Lakeside with Lingering Snow

Lakeside with Lingering Snow, our second in a series of plantings from Toshio Kawamoto’s Saikei classic. The trees are the same (cryptomeria) as in our last post (A Deep Ravine in a Shallow Pot), the pot is almost the same and the landscape is similar, though this one is softer. The focal point, the large single mountain stone that elevates the planting from good to extraordinary is enhanced by a little touch of snow. The author doesn’t say what the snow is and it’s hard to tell from the photo. It would be ideal if it were simply part of the rock.

Thought we might as well continue our series on Toshio Kawamoto’s remarkable book, Saikei, Living Landscapes in Miniature. We first ran this series back in January 2010, and now, because I’m still out of town and can’t seem to find time to put together new posts, why not give it another go?

An invitation
The purpose of this section is to show how to create lakeside saikei. In fact, if you look at the drawings throughout the book it’s almost as if the author is inviting you to duplicate his work. If you don’t have the book, don’t worry, we’ll be posting photos and the drawings. Meanwhile you’ve got two to go on (deep ravine and this one).

Front schemata. The pot is 26″ x 13″ (66cm x 33cm) unglazed oval by Tokoname. There are 27 cryptomeria that range from 2.5″ to 4.5″ (6cm to 11.5cm) tall. The soil is regular bonsai soil (he doesn’t say which regular bonsai soil, but the Japanese almost always use akadama or an akadama mix for conifers). The other materials are peat (it’s unclear how he uses it, see below), green moss and black river pebbles (the lake).

Bird’s eye view. The lake (or piece of it) is off center which helps create a natural, uncontrived feel. The landscape is soft and inviting. This softness is enhanced by the way the hills and the rock flow into each other (the photo and front schemata show this best). The small size of the trees (much smaller than the deep ravine saikei) and the way they sort of sink into the land, further enhances this easy, peaceful, almost feminine feel. Altogether it looks like a place where you might like spend some time. Just relaxing and enjoying the view and feel of the land, and the soft breezes off the lake. You might even go for a swim.

Make my day
If you want to try one and send a photo, it just might make my day. If you don’t want to do that (and most of you won’t), at least you can post a comment. Otherwise, this job can seem a bit like…. (you can insert a good Texas down home expression here that conveys something like shooting in the dark).

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A Deep Ravine in a Shallow Pot

This planting from Toshio Kawamoto’s Saikei classic is quite similar to the planting on the cover (below): same trees (cryptomeria), same (or nearly the same) pot and somewhat similar rocky ravine separating two tree and moss covered areas. The main difference is that this one shows a deep ravine. The rocks that define it represent tall vertical cliffs.

A long time ago (January, 2010 to be exact) we featured this post as part of a series on a remarkable book by Toshio Kawamoto. Now, because I’m still out of town on a vacation of sorts, it seems like a good time to resurrect the series. By the way, the book – Saikei, Living Landscapes in Miniature – is long out of print, but you just might be able to find it online. Or you could get lucky like I did and find it at your son-in-law’s bookstore (Green Apple, San Francisco).

Don’t worry this pillaging of our archives won’t last too much longer. Soon we’ll be back to fresh posts. Meanwhile, you might notice that we’ve been dressing up the originals with a few changes and a little value added stuff. For example, enlarging the images in this post.

How to create a deep ravine saikei
The purpose of this section in Saikei, Living Landscapes in Miniature is to show how to create a deep ravine saikei, just like the one in the photo. In fact, if you look at the drawings, it’s almost as if the author is inviting you to duplicate his work.

Front schemata. The pot is 27″ x 19″ (69cm x 48cm) unglazed oval by Tokoname. There are 29 cryptomeria that range from 4″ to 14″ (10cm to 36cm) tall and 9 river rocks. The soil is regular bonsai soil (he doesn’t say which regular bonsai soil, but the Japanese almost always use akadama or an akadama mix for conifers). The other materials are moss, river sand and white sand.

Bird’s eye view. Notice how the opening in front is off center and slants and curves as it goes back. If it were directly centered and straight it would appear contrived. Notice also how the ravine narrows and curves around and disappears from sight and then opens up into a pool. Viewed from the front, this creates a sense of mystery and the appearance that it just goes on and on, off into a vast landscape, rather than being restricted to the small, finite area of the pot.

The cover. At a glance, it’s almost the same as the planting feature in this post, though on closer inspection you can see marked differences.

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No Adornment Necessary

A prize winning Satsuki azalea from Bonsai -Matsuda Seishoen displaying it power, balance and tranquility.

Still stealing from the past. This post appeared back in April 2011 (now edited a bit from the original). It was titled Three Monster Satsuki Bonsai. It has been a while since we featured any Azaleas and even though Satsuki are renowned for their flowers and these aren’t flowering, still, they have enough muscle and character to show any time, with or without adornment.

A rare and wonderful trunk
The lower half of the trunk on this Satsuki azalea (above) is near perfection; thick and powerful with good texture, color and balance. Then there’s the great nebari that adds a fair measure of stability and character.

