Bonsai
Bonsai is the Japanese art of growing and shaping miniature trees in containers, with a long documented history of influences and native Japanese development over a thousand years, and with unique aesthetics, cultural history, and terminology derived from its evolution in Japan. Similar arts exist in other cultures, including Korea's bunjae, the Chinese art of penjing, and the miniature living landscapes of Vietnamese Hòn non bộ.
The loanword bonsai has become an umbrella term in English, attached to many forms of diminutive potted plants, and also on occasion to other living and non-living things. According to Stephen Orr in The New York Times, "n the West, the word is used to describe virtually all miniature container trees, whether they are authentically trained bonsai or just small rooted cuttings. Technically, though, the term should be reserved for plants that are grown in shallow containers following the precise tenets of bonsai pruning and training, resulting in an artful miniature replica of a full-grown tree in nature." In the most definitive sense, "bonsai" refers to miniaturized, container-grown trees adhering to Japanese bonsai tradition and principles.
Purposes of bonsai are primarily contemplation for the viewer, and the pleasant exercise of effort and ingenuity for the grower. Bonsai are not grown for the production of food or medicine.
A bonsai is created beginning with a specimen of source material. This may be a cutting, seedling, a tree from the wild or small tree of a species suitable for bonsai development. Bonsai can be created from nearly any perennial woody-stemmed tree or shrub species that produces true branches and can be cultivated to remain small through pot confinement with crown and root pruning. Some species are popular as bonsai material because they have characteristics, such as small leaves or needles or aged-looking bark, that make them appropriate for the compact visual scope of bonsai.
The source specimen is shaped to be relatively small and to meet the aesthetic standards of bonsai, which emphasizes not the entirety of a landscape but the unique form of a specimen bonsai tree or trees. When the candidate bonsai nears its planned final size, it is planted in a display pot, usually one designed for bonsai display in one of a few [|accepted shapes and proportions]. From that point forward, its growth is restricted by the pot environment. Throughout the year, the bonsai is shaped to limit growth, redistribute foliar vigor to areas requiring further development, and meet the artist's detailed design.
The practice of bonsai is sometimes confused with dwarfing, but dwarfing generally refers to research, discovery, or creation of plants that are permanent, genetic miniatures of existing species. Plant dwarfing often uses selective breeding or genetic engineering to create dwarf cultivars. Bonsai does not require genetically dwarfed trees but rather depends on growing small trees from regular stock and seeds. Bonsai uses cultivation techniques like pruning, root reduction, potting, defoliation, and grafting to produce small trees that mimic the shape and style of mature, full-size trees.
History
Early versions
The Japanese art of bonsai is believed to have originated from bonkei introduced from China. In the Tang Dynasty, there was the art of representing natural scenery with plants and stones in a trayAt that time, the term bonkei was not yet used in China or Japan. Instead, the term penchi was used in the Tang Dynasty. Penchi is a water tray in which water plants such as lotus and rice are planted.
In Japan, the term kazan was used. In Japan's Shōsōin, an incomplete specimen of a kazan, in which modeled beaches and mountains fashioned from wood are decorated with small trees of silver metal, can be found today. A miniature lotus pond made of wood and gilt bronze has also been handed down in the Shōsōin. In this way, there were already bonsan-like works in Japan during the Nara period, in which natural scenery was represented in a reduced scale.
In the Heian period, suhama, which expressed a beautiful landscape with plants and trees and accessories to match the title of a waka poem, were exhibited at poetry contests and competed with each other. Suhama is similar to bonkei, but expresses a uniquely Japanese scene of white sand and green pine trees on a tray with legs that imitate a sandy beach. Later, it came to be called shimadai, and has been passed down to the present as a wedding ornament.
In the medieval period, recognizable bonsai were portrayed in handscroll paintings like the Ippen Shōnin Eden. The 1195 scroll Saigyo Monogatari Emaki scroll. Dwarf trees displayed on short poles are portrayed in the 1351 Boki Ekotoba scroll. Several other scrolls and paintings also include depictions of these kinds of trees.
