Saikei

[tokyo0709]

Hey there,

I am new to the forum and have been working on a bonsai for the past year and a bit and was wondering, does anyone know of any good books on saikei or ideas of where to get started with saikei?

 

[Bill S]

Welcome aboard tokyo, peruse the forum a bit, you will find some stuff here, as for magazine, I think it's called Bonsai magazine, has trees and stones, I'll check at home tonight and get the proper name. If you are anywhere near California, the clubs out there do a lot w/ stones and collecting. Clubs work well for this hobby.

 

[Bill S]

Just realized my booboo, saw saikei, and thought suisekei(sp?), I'll look at the mags I have at home, to see if they will help you, let you know tomorrow.

 

[jk_lewis]

Mountains in the Sea - Phan Van Lit and Lew Buller, Timber press, 2001

Saikei and Art - Lew Buller, self pub. 2005. Available from Amazon.com

The first one is by far the better book.

 

[Mark]

Try this...
Saburo Kato's book," Forest, Rock Planting and Ezo Spruce".
Published by: The NATIONAL Bonsai Foundation
Dist. By Stone Lantern
current sale price of $19.97

Mark

 

[rockm]

Kato's book is probably the best one on saikei I've seen. The Mountains in the Sea book is nice, but it's not as comprehensive as Kato's.

 

[jk_lewis]

This thread gt me thinking (cheers are heard!). Saikei aren't that popular amng bonsaiests, but I wonder how many of us have at least one, and if you'd show it to us.

That's how many I have:

 

[Joedes3]

I would really like to see some.

 

[milehigh_7]

One of the most personally moving examples I have seen on this forum is Mike Page's here:

http://bonsainut.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2367

 

[William N. Valavanis]

Kato's book "Group Plantings, Rock Plantings and Ezo Spruce Bonsai" is excellent, I should know because I edited it. This book is about bonsai rock and group plantings (forests) NOT saikei.

Saikei is a school of tray landscape (bonkei) and is not bonsai. Currently there are more people creating saikei outside of Japan than in Japan where it is not known. When Toshio Kawamoto was teaching saikei and bonsai in Tokyo (and I studied with him for a few years) he often had saikei exhibits at the Jindai Botanical Garden on the west side of Tokyo. But now, I don't know of anyone who is creating saikei and very few bonsai professionals even know what a saikei is. It's a "made up word" coined by Toshio Kawamoto.

Saikei (which is a registered trademark) was invented by Toshio Kawamoto to popularize bonsai in the early 1960s. Since bonsai were expensive and old he wanted people to use common stones and young plant material and to combine them together to appreciate their beauty while they were developing into bonsai. If young plant material were to be individually potted and trained they would develop much quicker than when planting together and combining with stones, but he wanted to create naturalistic scenes.

Bill

 

[Brian Underwood]

I have always enjoyed group plantings, especially saikei. At one point I made a few Dawn Redwood ones, some with small "rivers" flowing through them. Here are a few pictures.

 

[milehigh_7]

I have always enjoyed group plantings, especially saikei. At one point I made a few Dawn Redwood ones, some with small "rivers" flowing through them. Here are a few pictures.

Sorry Brian, you will have to come up with a different name... Saikei is a registered trademark.

 

[Brian Underwood]

I don't get it...

 

[Joedes3]

Brian, they look great.
Do you still have these. I would love to see how they have changed.
Joe

 

[Brian Underwood]

Thanks Joe. These were both sold last year.

 

[Greg Brenden]

Here's one I acquired @ auction from Jack Wilson when he still lived here in Portland. Sorry for the quality of the photo--the flash flattens things out but the best I could do right now. I've had this since Dec. 2008 and it's a lot of work just keeping the growth thinned out. Jack worked on it with me last January during one of our club's "whack n' chats". He noticed it needed re-potting then and I may get to it this spring yet. The species is some sort of cypress, just not sure which. Really easy to propagate from cuttings and that's what this planting is comprised of.

 

[jk_lewis]

Hmm . . . I don't think I'd call that one a "saikei" (tm). It's a forest planting.

But it's very nice.

 

[Bill S]

Naw it looks like there is a big rawk hidin behind that forest.

 

[Greg Brenden]

Again, very hard to see, but Bill's right. The trees are planted on lace rock and there is a small "gorge" between the two rocks that were used to make the planting. I'll try to take a better photo of it outdoors in daylight

 

[garywood]

Greg said

Here's one I acquired @ auction from Jack Wilson when he still lived here in Portland
The species is some sort of cypress

Jack Wilson is an absolute genius when it comes to proportion and scale in a Saikei. As good as any in the world. It's a shame he is not recognized outside the northwest and not teaching everywhere.
The trees are chamaecyparis thyoides andelyensis
Wood