rules; rules that govern the practice of bonsai. Rules that must be obeyed and rules that Japanese students of bonsai are, for the most part, happy to obey. That is fine, that is very much a part of the Japanese culture. Deviation from ‘the rules’ in Japan and opportunity for self-expression seems only to occur when one becomes acknowledged as a ‘Master’ of the art. Although in more recent years there seems to be some relaxation from the traditional approach and a few of the Japanese younger generation are tending to ‘do their own thing’. This strict adherence to traditional practice can be seen in so many other aspects of Japanese culture — the Tea Ceremony, Japanese garden design, the preparation of: Sushi, to name but a few obvious examples. And whilst the Japanese — and to a great extent many other Oriental cultures — are happy with this conformist approach to life, we all know that this is simply not the case in the West. Most Westerners take great pains to preserve the rights of the individual and the right of self-expression. By saying this I am in no way wishing to criticise the Japanese approach to bonsai. On the contrary, had bonsai not evolved in Japan in the way that it did — we would be so much worse off. What I am saying is that it is virtually impossible to practice bonsai in the West in the same way that the Japanese have done in the past because our cultures are so different, so we need to adapt it accordingly and to re-think much of its philosophy and technology to suit our culture with its incumbent limitations and constraints.

Within the Japanese culture, the individual, for the most part, prefers to become lost within the group and self identity is not overly important. In the West the opposite is very much the case, the individual tends to scream aloud to all of the world that he/she exists and wants very much to be seen and acknowledged as such. These are fundamental differences between our cultures, but they are so important because it is within a social culture that bonsai develops, and as we have already seen this can take centuries, and traditional bonsai has resulted from many centuries of development within the Japanese culture. But, and it is a very big BUT, bonsai is by definition: “A tree in a tray (pot)”. So, if that is the case, its practice is open to interpretation in exactly the same way that the Japanese adapted the practice to fit into their culture when they inherited bonsai from China. They most certainly did not adhere to the way bonsai was practiced by the Chinese. We, in the West, and the ‘rest of the World’, have inherited bonsai mostly from the Japanese and it is now up to us to adapt it so that it will fit into our culture. Much easier said than done!

I have already hinted at one or two cultural differences between East and West - there are so, so many more. The one centralising and constant factor in all of this discussion is; ‘Bonsai and its creative practice’.

The Chinese have practiced it for centuries (I believe they called it punsai); the Japanese have practiced it for centuries; we, in the West have only practiced it for just over a century. We still have much to learn, but more importantly, we have much to offer for the future development of the art. But we need time to prove ourselves and to demonstrate that with our huge heritage of gardening art and technology and the great mastery of so many other of the visual arts, that we too will over the eons of time develop many beautiful miniature trees in pots. Bonsai for the Twenty-First Century and beyond. Let us refer to this evolving era in the practice of Bonsai as ‘Third Generation Bonsai’. Trees for many future generations to enjoy. We are the pioneers for this new generation of bonsai artists, designers and hobbyists. But let us also realise that for the last 4-score years during which time bonsai has been practiced in the West we have only been scratching at the surface of its possibilities. We will achieve much over the next three hundred or so years of Third Generation Bonsai. Bonsai that we start this year may well live for several centuries if taken care of properly. But sadly, what guarantees do we have that anyone will look after them over this period of time when we have passed on. This is a serious problem that all of the bonsai enthusiasts in the West need to give serious thought to. We need to assure our bonsai (living entities that share the planet with us) that we will provide whatever is necessary that they (the bonsai) will be able to live their lives to the full. We owe it to our trees for the pleasure they have so generously given us. We do not own the bonsai, we are purely their custodians ; their servants. We exist to serve them, to water, feed and dress them, to give them the occasional haircut and to make sure they are properly housed. No, we do not own them — they own us!

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