Thanks for posting that Walter. I'm looking forward to your book also.
I found this statement especially enlightening refering to Kimura etal :
"He is part of the avant-garde movement in bonsai. This type of expression/style is here to stay. It does not mean that the traditional/classical style will disappear, but it will be enriched by it, as the avant-garde is enriched by the past.”
I think there is another precedent other than painting or sculpture to this whole idea of styles. That is what
I consider the
"Mother of all Arts".......Architecture.
From the cave, on through the Ages, to the Classical style of the Greeks and Romans and on through the most recent centuries, Architecture has evolved into what it is now using the all of the past incarnations and building upon them as new materials and techniques have appeared.
At the same time, there have been the occasional "geniuses or fools" who have come along and radically brought new untested styles and shapes to the forefront ie.
http://www.franklloydwright.org/
and
http://www.cs.umb.edu/~alilley/bauhaus.html
among other more modern schools of Architecture
http://www.modernarchitecture.com/.
I won't go on because I'm afraid of going off topic here but I wanted to draw the comparison because......well just because I saw it.