59 Fun Facts About Bonsai

What does the Japanese word 'bonsai' literally mean?

Bonsai literally means 'pot planting' or 'tray planting': bon is the tray or pot and sai is the planting. The term displaced older Japanese names for dwarf trees in containers.

The Japanese art of bonsai grew out of which older Chinese practice?

Chinese tree penjing allows wilder shapes and brightly coloured, creatively shaped pots, whereas bonsai favours simpler forms and plain containers.

What is Korea's equivalent art of miniature potted trees called?

Bunjae is Korea's art of miniature potted trees; the word is the Korean reading of the same two characters, 盆栽, that Japanese reads as bonsai.

A tree collected from the wild for training as bonsai is known by what Japanese term?

Yamadori, literally 'taken from the mountains', is a tree collected from the wild for training; such trees are prized because they arrive with decades of natural character.

What Japanese term names the spread of surface roots at the base of a bonsai?

Nebari is the visible flare of surface roots where the trunk meets the soil; a wide, even nebari is prized because it makes a small tree look old and stable.

Which picture scroll is the earliest known to depict dwarfed potted trees in Japan?

The Saigyo Monogatari Emaki, a Kamakura-period scroll on the poet-monk Saigyō, holds the earliest known Japanese image of dwarfed trees in pots; the 1309 Kasuga Gongen Genki E shows them on a workbench.

Around the 14th century, dwarf potted trees in Japan were called 'hachi no ki', which means what?

Hachi no ki means 'the bowl's tree': hachi is a bowl or fairly deep pot and ki is tree. The term named Japan's dwarf potted trees for centuries before 'bonsai' replaced it.

In the Noh play Hachi no Ki, a poor samurai sacrifices his three last dwarf potted trees for what purpose?

The monk is an official in disguise who later rewards him with three estates named for the plum, pine and cherry he burned.

The Sandai Shogun no Matsu, a five-needle pine in the Japanese imperial collection, is thought to be at least how old?

The Sandai Shogun no Matsu is thought to be at least 500 years old, has been in the palace collection for generations, and is counted among Japan's National Treasures.

The Sandai Shogun pine in the emperor's collection was cared for by which shogun?

Its name means 'the third shogun', which is exactly who Iemitsu was in the Tokugawa line.

The Japanese emperor whose 1868 move to Tokyo saw 'Giant Bonsai' displayed at his palace was which ruler?

Emperor Meiji moved his court to Tokyo in 1868, and 'Giant Bonsai' large enough to fill the palace's grand rooms were displayed inside and outside the Meiji Palace.

Which shaping material appeared in bonsai practice around 1910, replacing string, rope and burlap?

Wire appeared around 1910 in place of string, rope and burlap; zinc-galvanised steel wire came first, and costly copper wire was reserved for trees with real potential.

Which bonsai tool did Masakuni I design to leave a shallow indentation that heals scarlessly?

Masakuni I's concave cutter removes a branch leaving a shallow hollow that bark closes over without a bump; his 1920s–1930s designs were the first steel tools made specifically for bonsai.

What is Japan's most prestigious bonsai exhibition, held every February in Tokyo since 1934?

Kokufu-ten, staged by the Nippon Bonsai Association at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Ueno Park, is juried rather than open, and its 97th edition was held in February 2023.

The first World Bonsai Convention was held in 1980 in which Japanese city?

Osaka hosted the 1980 gathering counted as the first World Bonsai Convention; the World Bonsai Friendship Federation was founded nine years later and has held its own conventions every four years since 1989.

Under what title was Yoshimura and Halford's 1957 bonsai 'bible for westerners' later reissued?

The Art of Bonsai is Tuttle's later title for The Japanese Art of Miniature Trees and Landscapes, the 1957 book Yuji Yoshimura wrote in English with his student Giovanna Halford; it ran to more than thirty printings.

Which Japanese volcanic clay, sold in graded granules, is the staple of bonsai soil mixes worldwide?

Akadama, 'red ball earth', is a granular clay mined from volcanic deposits in Japan and sold in graded sizes; its yellow counterpart Kanuma is reserved for azaleas and other lime-hating plants.

In the formal upright style, chokkan, what shape does the trunk take?

In chokkan the trunk is straight and tapering, rising vertically with an even taper from base to apex, while the branches thin regularly from thickest at the bottom to finest at the top.

In the full cascade style, kengai, where does the apex of the tree end up?

