Where do I learn about Traditional Bonsai

[Generic User]

I just read a book on Japanese architecture twice and am now am becoming fascinated by traditional Bonsai practices. Do you have recomendations on where I can find good source to study. Thank you. Have a good day, E

 

[Potawatomi13]

Japan.

 

[Generic User]

Japan.

I want to understand traditional reasons why things are done. I think lots to learn, perhaps. But I do not find book in library. When I look on internet, everything is explained but they dont say why a pot is supposed to be 2 thirds.

 

[It's Kev]

I think most of it you’ll understand if you learn more about Japanese culture, like the moss being placed under the tree because you shouldn’t have soil in your house, and eye poking branches are a no no because you don’t point your finger st someone’s face. Stuff like that, if you do find all the reasons why, then do share them with us

 

[just.wing.it]

why a pot is supposed to be 2 thirds.

Visual aesthetic.
There arw many many books out there, mabye not in your library though.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

I just read a book on Japanese architecture twice and am now am becoming fascinated by traditional Bonsai practices. Do you have recomendations on where I can find good source to study. Thank you. Have a good day, E

I am not aware that one exists - at least not one that explains bonsai in terms of traditional Japanese aesthetics.

 

[Shinjuku]

I think most of it you’ll understand if you learn more about Japanese culture, like the moss being placed under the tree because you shouldn’t have soil in your house, and eye poking branches are a no no because you don’t point your finger st someone’s face. Stuff like that, if you do find all the reasons why, then do share them with us

Kevin is touching on what you’re asking for. You can’t really understand the background of bonsai esthetics without understanding the larger Japanese esthetics. And to understand that, you really have to understand Japanese culture. That is a fascinating rabbit hole that can years to delve into.

Bjorn Bjorholm has a surprisingly good and succinct summary of this concept on his podcast here:

http://www.bjornbjorholm.com/bonsai-network-podcast-episode-2/

The book “Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers” by Leonard Koran is a great read on this topic also.

 

[kakejiku]

I don't have answers about books about Bonsai History and aesthetics.
But for Hyousou the following are really good.
1. 表具のしおりby山本元
2. 表具・和の文化的遺伝子by岡本吉隆
For technical help I read
1. 表装技術by荒川達

I think for any study in this subject matter you need to go to the source and find materials written in Japanese...

 

[rockm]

"Traditional bonsai practices" isn't really a category. Those "Traditions" have seen a revolution in the last 100 years and especially in the last 20. The introduction of decent metal tools, and especially cheap, available copper wire in the early 20th century changed old ways to allow drastic changes to be made to trees. In the last 20 years, things have gone even further, with the use of electric reciprocating saws and concrete rebar ushering even more capabilities to make extreme bends and trunk reshaping. Modern pesticides and fertilizers have also allowed more advanced growing practices to take hold.
Some of the current practices used by Japanese bonsai professionals are far from the "zen" stereotype typically associated with bonsai by those who haven't been doing it a while.
There are no "traditional" bonsai practices, in the sense you're after. They aren't some group of romantic, ancient ritualized secrets performed by "masters". They are practical and get specific jobs done and typically employed by groups of poorly-paid (and increasingly Western) apprentices at most of the notable bonsai nurseries. For instance, in competitions, it's not uncommon in Japan for professionals to glue fruit on living trees in the best areas on that tree. Show trees are also treated like stable horses, spruced up for shows--given temporary ancient pots to live in for a couple of months, have a lush moss carpet laid down on the soil surface for a month, etc. After the show, they're put back in their old pots, etc.

The esthetics behind bonsai may be more what you want to read about. Those haven't really changed. Learn especially about the esthetics and practices in the formal Japanese Tea Ceremony. Practitioners of the tea ceremony had a huge guiding influence on current bonsai esthetics and display.
Wabi Sabi, Shubui and Yugen are all underlying principles of bonsai.

And avoid anything that says "bonsai is zen." That's a shallow, uninformed explanation that Westerners buy into about bonsai. Also avoid feng shui, also shallow crap ;-)

 

[eb84327]

I was just reading about tokonoma displays and hanging scrolls. Its cool. That might be a place to start or check out if you havnt.

