At 01:20 AM 7/27/2003 -0500, Bill Butler wrote:
What we do is called Bonsai. I follow the proscripts of the Japanese
because I am attempting to do Bonsai. By definition, if I were to
leave the Japanese influence behind and start doing other styling,
selection, potting, etc, techniques and following rewritten rules, I
would no longer doing Bonsai. Were I to fill my library with Penjing
books and follow their recommendations, I would be unable to call my
trees "Bonsai" because they would not be such.
I do this also. I am classically trained in bonsai by two now gone
Japanese bonsai masters. Neither of them called themselves masters because
they kept learning, but they both devoted their lives to the art.
Penjing is not Bonsai because it follows rewritten rules. If you want
to do things differently than what is recommended by Bonsai masters,
you have two choices:
1) Don't call it Bonsai.
2) Call it Bonsai but accept that your trees will not be called Bonsai
by Bonsai growers.
We all break the rules of Bonsai. Many trees just won't cooperate
with our rules and expectations. Different climates make many
techniques useless, but the rules of scale and styling remain close
enough that the trees are still considered Bonsai.
I agree with this also, but words change meaning with usage. (I remember
when gay meant happy.) So if there is a bunch of stuff called bonsai for
sale that is not (by the classical definition) bonsai. The common usage of
the word will change. The word mallsai will not sell as well as
bonsai. I used to talk to nursery managers of all places where the rocks
were glued on and beg them to stop supporting the manufacture of these
doomed plants. They would shrug their shoulders and say that is all they
could get. I talked to the manufacturers of these abominations and they
said that was the only way they would sell. That the ones with the loose
soil were not acceptable to the nurseries because of time required in handling.
I'll never be a master. I don't have the commitment or the time. I
enjoy Bonsai because the rules are fairly well laid out and there is a
large support group here In New Orleans and here on the Internet.
Plenty of books and magazines are available as well.
Nor will I. Nor will I judge others because I am not a master.
If you decide to do something other than Bonsai, you cut yourself off
from the hundreds of years of history in the discipline. You also cut
yourself off from the thousands of people available to you in your
community and on the Internet.
Yes but why do we turn them away with harsh comments? These are the
possible converts because they have an interest.
If you choose to call your trees "Bonsai" but you have left enough of
the Bonsai rules behind, you will be constantly defending your trees.
That's just the nature of it.
Yes but....We are now the smaller group of folks doing what is truly
bonsai. We are out numbered by dead sticks with glued on rocks.
I don't know how far off you are from Bonsai, but if you felt the need
to post your message, I have to assume that you are fairly far from
what we are doing and recommending. True, each area has it's own
needs, but much of what we do will translate to other areas of the
world. Tropicals in Canada versus South Florida will have GREATLY
differing techniques for keeping the plants thriving as bonsai. But
the styling recommendations remain the same. If a Canadian can keep a
Buttonwood alive and well, photographs of either tree will reflect the
same Japanese influence. A Bonsai grower in California should not be
able to easily tell the difference between the two trees.
If they don't do buttonwood in Japan is it really suitable bonsai material?
Okay, so it's late (1am here) and I'm starting to ramble. I don't
know what you mean by "There are things mentioned on this list that I
would never do because they won't work here."
I am in California and would not attempt button wood, fukien tea, or bald
cypress. I would only transplant from January through March and then a few
in late September/October to have a healing growth spurt before dormancy
and the possibility of winter root rot. This is the re-potting schedule
used in Japan and our climates are similar. Does that make it the only
right transplant schedule? It is tradtional.
But you also said "So
who is to say that this borrowed sport can't have its rules rewritten
as it moves across the world?" So I have to assume that you are
questioning some of the foundations of Bonsai.
I don't question the foundations as much as I see again the common usage of
the word change meanings. Traditionally tropical plants are NOT bonsai
(the leaves are many times too big and they don't do well enough in all of
Japan), but if you can only grow tropicals with traditional bonsai styling,
should you have some higher authority tell you that you are not doing bonsai?
That's what really
prompted my rather lengthy response. I encourage you to pursue your
endeavors in rewriting the rules of this "borrowed sport." No one is
saying that the rules cannot be rewritten. They'll most likely tell
you that it's not Bonsai, but that doesn't mean what you've created
lacks artistic merit. But given your knowledge in the evolution of
Bonsai from Penjing, you should expect that people will want you to
come up with a new name alltogether.
I agree that there should be a new name, but I think you will only succeed
in calling plants traditional bonsai and bonsai influenced. I don't think
you will get the general public to stop seeing what the malls are selling
as un bonsai. You have a voice larger than their own mis-using a term that
will not be questioned by the average Joe/Jane.
Do you want to turn these folks away because they made a dumb fist purchase
or do you want to encourage them to explore further? They have the
interest to get involved.
I would not buy a plant I couldn't fondle before purchase, so I wouldn't
buy by mail order from anyone but Brent. I have seen his stock and would
be proud to own anyone he sent me. Yet there are many traditionalists on
this list that have had luck with mail order. Do I tell them they are wrong?
I grow pines, elms, maples, crabapple, azaleas. I consider these my true
bonsai. I am purist enough to not consider serissa real bonsai, but I
would never take away the joy of doing from someone with a budding interest
in the sport. I have PERSONAL standards that I expect me to meet. I do
not require validation of my standards by others. I hold no lofty position
that makes me holier than thou. I have not re-written rules, but I see
them trampled on such a regular basis, that I do not tell others what is
right anymore.
Kitsune Miko
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