In a full cascade (kengai) the apex drops below the base of the pot, mimicking a tree growing over water or down a mountainside; a semi-cascade (han-kengai) stops at or just beneath the rim.

What is the Japanese name of the informal upright style, with visible curves in the trunk?

Moyogi, the informal upright, has a trunk that curves gently as it rises and tapers toward an apex set above the base; it is the most common style because most trees lend themselves to it.

The 'broom' bonsai style, hokidachi, with a straight trunk and ball crown, is typically used for which trees?

Elms, above all the zelkova of the elm family, suit hokidachi: the straight trunk splits about a third of the way up into fine twigs that form a crown like an upturned broom.

What is the Japanese name for the windswept style, a tree battered by wind from one side?

Fukinagashi, the windswept style, sets every branch and often the trunk streaming to one side, like a tree on a mountain ridge or exposed shoreline battered by a constant wind.

The raft style, ikadabuki, mimics what natural event?

Growers create it by laying a trunk flat in the soil so the upward branches root and become a grove.

In the forest or group style, yose ue, how many trees are typically planted?

An odd number is the convention for yose ue because it reads as natural and keeps the eye from pairing trees off; famous forests run to eleven trees and more.

What is the difference between the sekijoju and ishitsuki styles?

In root-over-rock the rock is essentially a pedestal; in ishitsuki the rock is the pot.

In deadwood technique, what does 'jin' refer to?

Shari is the counterpart on the trunk, simulating scars from a broken limb or lightning strike.

Which bonsai principle says the scar from a removed branch must be concealed and wire must leave no marks?

'No trace of the artist' holds that the grower's hand must not show: pruning scars are concealed and no marks from shaping are left, so the viewer believes they see nature.

Bonsai aesthetics discourage which quality in branch and root placement?

Radial or bilateral symmetry looks manufactured; a slightly off-centre composition reads as natural.

Which Japanese aesthetic concept, beauty in imperfection and transience, informs bonsai design?

Many formal rules of bonsai exist to help a tree express wabi-sabi or the gentle sadness of mono no aware.

A traditional indoor bonsai display has the tree, a hanging scroll, and what third element?

The shitakusa companion plant stands for the foreground, the scroll for the background, and all three are chosen to evoke a season.

In a traditional Japanese home, where is a formal bonsai display usually placed?

A formal display goes in the tokonoma alcove, the recessed niche of a traditional reception room, and stays only a day or two because most bonsai lose vigour quickly indoors.

As a rule of thumb, evergreen bonsai are shown in what kind of pot?

Evergreens such as pines and junipers are usually shown in unglazed pots in earth tones, while deciduous and flowering trees get glazed pots whose colour plays off leaves or blooms.

Which Japanese town, together with Yixing in China, is famous for producing collectible bonsai pots?

Tokoname, a pottery town in Aichi Prefecture and one of Japan's Six Ancient Kilns, has made bonsai containers for generations and, with Yixing, supplies most of the collectible pots.

Why do the smallest bonsai, mame, get their own techniques and styles?

Their tiny size limits branches and leaves: a mame is small enough to hold in one palm, usually 15 cm or less, so its few branches and leaves call for techniques of their own.

What is the largest bonsai size class, for trees around 150–200 cm tall, called?

Imperial, the largest size class, takes its name from the huge potted trees displayed at Japan's Imperial Palace; such trees can stand well over a metre tall.

Which of these is true of indoor bonsai in Japan?

Traditional practice does not include them: Japanese bonsai are temperate trees kept outdoors year-round and brought inside only briefly for display, because they weaken and die in a heated house.

Which tree genus, with the jade plant, is named as one that survives indoors as bonsai?

Ficus microcarpa in particular is sold by the million as a starter 'indoor bonsai'.

When are deciduous bonsai generally repotted and root-pruned?

Deciduous bonsai are repotted and root-pruned as they leave dormancy in spring, just as buds swell, so cut roots regrow fast; repotting prevents pot-binding and encourages fresh feeder roots.

The Yamaki Pine at the US National Arboretum is famous for surviving what?

The Yamaki Pine, a Japanese white pine in training since 1625, stood about three kilometres from the Hiroshima hypocentre and survived the atomic bombing of 1945, sheltered by a garden wall.

Japan's gift of 53 bonsai to the United States marked which occasion?

The 53 trees, chosen by the Nippon Bonsai Association, were Japan's gift for the US Bicentennial of 1976 and became the founding collection of the bonsai museum at the US National Arboretum in Washington, D.C.

