Chapter 2 A Little History

John Naka’s “Goshin.” This multi-tree bonsai is considered to be one of the finest bonsai specimens in the US. Mr. Naka helped launched the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum at the United States National Arboretum. He created this bonsai and added to it as he had more grandchildren. It consists of 11 Foemina juniper trees (Juniperus chinensis ‘Foemina’), representing each of his 11 grandchildren. Link to original image.

According to Arthur Joura, Director of the Bonsai Collection and education program at the NC Arboretum, bonsai is a living sculpture that evokes a feeling or memory related to the natural world. This also is the goal shared by Chinese penjing, Japanese saikei, Vietnamese hòn non bộ, and many similar traditions that have developed worldwide. So what are the similarities and differences between these artforms?

2.1 Where Did Bonsai Originate?

Archaeologists have found depictions or descriptions of trees in pots in cultures from around the world: India, Egypt, the Mediterranean, Babylon, and several places in east Asia. So there probably is no one origin for the horticultural practice of keeping woody plants in pots.

Penjing is the oldest of the formal art forms that styled trees. The first illustration showing a penjing tree comes from a Tang dynasty tomb mural dated to AD 706, but there are stories suggesting that penjing may have existed as early as the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. Several schools of penjing developed in different regions of China. Each school had its own styles, rules, aesthetics, and preferred tree species.

Examples of two schools of penjing. 1: rock scene style. 2: dragon style. Link to original image 1; image 2

Penjing seeks to capture the essence and spirit of nature through contrasts. Philosophically, it is influenced by the principles of Taoism, specifically the concept of Yin and Yang. Like Chinese gardens, these miniature landscapes are designed to convey landscapes experienced from various viewpoints - a close-up view, a medium-range view or a panorama.

Using dwarfed trees and shrubs, arrangements are created in special trays or pots which are placed on ornately carved wooden stands. Often, rocks, miniature ceramic structures (like buildings and bridges), and figurines are added to give the proper scale and provide a social or historical context. Designs can also bring in Chinese poetry, calligraphy, and other visual arts.

Hòn non bộ is the Vietnamese art of making miniature landscapes, imitating the scenery of the islands, mountains and surrounding environment as found in nature. Miniature landscape art was first recorded after Vietnamese independence in the year 939. One version of this was the “island-mountain-panorama” (Hòn Non Bộ), which is designed to be seen from all sides. Like bonsai, hòn non bộ has roots in Chinese penjing, but developed into a distinct regional art form.

An example of Vietnamese hòn non bộ. Link to original image

Bonsai first came to Japan when ambassadors and Buddhist students studying in China brought penjing back as souvenirs starting around the 6th century AD. The earliest illustrations of individual bonsai with a distinct Japanese style are found in scrolls dating from 1195 to 1351; the oldest known depiction of a dwarfed tray landscape in Japan dates from 1309. At this time they still were grown in deeper containers.

What we think of as the Japanese style of bonsai (trees grown in shallow pots) developed in the 14th-17th centuries, but did not become a popular art form with the Japanese public until the 18th century. Starting about 1800, bonsai began to develop into a more widespread hobby outside of intellectual circles. Interest increased even more when the Meiji Emperor started promoting it.

Example of a classical style Japanese bonsai; this is a white pine. This particular specimen is known at the ‘Hiroshima pine.’ It already was nearly 400 years old when it survived the atomic bomb dropped on the city in 1945. Link to original image

Aesthetically, Japanese bonsai is heavily influenced by Zen Buddhism. Ideal trees share these traits:

An illusion of size and age. Root mass (nebari), taper, branch placement, and other elements all work together to give the appearance of great age.
Proportionality. Each part of the composition contributes to the illusion of a large tree brought down to miniature size.
Asymmetry. Older trees rarely have symmetrically placed branches. Proper branch placement is one of the main ways Japanese stylists build the illusion of age.
Vitality and movement. Bends in the branches and trunk of a tree help tell that tree’s story.
Absence of the artist. A tree should have no pruning scars, wires, or other evidence of having been trained.
A story. The shape and placement of branches, angle of the trunk, etc., should contribute to the story of how a tree came to look a certain way.

Despite having a long history, bonsai has continued to evolve over time. For example, most of the “traditional” shaping techniques and tools we use today actually are 20th century developments. One of the earliest descriptions of shaping with wire (rather than string, rope, and burlap) was published in 1910. The first steel concave cutters and branch cutters tools specifically designed for bonsai were developed in the 1920s and 1930s.

Saikei is the youngest of the art forms. It began in Japan shortly after the end of WW II with Toshio Kawamoto, the eldest child of bonsai master Tokichi Kawamoto. At the time Kawamoto began developing the rules and form of saikei, bonsai was at a critical low point in Japan. Tree cultivation nearly stopped under wartime conditions. Many bonsai had been destroyed, and post-war economic conditions precluded average Japanese from continuing the tradition.

Kawamoto created a simple form of tree display providing many of the aesthetic and contemplative qualities of bonsai, while also supporting the cultivation of plant stock that could eventually be used as bonsai material. He based this art form mainly on the principles of group plantings from bonsai and rock displays from bonkei and bonseki. Candidate bonsai trees could be removed from the saikei as they matured and replaced with younger stock.

2.2 What Skills Do You Need?

Bonsai requires a somewhat odd mix of skills. Fortunately you do not need them all at once; they grow and develop over time as you work on trees and gain experience.

Practical horticultural skills have to come first. If you cannot keep a tree alive, it is going to be difficult to style. Healthy trees recover from root and branch pruning more quickly, and resist summer and winter weather extremes better. Fortunately, many people interested in bonsai have at least basic horticultural skills already.

Good observation skills are important. Bonsai stylists observe what trees in nature do and how they behave. They observe how their trees respond to their environment or to cultivation practices. They look for the small changes that make a big difference in how believable a particular design looks.

A bald cypress bonsai (1), and a single cypress tree growing wild (2). The goal of the artist is not to copy every feature of either a single tree or stand of trees. Instead, the artist aims to capture the essential features from the natural trees in the cultivated tree. Link to original image 1; image 2.

It helps to have some artistic imagination. Very few trees will look like they are finished when you first collect or buy them. Stylists need to be able to imagine what the tree will look like if this branch grows thicker, or that branch bends down instead of up, or what makes this grouping more appealing than that one, etc.

Patience definitely is a skill you will develop. It takes patience to clip a branch back to a 1-inch stub in spring, wait a year to let it grow out, then the next spring, cut the 6-foot whip back to 2 inches and repeat the process. Some things in bonsai are going to take time.

Finally, it helps to be willing to take calculated risks. Nothing in bonsai is certain. Sometimes a gently pruned branch dies back to the trunk, or a branch breaks rather than bends. Sometimes half of an existing tree must be cut off to improve the shape; will it recover? We work with living trees, so the only way to avoid mistakes is to leave a tree unstyled. Every cut or change carries risks and rewards. Only you as the artist can decide whether the potential reward is worth the possible risk.