bonsaiTALK Community - View Single Post - Is it Japanese or Chinese

As simply as I can i'd like to toss in my two cents on the subject,...well more like 1 and 1/4 cents but here goes.
While Japanese bonsai does have some very stylistic styles and forms the emphasis is more usualluy on the "objective" (the tree/trees being a closer reflection of nature) while the Chinese style seems to me to be more stylistic still, and is based more on the "subjective" (less a reflection of nature and more of an artistic explaination of what a particular "image" fom nature "means" to the artist and is conveyed by the composition, and hopefully, if done well, envokes or evokes this, or a closely related, emotional response in the veiwer).

Well that's the basis of my take on the whole thing. It really all comes down to a couple of things,...Love and trees.

__________________
"Although profoundly "inconsequential," the Zen experience has consequences in the sense that it may be applied in any direction, to any conceivable human activity, and that wherever it is so applied it lends an unmistakable quality to the work."

~ Alan Watts (1915-1973)

9-Mar-2006	#28
zen w/ Hippyistic Tendencies Join Date: Jan-2005 Location: Commerce GA (Near Athens) Country: U.S. USDA Zone: 7b AHS Heat Zone: 7 Posts: 1,844	As simply as I can i'd like to toss in my two cents on the subject,...well more like 1 and 1/4 cents but here goes. While Japanese bonsai does have some very stylistic styles and forms the emphasis is more usualluy on the "objective" (the tree/trees being a closer reflection of nature) while the Chinese style seems to me to be more stylistic still, and is based more on the "subjective" (less a reflection of nature and more of an artistic explaination of what a particular "image" fom nature "means" to the artist and is conveyed by the composition, and hopefully, if done well, envokes or evokes this, or a closely related, emotional response in the veiwer). Well that's the basis of my take on the whole thing. It really all comes down to a couple of things,...Love and trees. __________________ "Although profoundly "inconsequential," the Zen experience has consequences in the sense that it may be applied in any direction, to any conceivable human activity, and that wherever it is so applied it lends an unmistakable quality to the work." ~ Alan Watts (1915-1973)