GardenBanter.co.uk - [IBC] Japanese terms in bonsai (was: [IBC] "yamadori" boxwood)

[IBC] Japanese terms in bonsai (was: [IBC] "yamadori" boxwood)

Roger Snipes wrote:

snip

But that is what jargon is, a set of arcane terms that are particular to a
certain endeavor that one must learn to be initiated. Whether or not these
terms come from a foreign language doesn't really matter. Many of our words
have origins in other languages.

Regards,
Roger Snipes Spokane, WA Zone 5, or maybe Zone 6.
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it,
and then misapplying the wrong remedies. Groucho Marx (1895-1977)

No, it doesn't matter that terms in any given endeavor come from a foreign
language. My own profession, ministry, and the arena in which I work, religion, is
replete with words from other languages. That in & of itself is not the problem.

In reference to bonsai, though, we all know there is an aura of mystery surrounding
it--as though there is some "secret" the Japanese have that we Westerners are
initiated into--the bonsai equivalent of a Masonic handshake. It's the thing Jim
Lewis referred to in a previous post--the slavish worship of anything Japanese
because it's Japanese, not because it works and is appropriate. The sort of
worship that will cause a person to spend $3.95 for a packet of ten plastic screens
because they're Japanese when the same thing can be had for 24 cents a sheet at
Walmart. This same sense of mystery is what causes people to buy mallsai.
Anything we can do to break down this false sense of mystery is good. That's not
to knock anything Japanese. It seems that the best bonsai tools are made in
Japan. I can't afford them, but I know that to be true. I aspire to owning a set
someday. Not yet, though.

What it comes down to is this--do we want to have bonsai remain a relatively
elitist art, or include more people? Take your pick and pay your money.

Craig Cowing
NY
Zone 5b/6a Sunset 37

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