 

[rockm]

I just ran across this fascinating article on bonsai and Japanese culture. Covers quite a lot of ground, from the "three kinds" of visitors to the Omiya bonsai museum, to culture clashes over Chinese and Korean bonsai, as well as history of the art.
https://www.japanpolicyforum.jp/archives/culture/pt20100928160529.html

from the article:

"The history of Japanese bonsai as it exists today is actually quite short, going back just 200 years or so. As is well known, one of the characteristics of many of Japan’s traditional arts is the iemoto system, by which the traditions of a particular school are handed down from generation to generation via a formalized and often hereditary hierarchy. Bonsai is different. Although it is often grouped together with the other “traditional arts,” bonsai does not really have any strict “schools” or an iemoto system. The reason for this is clear enough given the historical development of the art as I have just described it. For art forms like the tea ceremony and ikebana, and traditional performing arts like nō and kabuki, the framework of the art forms as we know them today was in place by the end of the sixteenth century at the latest. Once an art form has come to maturity, a certain amount of time is required for the various schools and the iemoto system that controls them to form. But in the case of bonsai the modern age, spurning “schools” and the iemoto system as feudalistic, arrived before sufficient time had passed for the system to be fixed in place."

"...Unlike other traditional arts, bonsai has never developed well-defined schools or an iemoto system to transmit the accepted forms and evaluate whether an individual practitioner has mastered them sufficiently. What takes its place in the world of bonsai is the modern social phenomenon of the exhibition, imported from the West in the Meiji era. It is by continually holding exhibitions that bonsai has found a way of transmitting the forms and evaluating skills, and of assessing the creativity of a practitioner as expressed in the way he or she uses those forms. It has therefore succeeded in performing its role as a “traditional art.”"

 

[Bonsai Nut]

It is by continually holding exhibitions that bonsai has found a way of transmitting the forms and evaluating skills, and of assessing the creativity of a practitioner as expressed in the way he or she uses those forms.

This sounds somewhat familiar to what is done in Japan with koi exhibitions. Anyone in the world can breed koi, but it is generally acknowledged that the best koi in the world come from Japan. They are constantly working to improve their bloodlines, and the proof of this work is revealed in the All Japan Koi Show each year. Koi that win in this show are usually worth $100,000's - if they are available for sale at all. They are a sign of prestige for the breeder who brings them - and confirmation of the quality of their work.

 

[rockm]

This sounds somewhat familiar to what is done in Japan with koi exhibitions. Anyone in the world can breed koi, but it is generally acknowledged that the best koi in the world come from Japan. They are constantly working to improve their bloodlines, and the proof of this work is revealed in the All Japan Koi Show each year. Koi that win in this show are usually worth $100,000's - if they are available for sale at all. They are a sign of prestige for the breeder who brings them - and confirmation of the quality of their work.

Read the article. It is pretty interesting and provides an informed perspective I haven't seen very much. Pretty much skewers the "bonsai master" mythology...

 

[eb84327]

https://www.japanpolicyforum.jp/archives/culture/pt20100928160529.html


good source and read rockm.

 

[Generic User]

That was an interesting article as well as podcast. Thank you for sharing it. I really became interested in Bonsai a month ago and when I read my first book on the subject. The cover was showing a tree grafted to a piece of drift wood. The author said it was looked down upon in culture as fake. I did love book though. Then after watching videos and reading articles and hearing words like ancient traditions and Masters I began to think Bonsai was perhaps deep thought art form with many rules or guidelines passed down knowing perhaps. Perhaps it is, I do not know. I dont even know yet if I will ever have a real Bonsai now as well. I will need to learn much more before I have answers. I like simple nature. I understand all hobbies go deep into complications. One article I read a man said Bonsai can be as simple or complicated as you make it. I like his idea of that. Like Buddha says We are what we think. I think perhaps that can apply to how we view art or create reflection in the way we view. So for now I'll keep things simple and enjoy trimming and watering a little tree in peace. Something about these small trees is amazingly therapeutic in a way I never thought possible and I look forward to continuing simple hobby very slowly. Many thanks, Have a good day