Masters of Refining Bonsai

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We don't usually feature photos with so much background noise, but this Trident maple is phenomenal and it's the only shot we've got

Just home from vacation. The return was supposed to be a two day trek, but snow added a day. Anyway, it’s late and I could skip today’s post, but instead we’ll just keep digging up Omiya Bonsai Museum photos from our archives (this one is from January, 2015). It’s easy enough and it will provide another opportunity for a heads up about the end of our Site Wide Sale tomorrow night

All the bonsai shown here resides at the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum in Saitama, Japan. They all deciduous trees in winter with their bare bones exposed. A good time to study line and ramification
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20% OFF EVERYTHING

SITE WIDE SALE
ENDS TOMORROW NIGHT

PLUS AN EXTRA 10% TO 20% OFF ROSHI TOOLS
AN EXTRA 10% OFF BONSAI POTS

THESE SPECIALS END WEDNESDAY, JAN 23RD AT 11:59PM EST

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This Trident maple shows good ramification and phenomenal trunk that seems to have swallowed a stone

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The thing that most separates Japanese bonsai from much of the bonsai in the rest of the world is refinement. With deciduous trees this is most obvious when you look at ramification (branch structure and particularly fine branching). There are certainly other features that express refinement, for example taper and nebari, but nothing expresses it more than the development of fine branching
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 A broom style Japanese Zelkova that shows a powerful old trunk and well-balanced branching with excellent ramification.

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There are of course some bonsai in the West (and elsewhere) that express great refinement, but in general the Japanese are still the masters of the art of refinement. This has to do with technical expertise and simply time in training

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This Stewartia, with its light airy branching, is designed to show off its long smooth trunk and colorful exfoliating bark

In this case it's more about the fruit than ramification. If the birds don't get them, Crabapples can hold their fruit well into the winter

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As long as we're talking about ramification... Not to take anything away from this old Trident maple's spectacular trunk.

 The delicate branching provides a sharp contrast to the short powerful trunk and its striking nebari. Though Tridents often feature the most developed nebari, this Japanese maple is no slouch in that regard