Bonsai: Nature in Miniature - Harvard University

1 274 Bonsai: Nature in MiniatureThe 1914 Arnold Arboretum expedition to Japan led by ErnestH. Wilson produced, among other things, some excellent photo-graphs which clearly show the natural inspiration for many ofthe forms of bonsai - that most specialized kind of Japanesehorticulture. Pictures such as these can help put the hobbyistin touch with the source of his art and can be of particularimportance to bonsai enthusiasts who wish to follow the Jap-anese models for bonsai but who do not have the experienceof the Japanese landscape. The first part of this article isdevoted to the relationship between Nature and bonsai, and thelast part of the article will relate some specific bonsai styles tosuch scenes as Wilson photographed in Japan in bonsai is a conscious attempt to suggest a natural first bonsai - and still the ideal of bonsai - were a partof Nature .

2 They were naturally dwarfed old trees dug andbrought home to grow in containers in the collector s the trees were of interest in themselves, their real beautylay in their capacity to suggest the total landscape from whichthey had come. The gnarled and bleached old tree, potted andgrowing in the serenity of a garden, not only gave evidence ofits struggle to survive but also suggested by its form the cliffsto which it had clung, the valley below the cliffs, the river inthe valley, and perhaps the wind which had so tortured of the forms of bonsai have a natural model. Each dif-ferent kind is intended to take the viewer back to the great tree,the forest, or the island-dotted vista which inspired it. If aparticular creation cannot transport the viewer into the totallandscape, it is esthetically less than it should the practice of the art of bonsai has spread from Japan toother parts of the world, its direct connection with the landscapewhich inspired its traditional forms has lessened.

3 Although thisseparation has been remedied somewhat by relying on nativeplants and landscapes for inspiration, especially in semi-tropicaland tropical areas, most bonsai hobbyists still prefer to emulatethe classical styles and scenic compositions of the 275 Fig. l. Pinus parviflora. Slopes of Adzuma-san. Uzen Province. Photo: E. H. Wilson, result is that many bonsai are created in the image of otherbonsai, copies of copies, and not in response to an studies of the Japanese landscape can help thebonsai enthusiast recapture the source and spirit of his art andunderstand that the rules of bonsai are derived from Nature -that, in fact, faithfulness to a natural model is the first rule ofbonsai. Without a knowledge of the natural model, the bonsaihobbyist is likely to be a technician bound by convention.

4 Witha knowledge of the natural model, he has a context in which hecan understand the "why" of the techniques he has will give him a basis to make his own judgements withconfidence, and show him what a large range the bonsai artisthas for expression if Nature is his teacher and he has eyes to Trees as ModelsThe most basic style of bonsai is the formal upright. A bonsaitrained in this style has a perfectly vertical trunk with cloudsof foliage sweeping alternately left, right, and to the rear. Thethree Japanese white pines (Pinus parviflora) in Fig. 1 aregood examples of the kind of trees which a bonsai in the formalupright style means to suggest. The trees tower over the land-scape, each magnificent in its own contrast to the formality of the pines in Fig.

5 1, the Pinusthunbergii in Fig. 2 is more sinuous and graceful though no lessimpressive as a single tree. These qualities in a bonsai wouldclassify the tree as an informal upright. The growing top ofthe tree is more or less directly above the base of the tree(upright), but the curving lines of trunk and branches are"informal."Multiple Trees and Forest PlantingsBonsai plantings which contain more than two trees arecalled Yose-ue. Look again at Fig. 1. The relative heights ofthe three trees and their place in the composition of the photo-graph could serve as a model for a Yose-ue planting and suggestsuch a landscape as Wilson group planting, however, need not suggest an entire land-scape. The three Japanese red pines (Pinus densiflora) inFig.

6 3 are more impressive planted together than either onewould be alone. Two or three small trees which are undistin-guished by themselves may look quite handsome in proof of the age of the trees in the photograph is suppliedby the vestiges of dead limbs which project from the 2. Pinus thunbergii. Village of Shitogo behind : E. H. Wilson, 3. Pinus densiflora with torii at base of Kirishima. Photo: E. H. Wilson, : Fig. 4. Pinus densiflora forming pure woods. Northern slopes ofFuji-san, Yoshida, Shruga Province. Photo: E. H. Wilson, : Fig. 5. Remarkable cliffs of gray sandstone with Pinus thunbergii,near Matsushima. Photo: E. H. Wilson, 19142so ~ ISuch remains of dead limbs, called jin, are often left or createdon bonsai to enhance the illusion of s photograph of a Japanese red pine forest (Fig.)

7 4)contains two of the elements which one expects to find in abonsai forest planting - the illusion of depth and triangulargroupings of the trees. Depth in the photograph is an illusiontoo. The trees in the background are not small; they are simplyfarther away from the photographer than the trees in the fore-ground. That same illusion of depth can be created in a bonsaiforest planting by placing the tallest trees toward the front ofthe container and sharply decreasing the height of the treestoward the rear of the arranged this forest, and the bonsai hobbyist can takea lesson from the triangular scheme of composition which ap-pears in the photograph. The tallest tree is forward in thecomposition and forms a triangle with the tall trees on the leftand right of the main tree.

8 Other trees in the picture fill inbetween the principal trees and form triangular sub-groupingswith the ones on the left and right, uniting the entire and Rocky CliffsIshi-tsuki is a style of bonsai which combines plant materialand stones into compositions which present a Miniature land-scape, the rocks serving as landscape features as well as thecontainer for the plants. Two of the most popular features ofthe terrain to reproduce are rocky cliffs and small 5 shows a group of sandstone cliffs at a seashore. Thephotograph is a good guide for selecting the appropriate materialto reproduce the scene as a bonsai composition. The rocks havea vertical orientation and are angular but smooth - evidenceof the work of waves. The plant material is sparse, weathered,and tenacious.

9 Notice the Japanese black pine (Pinus thun-bergii ) clinging to one of the cliffs as if it had been plantedthere and trained by some bonsai master. The compositionwould be displayed in a shallow, water-filled tray - a photograph of the island (Fig. 6) as an ishi-tsuki modelis equally instructive. The stone used to represent the islandIFig. 6. Pinus parviflora. Lake Towada, Northern : E. H. Wilson, 7. Larix gmelini showing effects of strong winds from Sea of : E. H. Wilson, be horizontally oriented and rough-textured in contrastto its placid sea. The plant material can be copious, varied, andlush. Since the silhouette of the composition is important, the"trees" on the island should have an open appearance so thateach is distinct against the background of sky and water.

10 Orna-ment is appropriate in such a composition; the small house inthe picture is a pleasing addition to the LandscapesThe trees which grow in winds blowing constantly from onedirection reflect that pressure in their shapes. The grove ofDahurian larches (Larix gmelini) in Fig. 7 clearly show in theirwind-swept branches the direction of the prevailing winds. Thisis one way in which Nature contorts her natural forms, and isthe inspiration for the wind-swept style of bonsai. A bonsai inthis manner is trained so that its trunk and branches sweep inone direction, bent by the pressure of an imaginary, but con-stant, a grove of American beeches can be as instructiveto the bonsai hobbyist as a grove of Japanese red pines and thecoast of Maine as suggestive of scenic bonsai as Japan s InlandSea, it is nevertheless valuable to examine the wellsprings ofthe art of bonsai.