Bonsai as an Art Form

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The Japanese word bonsai (orchard in shell) comes from Chinese, Penjing “Landscape in the pan”. The word bonsai is made up of two words bon “shell” and sai “plant”.

According to ancient Chinese understanding of bonsai, it is the art of creating harmony between the elements of nature, living beings and the people present in miniaturized form:

The living world is here mostly represented by a tree. The forces of nature represents – according History of Bonsaito an alternative expression for landscape, Shanshui “mountains and water” – a rock and fine gravel (the traditional gardens in water). Only the harmony of these three elements makes a successful bonsai.

The bonsai

Bonsai as nature and belief is reduced to merely formal and aesthetic considerations. The bonsai tree is a tree in a planter, towed through cultivation operations (shape cutting, root cutting, leaf cutting, telegram) it is kept small and is placed on the artistic design in a desired growth habit. This follows the principles of Wabi Sabi and Zen culture and – partly Confucian, Taoist and partly influenced – tree representations of classical Chinese painting.

In Japan, bonsai are placed in the garden or in the tokonoma, a creatively highlighted niche in the room. Bonsai trees can be well cared for and live for hundreds of years. They are also very valuable.

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Bonsai are all woody, small-leaved and small, it’s a noble tree and shrub species. Although bonsai are always associated with Japan and China, you can also use native trees as bonsai. In our latitudes, it is mostly native trees that are adapted to our climate, but also winter-hardy plants from Japan and other countries.

Especially popular are small-leaved maple species – among them the red-leafed Japanese maple varieties – pine, spruce, beech and juniper. This is actually good, because they have already been set for our climate all year round and thus can stand in the open. However, bonsai should be protected from severe frosts, or sunk in the ground. With the diffusion of bonsai culture in western culture, the bonsai techniques were applied to woody houseplants, so there is a distinction between indoor and outdoor.

Indoors, the culture is problematic, because to them much needed living conditions are (2000-3000 lux continuously for 12 hours a day, with 70-90 percent humidity at a temperature of about 15-30°C) and normal households can hardly offer this therefore, undertake vegetating plants.

Small-leaved species of the genus Ficus alone have proved to be suitable for Bonsai as an Art.