A close relationship between Japan's Zen Buddhism and the potted trees began to shape bonsai reputation and aesthetics, which were introduced to Japan from China. In this period, Chinese Chan Buddhist monks taught at Japan's monasteries. One of the monks' activities was to introduce political leaders to various arts of miniature landscapes as admirable accomplishments for men of taste and learning. Potted landscape arrangements up to this period included miniature figurines after the Chinese fashion. Japanese artists eventually adopted a simpler style for bonsai, increasing focus on the tree by removing miniatures and other decorations, and using smaller, plainer pots.Around the 14th century, the term for dwarf potted trees was "the bowl's tree". This indicated use of a fairly deep pot rather than the shallow pot denoted by the eventual term bonsai. In later centuries, woodblock prints by several artists depicted this popular drama. There was even a fabric design of the same name. Through these and other popular media, bonsai became known to a broad Japanese population.
Bonsai cultivation reached a high level of expertise in this period. Bonsai dating to the 17th century have survived to the present. One of the oldest-known living bonsai trees, considered one of the National Treasures of Japan, can be seen in the Tokyo Imperial Palace collection. A five-needle pine known as Sandai Shogun is documented as having been cared for by Tokugawa Iemitsu. The tree is thought to be at least 500 years old and was trained as a bonsai by 1610.
By the end of the 18th century, bonsai cultivation in Japan was becoming widespread and began to interest the general public. In the Tenmei era, an exhibit of traditional dwarf potted pines began to be held every year in Kyoto. Connoisseurs from five provinces and neighboring areas would bring one or two plants each to the show in order to submit them to visitors for ranking.
Classical period
In Japan after 1800, bonsai began to move from being the esoteric practice of a few specialists to becoming a widely popular art form and hobby. In Itami, Hyōgo, Japanese scholars of Chinese arts gathered in the early 19th century to discuss recent styles in the art of miniature trees. Many terms and concepts adopted by this group were derived from the . The Japanese version of potted trees, which had been previously called or other terms, were renamed bonsai. This word connoted a shallow container, not a deeper bowl style. The term "bonsai", however, would not become broadly used in describing Japan's dwarf potted trees for nearly a century.The popularity of bonsai began to grow outside the limited scope of scholars and the nobility. On October 13, 1868, the Meiji Emperor moved to his new capital in Tokyo. Bonsai were displayed both inside and outside Meiji Palace, and those placed in the grand setting of the Imperial Palace had to be "Giant Bonsai", large enough to fill the grand space. The Meiji Emperor encouraged interest in bonsai, which broadened its importance and appeal to his government's professional staff.
New books, magazines, and public exhibitions made bonsai more accessible to the Japanese populace. An Artistic Bonsai Concours was held in Tokyo in 1892, followed by publication of a three-volume commemorative picture book. This event demonstrated a new tendency to see bonsai as an independent art form. In 1903, the Tokyo association Jurakukai held showings of bonsai and ikebana at two Japanese-style restaurants. In 1906, Bonsai Gaho became the first monthly magazine on the subject. It was followed by Toyo Engei and Hana in 1907. The initial issue of Bonsai magazine was published in 1921, and this influential periodical ran for 518 consecutive issues.
Bonsai shaping aesthetics, techniques, and tools became increasingly sophisticated as bonsai popularity grew in Japan. In 1910, shaping with wire rather than the older string, rope, and burlap techniques, appeared in the Sanyu-en Bonsai-Dan. Zinc-galvanized steel wire was initially used. Expensive copper wire was used only for selected trees that had real potential. In the 1920s and 1930s, toolsmith Masakuni I helped design and produce the first steel tools specifically made for the developing requirements of bonsai styling. This included the concave cutter, a branch cutter designed to leave a shallow indentation on the trunk when a branch was removed. Properly treated, this indentation would fill over with live tree tissue and bark over time, greatly reducing or eliminating the usual pruning scar.
Prior to World War II, international interest in bonsai was fueled by increased trade in trees and the appearance of books in popular foreign languages. By 1914, the first national annual bonsai show was held in Tokyo's Hibiya Park. Another great annual public exhibition of trees began in 1927 at the Asahi Newspaper Hall in Tokyo. Beginning in 1934, the prestigious Kokufu-ten annual exhibitions were held in Tokyo's Ueno Park. The first major book on the subject in English was published in the Japanese capital: Dwarf Trees by Shinobu Nozaki.
By 1940, about 300 bonsai dealers worked in Tokyo. Some 150 species of trees were being cultivated, and thousands of specimens were shipped annually to Europe and America. The first bonsai nurseries and clubs in the Americas were started by first and second-generation Japanese immigrants. Though this progress to international markets and enthusiasts was interrupted by the war, by the 1940s bonsai had become an art form of international interest and involvement.