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Style

Kaori Yamada (山田香織) – A Key Contributor to Saika Bonsai

Kaori-Yamada
Kaori Yamada (山田香織)

Put aside the argument of whether or not Saika Bonsai style is real bonsai, Saika Bonsai (彩花盆栽) has surely given the ancient bonsai art a refreshing look. And Kaori Yamada (山田香織) – the daughter of one of the most famous bonsai artists in Japan – definitely is one of the most prominent in Saika Bonsai art.

Kaori Yamada is famous not only as a bonsai artist, but also as a TV personality (she started to appear on TV hobby programs as a bonsai instructor in 2002), an author, and bonsai teacher, with her school based in her home in Omiya, Saitama Prefecture. All this exposure has made her the face of the new generation of bonsai artists in Japan.

Kaori Yamada is very different from the other famous bonsai artists in her country. For one thing, she is a woman, pursuing an art form that has been predominant by men for centuries. Maybe it is the bonsai style of Kaori Yamada and the ambiance of her bonsai workshops, Yamada’s workshops are proven popular, especially among young women. And since Kaori Yamada is young (32 years old), she understand very well the busy lifestyle and mentality of the younger generation today.

Many people find no interest in bonsai due to their perception that bonsai is a hobby of elderly man that requires tremendous skills and patience. But Saika Bonsai has made bonsai art more approachable, manageable, and hence, more appealing to the younger generation. Okay, Saika Bonsai may have twisted the ancient bonsai art a bit too far. But the attention on bonsai art that Kaori Yamada has gotten from the younger generation and the interests and involvement that Kaori Yamada has generated are awesome. For this, I would like to give Kaori Yamada a big round of applause.

Here are an interview with Kaori Yamada of Seikouen and a basic introduction of the make and care of bonsai (in both Japanese and English).

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Featured Articles Style

Saika Bonsai – Do You Count This as Bonsai?

Saika Bonsai

I unexpectedly found a few videos called “How to make your own bonsai” when I was watching some other videos on YouTube last night. There are quite many videos on YouTube demonstrating bonsai techniques and sharing bonsai tips, but what caught my attention are that these videos I found are demonstrated by a Japanese girl, and what she is showing is not any traditional bonsai style, but a new bonsai style called Saika Bonsai (彩花盆栽).

Saika Bonsai (literally means colorful flower bonsai) is a modern bonsai style features combination of trees and plants with free-spirited pot design. And the Japanese girl – Kaori Yamada (山田香織) – in the videos is actually the fifth generation bonsai master of Seikouen (清香園) bonsai garden – a well-established bonsai garden shop that is founded in the Edo period (1848-1854).

For over a thousand years, the traditional bonsai art has created symbolic representations of the nature in small containers. Small trees are pruned and trained with tremendous patience and skills for years and even decades to achieve the look and ambiance of an aged tree in the nature. As a traditional Japanese bonsai practice, the bonsai, which often is a single tree, is formally exhibited in a tokono-ma (a wooden display space for flowers or art in a traditional Japanese tatami room). Due to the bonsai skills, the rigid rules and enormous patience required, it is found difficult to fit traditional bonsai art into the lifestyle of the younger generation as well as the city people today.Yet, with Saika Bonsai, Kaori Yamada has updated and rejuvenated the traditional bonsai art with a modern twist. Well matched to modern interiors, this new bonsai style has attracted city people nowadays, as well as women and the younger generations.

I like what Kaori Yamada shows in the videos and I definitely would like to give it a try and make a saika bonsai, but I won’t dare to call these potted plants as bonsai in the presence of my bonsai teacher, Wong Tsau Shing – a Lingnan penjing master and Chairman of Institute of Lingnan Penjing, Hong Kong. I might have guessed wrong, but I think Teacher Wong, like many bonsai artists, will criticize Saika Bonsai as not real bonsai.

How about you? Do you count Saika Bonsai style as real bonsai?

Here are the website of Saika Bonsai of Seikouen, as well as a post about Kaori Yamada.

And here is the link to the Saika Bonsai video – Bonsai: The Universe As A Tree Lesson 1 – demonstrated by Kaori Yamada. There are 3 lessons, and this is the first and the only one with English subtitle. You can find the other two Saika Bonsai videos on the left of the page in the Bonsai session.

Photo by Seikouen

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Bonsai Events Gallery

Bonsai Exhibition in Hong Kong Flower Show 2010

I went to Hong Kong Flower Show earlier last month.  While the flowers in the show were beautiful, they were not my main purpose for going to the show.  It was the small bonsai exhibition in the Hong Kong Flower Show that had got my very interest.

Check out this post for Bonsai Exhibition in Hong Kong Flower Show 2011.

