Bonsai As An Art

Bonsai is an ancient art of growing trees; it is a practice borrowed from the ancient oriental Japanese culture.

It is assumed that the original Bonsai art was done by Chinese but was better developed by the Japanese. Bonsai involves the raising of trees in a miniature, and displaying them in more decorative and shallow containers. The Bonsai Art incorporates the unfolding of given dwarfed tree in a more idealized form. One can choose either to develop a more complex or uncomplicated one wishes it to be. The plant material or pot used does not matter; what Bonsai is out to portray is to express the beauty of nature. A well created Bonsai is beautiful to behold and leaves a fulfilling experience to the beholder. The art behind Bonsai can delight, silence, sober, and charm up any individual. Sometimes Bonsai can make one to shudder with the realization of the brevity and transitory nature of life itself.

For many years the Japanese developed Bonsai using indigenous small trees but this later changed as demand surpassed the supply. It prompted the Japanese Bonsai gardeners to develop new ways of developing bonsai from other native trees. They made several shapes using the trees to come up with the illusion of age. However the bonsai art, has come of age and new developments incorporated particularly in America. It is much complex and freer in concept and style than that done by ancient Japanese bonsai gardeners.

To develop and express the artful and beautiful bonsai, the type of tree is very essential. This is simply because not all plants are ideal and effective in developing bonsai. The concept behind Bonsai is to create a realistic expression of a mature tree, therefore all parts of the ideal bonsai such as a trunk, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruits, buds, and roots should be symmetrical to the size of the tree used. Infact the plants you select and use in creating bonsai should have small leaves. Those plants with larger leaves, such as the avocado, sycamores or mangoes, will be unproportional if used in developing bonsai. Species of plants such as maple or oak trees are the best, when used they respond well and create the ideal bonsai culture. This is because these trees have leaves that are in proportion. Other species of plants that creates a required bonsai culture includes the spruce, pine, zelkova, and pomegranate.

Bonsai creation is an art; hence the plants selected should give that artistic expression. They should have an attractive bark; similarly the trunk must express the illusion of maturity. In some cases the main branches should be shortened. This tries to emphasize the vertical line of the trunk and also gives the trunk a proportional appearance.

As you plan to express the age appearance, then exposing the upper one-third of the root structure of a mature bonsai is necessary. The branches and the overall part of the bonsai tree should demonstrate the art of balancing to an extent one may think that the bonsai tree is floating in the air. Keep in mind that it is the branches that give the bonsai's dimension establishing the tree's original form. It's therefore wise to ensure that the branches are proportional to each other.