Japanese style
Some people say that Japanese bonsai are often overly stylized. If you are of that opinion, then you might think that the foliage pads on this tree are too neatly trimmed and perhaps too perfectly separated. I can see why someone would hold that view, yet to my eye, this tree is near perfect; both in its individual parts (including the perfectly chosen pot) and its overall effect.

Our Satsuki book
Satsuki Azaleas for Bonsai and Azalea Enthusiasts, by Robert Callaham and published by Stone Lantern, is the only Satsuki book available in the English language (that we know of, at least). If you love azaleas and you love bonsai, you’ll enjoy this excellent book.

Another powerful Satsuki azalea from Bonsai -Matsuda Seishoen. It’s not that often you see a trunk so short and yet so strong. Excellent nebari too.

This one is also from Bonsai -Matsuda Seishoen. It’s a little different than the other two; the trunk has a lot less taper, and the unruly nebari gives the tree a wilder, freer look.

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Penjing Vs Bonsai

Robert Steven’s simulation of a Japanese black pine that was submitted by Mike Liu (Mike’s original is below).

Still out of town and still digging deep into our archives. This one is from almost three years ago (December 2010). It’s original title is: Robert Steven Critiques a Black Pine and Offers Some Insights into the Five Schools of Penjing. It’s one of many brilliant Robert Steven critiques, though, aside from starting with such a well developed tree, what sets it apart is Robert’s discussion of the five schools of Chinese Penjing. As you may know, Robert is a world famous bonsai artist who has long lived on the cutting edge of bonsai design. He is also an author and a much sought after bonsai teacher. What you may not know about Robert is that he’s a bonsai scholar, with expertise on the history and development of Chinese Penjing among other things.

Mike’s original photo that was submitted to Robert.

Robert’s Critique

The Five Schools of Chinese Penjing

The above black pine bonsai is sent by Mike Liu from China. Since Chinese bonsai is called penjing, I will offer a brief discussion of penjing.

The main difference between penjing (Chinese: pen = pot; jing = panorama) and bonsai (Japanese: bon = pot; sai = plant), despite the terminology, penjing is more about artistic nuance in portraying natural phenomena; and bonsai is more disciplined in technical skill with the objective of suggesting the physical perfection of an old tree. Penjing is more symbolic as well as a media for the artist in expressing his emotional ideas. To a certain extent, bonsai is rather bounded within its convention and rules; where penjing is more free as personal expression.

Continue reading Penjing Vs Bonsai

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Bonsai Muscle

European olives are often resplendent with character as well as muscle and this one is certainly no exception. I found it on flickr and then, one thing led to another and to the conclusion that this tree belongs to Luis Vallejo (though I couldn’t find evidence on his very attractive site).

Fair warning
I mentioned this last time, but just in case you missed it: I’m out of town and busy with things too numerous to mention, so we’ll dig into our archives once again. This digging should last about two weeks and then we’ll get back to fresh posts. Meanwhile, this one is from November, 2011.

Bonsai muscle
There’s something grand about bonsai with thick, powerful trunks. Assuming that I’m not the only one that feels this way, here are three exceptional, muscular bonsai for your enjoyment.

Gone fishing
This post started as a bonsai fishing expedition that landed quite unexpectedly in Portugal, a country know for fishing. The flicr photo of the magnificent Olive above came with three bits of information: the species, Museu Bonsai Alconbendas (the results there weren’t too promising, maybe you’ll come up with something better) and, as you can see, kintall.blogspot.com, which is where the juice turns up. Kintall belongs to Rodrigo Sousa and is a bonsai gold mine, in which a little digging turns up the tree above, the two trees below and much more (that’s enough, you can take it from here if you’re interested).

Myrtus communis by Rui Ferrreira. I’ve never seen a Common myrtle with a heavy trunk, let alone one as massive as this one. The photo is from the EXPOS PORTUGAL – 3º Congresso Federação Portuguesa de Bonsai – Ericeira 2011. You can find it on Kintall’s home page).

Muscle with nine (?) trunks. This Trident, by Jose Machado, shows a nebari kind of muscle, but still, muscle it is. Also from EXPOS PORTUGAL – 3º Congresso Federação Portuguesa de Bonsai – Ericeira 2011, on Kintall’s home page).

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Rebar Fix

Contrast this with the before photo below to get a hit of what you can do with a piece of rebar, some nerve, and more than a little skill. All the photos in this post are of bonsai by David Benavente.

I’m out of town and busy with things too numerous to mention, so I’m going to mine our archives once again. Apologies if you’ve already seen this one, but considering that it’s from over three years ago, my best guess is that most of you haven’t, and if you have, you’ve forgotten it by now. And just in case you haven’t forgotten, I thought maybe I could fool you by cleverly changing the title from Bonsai with Rebar by David Benavente to the Rebar Fix you see above.