Hong-Kong-Bonsai-Show
Hong-Kong-Bonsai-Show

Hong-Kong-Bonsai-Show

Hong-Kong-Bonsai-Show

Some of these are bonsai trees of some senior members of Hong Kong Institute of Lingnan Penjing (which has a bonsai workshop where I grow bonsai and learn bonsai techniques).

Hong-Kong-Bonsai-Show Hong-Kong-Bonsai-Show Hong-Kong-Bonsai-Show

While almost all of the bonsai trees in the bonsai exhibition looked great, there was one that was… ridiculous.  How could someone use some paper clips to hang up those already-rotted citrus fruits on his bonsai tree?  Sorry, but to me, this is disgraceful…

Hong-Kong-Bonsai-Show Hong-Kong-Bonsai-Show

Check out this article – Hong Kong Flower Show 2010 – for more on Hong Kong Flower Show 2010.

Categories
Bonsai Pots

Should We Go for Glazed or Unglazed Bonsai Pot?

Bonsai pots come either unglazed or glazed. While some bonsai lovers like glazed bonsai pots, some others prefer the unglazed ones. There are different opinions on whether we should go for a glazed bonsai pot or an unglazed one, and ultimately, it comes down to personal choice. Yet, before we purchase our bonsai pots, here are a few points that we should first consider.

  • Unglazed bonsai pots allow the roots of the bonsai tree to breathe better. And by the same token, unglazed bonsai pots lose moisture through their walls faster than glazed bonsai pots.
  • Glazed bonsai pots retain more moisture; hence we probably don’t need to water as often. However, air cannot move through a glazed bonsai pot as well as an unglazed one. If it is a tropical bonsai tree we have, we may want to consider using a glazed bonsai pot since tropical trees live in humid regions love moist soil.
  • In general, a dark colored unglazed bonsai pot can give a classic bonsai tree a stronger sense of age.
  • A glazed bonsai pot may be more appropriate for a flowering bonsai tree.
  • Never ever use a bonsai pot that is glazed on the inside. Without an unglazed surface, the root of the bonsai tree cannot get a firm grip on the inside surface of the bonsai pot.

Bonsai-tree-Podocarpus Bonsai-tree-Murraya Mame-Shohin-Bonsai

There are many bonsai pots for us to choose from. Besides glazed and unglazed, there are also many different sizes and shapes, large variety of colors and materials. As said, it all comes down to personal choice. Just remember to pick a bonsai pot that not only compliments with the bonsai tree, but also provide a suitable environment for the roots.

Categories
Style

CBS – The Growing Fascination with Bonsai

In this program, CBS Sunday Morning explains what bonsai is, the difference between Japanese bonsai and Chinese penjing, as well as how the art of bonsai is introduced to the United States. This program of bonsai is a short, yet, well explained one, giving the viewers a quick and clear idea of what bonsai really is.

I hope there will be more programs, like this one, introducing the art of bonsai to more people. One may get hooked onto a lifetime fascination by merely a short TV program, or a few words of a friend, or even just a whimsy idea while shopping in a mall. Who knows. A program like this one or a website like Happy Bonsai may get a few more people fall in love and get addicted to these small wonders of nature.

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Journal

My Bonsai Land

On top of my bonsai rack, I have also rented a piece of land to grow more bonsai trees.  Teacher Wong always says that one is truly  a bonsai artist only when she knows how to cultivate a seedling or a cutting into a beautiful bonsai tree from ground zero.  And the best way to acquire this knowledge is by doing it herself.

While I have a very packed schedule and know that this is a long-time commitment, I couldn’t resist but rented a piece of land in the bonsai workshop and turned a new page in my bonsai world.

Trees grow much faster when they are rooted in the ground.  By growing the trees in the ground, not only can I  grow my bonsai trees faster, but I can also grow my trees into whatever styles I want them to be in a much shorter time.  And once the tree has grown large enough (around 80% of the size I intend to grow the tree into)  and more or less into the bonsai style I want, I can then pot the bonsai tree into a bonsai pot, and work on the pruning and training of the smaller branches, foliage, and details.

bonsai-land bonsai-land

This is how my 10 ft x 10 ft land looked like before I started.  It is covered with a piece of black cloth to prevent weeds from growing.

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Plowing is tough, laborious work, and I am very happy that I have got Yik to help.

bonsai-land bonsai-land bonsai-land

After all the lifting, turning over, and pulverizing the soil, we add a big block of peat moss and sand for good water retention, high air capacity, and good drainage.

bonsai-land bonsai-land bonsai-land

After more plowing and mixing, we stored the extra soil mix in bags and covered up the land with the black cloth again.

