Share Your MAPLE LITERATIS

MACH5

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@Owen Reich had a really beautiful one at the National Exhibition in 2014. I have this image on my computer - I didn't take it and unfortunately I don't remember where I got it. Maybe Owen can provide a better photo and some info about his design. It was one of my favorites from that show.

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I remember this one well. This tree stood out to me at the 2014 Nationals for several reasons. Aside from the beautiful and well considered compostion, in a era of large, epic trees being shown at this venue, Owen chose this young and small maple as one of his entries that year. Just that fact alone made for a bold and rather unexpected display!
 

Djtommy

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@Owen Reich had a really beautiful one at the National Exhibition in 2014. I have this image on my computer - I didn't take it and unfortunately I don't remember where I got it. Maybe Owen can provide a better photo and some info about his design. It was one of my favorites from that show.

View attachment 219849
I like this too, it looks like something you can come across in nature, although an open single tree maple would not grow like this. On a forest edge or so next to a stream or street, you can surely come across similar ones.
 

Rodrigo

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Rodrigo below is a quick snap shot of what I did:

First year: Select seedling with already a naturally interesting trunk line. If not wire trunk to shape. Let it grow.
Second year: Select branches for the intended design and cut off all else. Wire branches to shape.
Third year: Continue to develop branches. Cut back when new growth hardens to promote back budding. Also you can defoliate the tree as I did in this case. Manage the apex carefully and any strong growth to avoid overly thick branches that will spoil the delicate design particularly as you go up the trunk.
Fourth year: Continue refinement of branches. Promote fine twigging and prune all strong growth on a timely basis. Next year I will repot this tree and take a careful look at the nebari. I have avoided excessive fertilizing to minimize strong growth. Bunjin need to have delicacy and simplicity of design.

Note: Try and avoid trunk scarring as this will be very distracting in this style.
Thank you for the explanation Sergio. Definitely something I look forward to trying out myself. Great job
 

cockroach

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I have seen a few literati maples. Few I liked and some were just not getting there-emotionally. If that makes sense.
I did notice though that maples, due to bark and leaf, lend themselves to elegant, refined with expected movement like a ballerina.
Other species can be super dramatic and exciting and surprising like a break dancer.
 
D

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I have seen a few literati maples. Few I liked and some were just not getting there-emotionally. If that makes sense.
I did notice though that maples, due to bark and leaf, lend themselves to elegant, refined with expected movement like a ballerina.
Other species can be super dramatic and exciting and surprising like a break dancer.

yes! for this reason i'd love to see an arakawa maple literati!

The attached photo is a tree from Taikan Ten 2018. No idea what variety it is, and although my personal preference is with thin, elegant trunked maples i anyways like this image in so far as it suggests to me the possibility that a thicker, 'muscular' trunked maple could potentially make a good literati too - Arakawa seems like ideal candidate in this case, at least to me at the moment.
 

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JudyB

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yes! for this reason i'd love to see an arakawa maple literati!

The attached photo is a tree from Taikan Ten 2018. No idea what variety it is, and although my personal preference is with thin, elegant trunked maples i anyways like this image in so far as it suggests to me the possibility that a thicker, 'muscular' trunked maple could potentially make a good literati too - Arakawa seems like ideal candidate in this case, at least to me at the moment.
Ume... gorgeous.
 

Gary McCarthy

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I guess my question would be what makes a tree the literati style? Some of the pics of these trees just look like a slanted style to me.
 

coh

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I guess my question would be what makes a tree the literati style? Some of the pics of these trees just look like a slanted style to me.
Ha! That's the million dollar question!

I think there are some trees that you look and and it's obvious you would call them "literati", but there is a very broad transition from those to what might be called slanting or even informal upright in some cases. I often refer to those kinds trees as "literati-ish" when they have that simple/elegant/long/thin form because I have no idea where the line is.
 

cockroach

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Ha! That's the million dollar question!

I think there are some trees that you look and and it's obvious you would call them "literati", but there is a very broad transition from those to what might be called slanting or even informal upright in some cases. I often refer to those kinds trees as "literati-ish" when they have that simple/elegant/long/thin form because I have no idea where the line is.
I also feel the term literati has become very loosely used to describe some trees that don't fit a definite style. For my interpretation, literati is a definite, easily recognizable style such as formal upright. When you think you see one it is probably not there yet. When you see an actual literati that follows the "guidelines" then you know you are looking at a literati.
The ume above is really stunning! Having said that, for me a long sensual trunk does not make a literati.
 

bonsaichile

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I guess my question would be what makes a tree the literati style? Some of the pics of these trees just look like a slanted style to me.
Look at the old scrolls made by Chinese and Japanese scholars. The name "literati" comes from them. Look at the trees portrayed in those scrolls. Look at old callygraphy. Bonsai literati are related to these two arts.
 

Bananaman

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Look at the old scrolls made by Chinese and Japanese scholars. The name "literati" comes from them. Look at the trees portrayed in those scrolls. Look at old callygraphy. Bonsai literati are related to these two arts.
The scholars were the Literati (learned ones, Old Latin, 1620) and the trees were Bunjin-gi. The Literati appreciated the Bunjin-gi style trees and studied them. The Literati didn't necessarily do the art. Just appreciate it.

In the west "literati" has become a catch all word for the bunjin style of trees.
 
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bonsaichile

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The scholars were the Literati (learned ones, Old Latin, 1620) and the trees were Bunjin-gi. The Literati appreciated the Bunjin-gi style trees and studied them. The Literati didn't necessarily do the art. Just appreciate it.

In the west "literati" has become a catch all word for the bunjin style of trees.
That is what I meant, that the name literati refers back to the Mandarin scholars (ir was Matteo Ricci, the Jesuit, who first called them "literati" in his correspondance to Rome in the 1580s). My point was that their appreciation of the style derives from its closeness, aesthetically speaking, to two art forms highly valued (and practiced) by Chinese and Japanese scholars: painting and callygraphy
 

Bananaman

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That is what I meant, that the name literati refers back to the Mandarin scholars (ir was Matteo Ricci, the Jesuit, who first called them "literati" in his correspondance to Rome in the 1580s). My point was that their appreciation of the style derives from its closeness, aesthetically speaking, to two art forms highly valued (and practiced) by Chinese and Japanese scholars: painting and callygraphy
Thanks for the clarification cause thats not what you said. You may have meant that but thats not how it read. Hence the Latin term.
 
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