The original was also the first time we devoted a post to David Benavente and his bonsai. Since then, David’s trees have appeared here several times. For good reason. David is one of our most accomplished Western bonsai artists and he has the added plus of being one of the happiest (if appearance and any indication).

benbefore4 Before. This tree is begging for a good rebar fix.

benafter1 Full cascade Scot’s pine by David Benavente. You can provide the adjectives. Check out David’s site for the before photos (for this tree and two below) and some other before and after bonsai.

A wild looking Wild olive.

Savin juniper (BTW we just devoted a whole post to Savin – aka Sabina – junipers a few days ago)

For more of David Benavente bonsai, visit his website.

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Suthin Again

Suthin’s site calls this an Eastern white cedar which happens to be one of several common names for Thuja occidentalis (Northern white cedar is another, though around here we just call them cedars). To further complicate the issue, it’s not a true cedar, but rather an arborvitae. No matter, it’s a great tree. I particularly like the way Suthin hasn’t tried to manicure the natural looking cedar foliage. Makes for a raw and rugged look that’s in keeping with the rest of the tree.

Everybody loves Suthin. When I was peddling our books and tools and other wares at the 3rd U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition last year, I was almost directly across from Suthin’s display, so I got a good taste of just how magnetic he is, with his winning smile and gentle nature, and how much buzz his bonsai create (they don’t smile but they really look good). It was like bees to honey.

Suthin is best known for his shohin bonsai. So much so in fact, that I knew him for several years before I became aware of just how accomplished he is with large bonsai.

Another Eastern (Northern) white cedar (Thuja occidentalis). Like the one at the top, I like the rugged, not-too-finished look, but I’m not so sure about the ring of light effect.

Nice stand. Nice tree and companion too.

Suthin Sukosolvisit

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Just Say No

First, my apologies for the fuzziness. The photo (original below) is cropped and expanded because I wanted to show these delightful little trees up close. Looks like a juniper above, Pyracantha on the left and Trident maple on the right.

All the photos in this post are from Shunga-ten and the Japanese Shohin-bonsai Association. They appear on Morten Albek’s Shohin Bonsai Europe blog in a recent post titled, ‘Say NO to RULES‘ that I think is worth a read. BTW: Morten is the author of our Shohin Bonsai, Majesty in Miniature (see below).

A part of a larger display. Could this be a crabapple variety?

Another part of another display. Such bright yellow pots are not all that common. The tree looks like a Trident maple.

Here’s two pieces from above put together into an entire shohin display. Four bonsai, one companion.

Two shohin bonsai, one companion and one suiseki (viewing stone). Enhanced by the graceful stand.

Morten Albek’s famous Shohin book

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No Matter Where You Go…

This elegant Sabina juniper (aka Savin juniper) was styled by Walter Pall. Does the deadwood that’s hanging down on the left distract from the natural flow of tree, or does it add something (a touch of untamed wildness?) to the overall effect? The photo is from The Art of Bonsai Project. The pot is by Bryan Albright.

“No matter where you go, there you are” (Buckaroo Banzai) could be paraphrased, “no matter where you go on the web, sooner or later you’ll find Walter Pall ” (the Buckaroo of European Bonsai?). Walter is both prolific and very good at what he does. In this case, what he does is style some Sabina junipers, a bonsai species that may be common in Europe, but is little-known here in North America.

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about Sabina junipers: “Juniperus sabina (Savin Juniper or Savin) is a species of juniper native to the mountains of central and southern Europe and western and central Asia, from Spain east to eastern Siberia, typically growing at altitudes of 1,000-3,300 m.” This might help explain the ‘little known here in North America” piece.

This Sabina is from a very recent post on Walter’s Bonsai Adventures. The tree was collected in Austria in 1997.

This is a stock photo of a cascading Sabina with a somewhat ‘in training’ look. The caption says, “Sabina juniper, Juniperus sabina, 50 cm high, 80 cm long, 100 years old, collected in Austria, styled by Walter Pall.”

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…You Don’t See Bonsai Everyday, Yamadori or Othewise…

This wide-body old yamadori is the feature tree on Kevin Willson’s website. It looks like an English yew. That’s just a guess, though an educated(?) one, based on this and some other fading memories.

You almost never see domestically grown bonsai that begin to approach the power and beauty of the best yamadori (trees collected in the wild). Carrying this a step further, you don’t see bonsai everyday, yamadori or otherwise, with the power and beauty of the trees shown here. The artist is Kevin Willson (we’ve featured him here on Bark and in Bonsai Today).

Kevin’s website consists of two major parts; his own trees, some of which are shown here, and his Yamadori School of Bonsai which features trees by his students (another time for this).

Two headed grace and some very compelling carving.

This case study in natural movement is another two headed masterpiece. Though this time the two parts seem to be headed (sorry) in opposite directions.

You’d think this might be a little unbalanced with the entire tree left of midpoint. Still, the power of the deadwood and the heavy pot keeps us coming back to center.

Beyond the fact that they are both pines and other obvious similarities (eg great deadwood), there’s also the same question of balance that this tree and the one above share.

Snowbound. Yet another two headed beauty.

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