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Pruning & Defoliating Wiring

Prune-and-Grow or Wiring?

Before, bonsai care and design skill was limited to the much revered Lingnan prune-and-grow method developed by the ancient Chinese philosophers responsible for the Literati school of landscape painting and design. It was not until the turn of the 20th century that the Japanese, in an attempt to achieve natural shapes in an expedient amount of time, developed wiring as another training technique suitable for bonsai. And these two schools of thought persist today.

Prune-and-Grow Method

Prune-and-Grow is the recommended bonsai training method. This method increases branch ramification, encourages growth in non-pruned branches, and reduces leaf size (Defoliating is another effective method for reducing leaf size). As new shoots erupt from almost everywhere, especially around old latent bud scars and the bases of the removed branches, the bonsai artist carefully selects buds that will grow in the desired direction, and prune off the unwanted ones. If no such bud is found, then, all one can do is… be patient. A bud that grows in the direction you desire will appear eventually.

Bonsai Pruning & Wiring

Lingnan penjing (Southern Style bonsai) artists use mainly the prune-and-grow method.

Wiring Method

Wrapping wire around branches and trunks allows the bonsai artist to create the desired general form and make detailed branch and leaf placements. When wire is used on new branches or shoots, it holds the branches in place until they lignify (become woody), which usually takes more or less one growing season. Some species do not lignify strongly, and branches of some trees are too stiff or brittle. In these cases, we cannot shape the bonsai trees by wiring, but only through pruning.

So… Prune-and-Grow or Wiring?

There appears to be a great philosophical difference between these two training techniques. As for me, I believe wire should only be used in the development stage. While I shape the new branches and shoots of my bonsai trees with wires, I remove the wires as soon as the desired shape has once developed.

Bonsai Pruning & Wiring
I use wire on my bonsai trees as well, yet only during the development stage, and will remove the wire as soon as the shape has formed.

Today, most bonsai hobbyists apply a combination of the two methods, often without giving the decision much thought. While the prune-and-grow method can help to create a bonsai tree with more branches, smaller leaves, and greater details, using this method alone would take decades; a time schedule of no interest to most bonsai enthusiasts nowadays.

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Pruning & Defoliating

Sealing Cuts of Bonsai Trees

Sealing Cuts of Bonsai Trees
Most of us use bonsai pruning compound (or bonsai cut sealer) to seal the wound of the trunk or branch after we prune our bonsai tree with shears or cutters. Bonsai pruning sealer helps the cut area to retain the valuable moisture required to heal the cut properly and minimize the scar. And moreover, it prevents diseases and insects from affecting our bonsai tree after pruning. So, bonsai pruning sealer is great, a must-have for all bonsai growers.

Sealing Cuts of Bonsai Trees Sealing Cuts of Bonsai Trees
Continue reading “Sealing Cuts of Bonsai Trees”
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Pruning & Defoliating

Defoliating – Picking Leaves off a Bonsai Tree

Defoliating Bonsai Tree
Another defoliated bonsai tree

A few days ago, my bonsai teacher asked me to pick off all the leaves from a bonsai tree. This is called defoliating, a way to stimulate the tree to grow new branches and smaller leaves.

Defoliating Bonsai Tree
The bonsai tree before defoliation

Defoliating Bonsai Tree
Defoliating the bonsai tree
Continue reading “Defoliating – Picking Leaves off a Bonsai Tree”
Categories
Bonsai How To

Soil Mix and Fertilizer for Mini Bonsai

Mame-Shohin-Bonsai

The correct potting mixture is vital for the survival of our bonsai tree. The mix should be very fine, especially for our mini bonsai since everything of these bonsai trees is so small and refined.

Repot our Mini Bonsai

Because the size of the bonsai pot for mini bonsai is very small, the amount of soil is also very little. In this case, our mini bonsai exhaust their soil rather quickly, and the soil will lose its fertility very early, much earlier than those bigger bonsai. Therefore, we should repot our mini bonsai more frequently than we do repotting for our normal bonsai trees.

When we repot our mini bonsai, we should prune the roots of our mini bonsai tree by a third. We should also prune off about half of the leaves of the bonsai tree so to reduce the water demand of the tree from its newly trimmed root system.

Check this article for more details on Training & Pruning Small Bonsai Trees.

Fertilizer for our Mini Bonsai

Since bonsai trees as small as shohin bonsai and mame bonsai do not have a lot of growth to support, fertilizer should be used carefully. We should use dilute fertilizers for our mini bonsai trees, and should apply fertilizer sparingly. Diluted liquid fertilizer is the best for mini bonsai trees like mame bonsai and shohin bonsai, and should be applied once per week, from late spring to autumn, just like our normal bonsai trees.