On 27 Jul 2003 08:54:03 -0700, (Kitsune Miko) wrote:

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.


Oh I hope the meaning of Bonsai doesn't change to fit with what people
see at Sam's or Home Depot. I fear you may be right, however. Any
changes in the public's perception of Bonsai, or the acceptable use of
the word Bonsai that comes as a result of dead-sticks-glued-rock trees
cannot be good. The best thing we can do is educate the public
whereever our trees are shown.

I've been told that Bonsai is Bonsai when we intend to grow it as such
and when we are happy that the result has met with our expectations of
the tree as Bonsai. Mass-produced glued-rock mall-sai are certainly
Bonsai, in this sense, because the creators of these trees INTENDED to
grow Bonsai. The buyers, though they be novices, certainly see the
trees as bonsai an are happy enough with the results to purchase the
trees. The problem for me is that the larger intent of the
manufacturers is to produce many trees that survive as long as the
trip to the check-out register. They leave so much of the Japanese
rules and techniques behind that I think the only thing Japanese about
the trees is the SHAPE of the pot. And what is the result? A tree
that is destined/designed to die as a direct result of very bad
styling techniques. The trees are Bonsai because the makers and
buyers of such see the trees as Bonsai. However, in the larger sense,
these trees are not Bonsai, regardless of how they are perceived by
the mass-marketing nurseries and novice buyers.

As for changes in what we expect of Bonsai coming from within the
community at large, I think that is inevitable. Take a look at the
cultural changes that have come about in the last 100 years as a
result of ever-increasing speeds in communications. Now with the
Internet, we can exchange not only textual or verbal information
instantly, but we can also exchange visual information. We cannot
expect people to keep Bonsai in the Japanese tradition when we're
talking about the global influence of growers everywhere. Different
ideas, artistic skills, climates, available material, etc, will
continue to create sects within Bonsai that eventually change the
dicipline as a whole.

I suspect that historians will be better suited to see the changes
than you or I. While instant communications may change music and
fashion faster than our teens can beg us for more money, there is one
underlying factor in Bonsai that throtles the influence of fads: The
trees refuse to grow fast enough to fit the fads. While several of us
can work together to develop new techniques or stylings, in the end,
it is the test of time that proves us right or wrong. Is there a
higher authority that judges us? No, not in the sense of any one
governing board or person. But time will tell.

Bill Butler