John Naka's masterpiece Goshin is a forest of eleven junipers, each representing what?

It began as a two-tree planting in 1948, and Naka added trees as his family grew, reaching eleven by 1973.

What does the name of John Naka's forest bonsai 'Goshin' mean?

Goshin translates as 'protector of the spirit'; John Naka gave the name to his eleven-tree juniper forest, now one of the best-known bonsai in the United States.

Bonsai master John Naka famously refused to teach in Japan, comparing it to what?

Naka said teaching bonsai in Japan would be like 'preaching to Buddha'; born in Colorado in 1914, he spent his career in Los Angeles championing native species such as California juniper.

Omiya Bonsai Village was settled in 1925 by nurserymen fleeing what disaster in Tokyo?

After the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923 destroyed their Tokyo nurseries, bonsai growers moved out to Omiya in 1925 and founded the village; the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum opened there in 2010.

Saikei differs from bonsai in that it creates what?

Saikei builds a tray landscape of rocks, soil and plants rather than a single tree; Toshio Kawamoto developed it after the war from young, cheap material, and his 1963 English-language book introduced it to Western readers.

Suiseki, often displayed alongside bonsai, are what?

Suiseki are naturally formed viewing stones, never carved; the name joins the characters for water and stone, and prized examples suggest mountains, waterfalls or islands in miniature.

The earliest-known picture of Chinese miniature tree landscapes, from the year 706, was found where?

Excavated in 1972 at the Qianling Mausoleum, the fresco shows two maidservants carrying miniature rockeries and fruit trees.

What did the Meiji-era term change from 'hachiue' to 'bonsai' signal about the container?

Bonsai signalled a shallower pot: 'hachiue' simply meant a potted plant, while the 'bon' of bonsai is a flat tray that leaves the trunk and surface roots in view.

The first monthly magazine devoted to the art, launched in 1906, was called what?

Bonsai Gaho, launched in 1906, was the first monthly magazine devoted to the art; the long-running magazine titled simply Bonsai followed in 1921.

Roughly how many bonsai dealers were working in Tokyo by 1940?

By 1940 about 300 bonsai dealers were working in Tokyo, and thousands of specimens were being shipped to Europe and America each year before the war cut off the trade.

Which source of bonsai material is rarely used, because a suitably aged look would take too long?

Seeds are rarely used because a tree grown from seed takes decades to look aged; growers usually start from a mature or partly grown plant so the weathered look arrives in reasonable time.

The largest bonsai are called 'two-handed', 'four-handed' and so on according to what?

The names count the number of men needed to move them, so a 'four-handed' tree takes twice the crew of a 'two-handed' one; trees of this size can carry dozens of branches.

The Omiya Bonsai Museum is located in which Japanese prefecture?

The Omiya Bonsai Art Museum, opened in 2010, stands in Saitama Prefecture beside the Omiya Bonsai Village in Saitama City, a short train ride north of Tokyo.

Roughly how many tree species were being cultivated as bonsai in Japan by 1940?

Some 150 species were in cultivation as bonsai in Japan by 1940, and thousands of specimens were shipped to Europe and America each year until the war interrupted the trade.

What is the top prize at the Nippon Bonsai Sakufu-ten, Japan's leading contest for professionals?

The Prime Minister Award is the top prize at the Sakufu-ten, held each December in Tokyo; it is the one exhibition where professional growers show trees under their own names.

In which year did the first Westerners study at an Ōmiya nursery, later founding the American Bonsai Society?

In 1967 the first Westerners studied at an Ōmiya nursery and, back in the United States, founded the American Bonsai Society that same year; later visitors apprenticed under the masters themselves.

The influential periodical Bonsai, first published in 1921, ran for how many consecutive issues?

The magazine Bonsai, first issued in 1921, ran for 518 consecutive issues, a run long enough to carry the art from the Taishō era past the Second World War.

Many bonsai terms adopted by early-19th-century Japanese scholars came from which Chinese painting text?

The Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden, the Qing painting primer known in Japanese as Kai-shi-en Gaden, supplied many of the terms those scholars used for miniature trees.

In which Hyōgo town did scholars gather in the early 19th century to discuss miniature trees?

Itami, in Hyōgo Prefecture, hosted the early-19th-century circle of scholars of Chinese arts whose meetings renamed Japan's miniature potted trees 'bonsai'.